Hawkeye Republican

To warm your frigid spirits on this miserable October weekend of cold temperatures and broken streaks, look no further than Howard Dean's historic visit to Maine, where the temperature and college football bowl game prospects are far lower. At a Democratic fundraiser, Dean remarked "I'm tired of the ayatollahs of the right wing. We're fighting for freedom in Iraq. We're going to fight for freedom in America.", apparently in reference to Republican intervention in the Terri Schiavo custody battle. While we can all debate the procedural legality of such action, no one save the public face of the Democratic party would liken one side of that debate to the Iranian religious cleric who made Jimmy Carter look like a sissy. For him to posit such heated nonsense makes me skeptical of the current strength of the Democtats electoral prospects, despite the numerous difficulties faced by the Republican majority.

A policy point: Dean also called for the strengthening of campaign finance reform laws in light of the Republican majority's "culture of corruption". You'll remember that campaign finance reform legislation limited the political expression of individuals by capping the amount of money they could give to political campaigns. Instead of corraling money's 'corruptive' influence on politics, it drove those contributions to ideological special interests while limiting free expression in more respectable political activities. Contrast that fact with Dean's sonorous call to "fight for freedom in American", and you'll understand why the rhetoric in Maine warms the hearts of Hawkeye Republican readers everywhere.

News article tip: Matt Drudge