What I find most ironic about all this, is that all the mainstream media outlets are running articles/video pieces (with the obligatory "scream" crap) about how Terry McAuliffe, Sens Reid and Pelosi, et al have sternly lectured Howard Dean this week about them being the bosses, and NOT the grassroots Democrats that Howard Dean intends to work for, who elected him, and who will be the future of the party!

So, we watch and see who Dean will work for, eh?

Dean is very articulate and charming despite the mainstream media's obsession with demonizing his style. But he isn't the "Liberal" he is made out to be. He simply has a very different vision for the future of the Democratic party and the country, than the current Washington establishment--and I include both the Republican and Democratic national leadership and especially the mainstream media.

None of the current ruling elites see the future vision the way Dean does, or Andy Stern does (just to offer another example of a Democratic grassroots leader whose style resembles Dean's). They are the people who are trying to make the Wellstone vision the Democratic party and nation's vision. That is a good thing, because in many ways Wellstone was much too old school to be broadly successful beyond a blue state like Minnesota, which isn't even all that blue anymore. Wellstone never was very good at articulating a cohesive vision either. While it is clear he would have ended up beating Norm Coleman fairly easily in 2002 had he not died (at the time of his death, he had pulled possibly as far as 10 points ahead of Coleman, with a whole month left to go), the deterioration of Democratic rule in Minnesota was already painfully obvious, and not improving despite Wellstone's crusading.