TPM

Josh Marshall has some strong words for Howard Dean today.

I don't care if Dean says he'll endorse whoever wins. He's playing the defection card. And that crosses the line.

I don't doubt that it would be hard to reconcile some Dean supporters to another Democratic nominee. But that's not the point. By saying it, he's leveraging it, and encouraging it.

The price of admission to the Democratic primary race is a pledge of committed support to whomever wins the nomination, period. (The sense of entitlement to other Democrats' support comes after you win the nomination, not before.) If Dean can't sign on that dotted-line, he has no business asking for the party's nomination.

While I like reading TPM, it looks like Marshall is accusing Dean of exactly what the DLCers are threatening to do in the event of a Dean nomination, namely, sit out the election...

You know, I thought this was all settled a few weeks back when Ted Koppel made an ass of himself during the Democratic Candidates' Debate. As I said at the time (but am too lazy to link to--sorry), I agree with Atrios--every Democratic Candidate should indeed say they'll support WHOEVER wins, and that WHOEVER wins can beat George W. Bush. Stop the idiotic sniping.

However, that's NOT what happened, although, in the end, the person who looked most chump-like was the moderator. Mr. Marshall, the odds of you reading this are, no pun intended, at least one in two million, but I'll ask anyway: why are you risking the same?

Besides, Dean simply is reiterating what a LOT of pundits noted when Al Gore jumped on his bandwagon: that endorsements don't mean much these days. More people, particularly those with an interest in politics, think for themselves.

It's sad to say, but I wonder if Marshall isn't really trying to make use of his position to keep up the sniping on Dean--which ultimately plays into the hands of Bush. Everything negative you might hear about this or that Democrat between now and the nomination will be picked up on and magnified a thousandfold by the BushRove $250 million dollar hammer.

No word on whether the Pentagon wants to know where to buy said hammer.