What's my problem...

...with Howard Dean, anyway.

It's no so much that I disagree with what he stands for, or what he says he stands for (not always the same thing - not always, in fact, a discernable thing), although a look at his record and rhetoric (again, not always the same thing) leave me with the impression that if he were elected, I'd be sorely disappointed with his performance. A lot of it has to do with his being the single most destructive force in the Democratic Party in my 35 year history as a Party activist.

I think of myself as a Party regular, but with support for McCarthy, McGovern, Kennedy, Hart, Jackson and Brown in my portfolio, I'm no stranger to insurgent campaigns. While all of those candidates may have taken an upstream course against elements of the Party establishment, none of them set a course that seemed to deliberately divide the Party in a way that would do long term harm. Howard Dean simply doesn't seem to care what he destroys in the pursuit of his personal ambition.

Tom Oliphant says it well in today's Boston Globe.

"For a year, Dean's campaign has made it very clear that the enemies are not just conservatives. They also permeate the Democratic Party, and they must be crushed as permanently as the right-wingers."

In Dean's 'with me or against me' world, I'm among the targeted crushees. I take that pretty damned personally.

Oliphant's not through with him, though. He offers advice that Dean, and every Deaner, needs to think long and hard about.

"...he has anger and despair to work with, as well as all those enemies in the party. If Dean is indeed headed toward the Democratic nomination, he might want to channel some of that anger toward a less punitive approach to the very people he seeks to represent."

Carve out as many positions on as many issues as you want, Doc, but this is my party, too. Don't drag us all over the cliff with you.

I've said that I'd support Dean as the nominee, though I think my support will be a meaningless candle in a wave of darkness that will overwhelm any ticket he's part of next November. That's still my position, but he's not making it any easier.