Howard Dean for president! Again.

The Inquirer reports today that our good friend Curt Weldon, who a few months ago looked like a sure thing to keep his seat in the House, has pulled most of his TV advertising. This news follows in the wake of another big time loser, Rick Santorum, pulling all of his over-the-air TV spots almost two weeks ago. In both cases the candidate has run out of money, a sign that the bagmen for the GOP smell blood in the water and aren't willing to throw good money after bad. The RNC, in a desperate attempt not to lose the whole enchilada, is moving money to closer races where they might have a chance of holding on. As of October 18 Weldon's campaign had $300,000, which is what is left of $2.6 million already spent in a losing cause. Joe Sestak, Weldon's challenger, had $1 million on hand as of the 18th. Obviously, his backers smell a winner and what's more amazing is that it looks like the DNC is actually doing a good job of winning -- for once.

This shouldn't really be a surprise, though, if you consider who is running the show now at the DNC. Call me crazy, but it looks like Howard Dean's 50-state strategy to win the Congress is working perfectly. The Dems are going to clean up in Pennsylvania and what's really astounding is that they're winning in races where they have no business even trying to compete. I know all these so called "centrist" Democrat types in the DNC hierarchy think Dean is some sort of screwball, but he's doing a hell of a job.

Gosh, just imagine where we'd be now if the brains-trust in the Party hadn't bailed on Dean back in 2004. I recall reading that Karl Rove was terrified of having to put W. up against Dean, but in the end he didn't have to worry, because those spineless cowards who ran the Party then played right into his hands. The way they ran the 2004 election, you would almost think they were working for Rove. Here you have a brilliant candidate who is firing up the base, raising tons of money on the internet -- on the internet -- and because he got a little excited in Iowa the Party pulls the rug out from under him. I remember walking out of the DuPont Circle Metro in January of 2003 and running into a kid handing out Dean literature, and the first thing I thought to myself was; 'who the hell is Howard Dean,' and the second thing was, 'wow, this guy is really on the ball.'

When Kerry got the nod from the Democratic establishment, you could just feel the air go right out of the campaign to unseat W. Sure, I could see Kerry/Edwards bumper stickers everywhere and signs in every window all over DC, but you just knew we were in for 4 more years of the boy-dictator. Instead of finally having a candidate people could get really hyped up for -- for once in our lives -- we wound up with another one of these gray, deadly boring, God-awful, wooden characters who we desperately hoped against all hope could figure out a way to beat the Rovian juggernaut. Obviously, we were all deluding ourselves, because John Kerry was perhaps even more of a zero than even Michael Dukakis was. (And that's saying something.)

[Note: I wrote on Wednesday that John Kerry was Harvard educated, I meant to write "Yale educated." My sincere apologies to all you Harvard graduates out there.]

Let's all hope and pray that in the '08 race the Party will see that Dean's strategy has worked, will give him the credit that's owed to him, and whatever else happens, will find a nominee for president who isn't Hillary. The GOP could nominate Jack Abramoff and he'd win against Hillary. If the GOP's main Party plank was painful dental surgery for every American, they'd win against Hillary. Every time I think of making another pointless trip into the voting booth (except for two times in 1992 and 96) and this time having to vote for that shrew, I just want to get my Canadian citizenship.