Sunday Shows: Dean's Back, Pelosi Sinks!

Thank god!

Watching 'This Week' on Sunday, it was great to see the Howard Dean that we all know and love. That is the Fightin' Dean! When Dean is a fighter, Republicans are scared (I'll explain later).

On This Week, Dean wasn't afraid to hit hard on everything from ethics to gas to the war in Iraq. Everything! He hit all bases. And what was impressive is that he did it his first few sentences. Hell, even George Stephanopoulos was impressed. And he went on! After the next few questions, he didn't back down. He even said that Rep. Jefferson (D-LA) should leave the house on his ethical conduct! Could you see the RNC Chair telling DeLay that he should leave the House? Exactly!

On the other hand, Nancy Pelosi had her ass handed to her on Meet The Press. Tim Russert pretty much made her look like a person that didn't know what she was talking about. In other words, she looked like she had no vision. It was one of those 'you are a politician, and you are no different than the GOP' moment. She was weak when answering almost every question thrown at her. And we elected her as Minority Leader? WHY!?!?!?

Pelosi is exactly the image that Laura Ingraham (argh...I can't stand her) was talking about on The Chris Matthews Show. She said that Democrats have no leaders or no plan or vision for the upcoming election. There is no "Contract With America" or no leaders like Newt Gingrich to show the American people the vision of the Democratic Party. She also said that the Democrats were in a 'just vote against Bush' mode. She feels that the Democrats think the voters will vote Democratic just because they don't like Bush, and she said this wouldn't work. I agree. We did that in 2004. Did it work? No!

Still, Howard Dean did the Democratic Party proud on Sunday. Again, he is a fighter and that scares Republicans.

Don't kid yourself, the Republicans wanted John Kerry as the Democratic nominee in 2004. Why? They knew he would be weak. They knew when Kerry was asked a question on a debate, he would answer them in the way that he did, with no meat or substance! He would do the typical politician answer.

On the other hand, imagine the Howard Dean that we saw on Sunday, debating Bush the same way in front of millions on national television. Dean would have kicked his ass.

So when you hear Republicans say 'we wanted Howard', don't let them fool you. He (Edwards or Clark as well), would have been Bush' worse nightmare.

Still, with all that said and done, it seems that Howie is one of the only Democrats out there fighting. Reid is silent, Pelosi gets her but kick on national television, other Democratic leaders are quiet. Again, no leaders. It seems that the only highly visible Democrats that are actually fighting are Senators Dick Durbin and Russ Feingold. I wish there were more.

Still, I think Democrats will do well in the mid-term elections. I don't expect the Democrats to win either house back. But if the Democrats close the gap to ten seats in the House and two to three in the Senate, they should be happy. Democrats need to quit saying they will win the House or Senate. Because if they don't, the Republicans will call it a victory, no matter how many seats they lost.

Overall though, it is good to see Howard Dean back and fighting. I felt that since he has been the DNC Chair, he has been kind of quiet compared to usual.

But....HE'S BACK!!!!!!