Just read Little Davie's column at the NYT, and I got to thinking.
David wants the Dems to run against Dean by claiming that they won't be as "partisan" as Bush or Dean.
Then it dawned on me.
Brooks isn't afraid of Dean being the nominee.
He isn't afraid of him beating Bush.
He isn't afraid of him becoming President.
He is afraid of what will happen once the Wurlitzer tries to attack President Dean.
He has seen what I have seen. Every time another Democratic candidate attacks Dean with their little kazoos ... all the public hears is DEAN DEAN DEAN DEAN DEAN. What if the public (or at least 66% of it) just stopped hearing the Wurlitzer ... what if the thing that GOP fedayeen see in Dean as Reaganesque is REAL TEFLON. Not Clinton Teflon or Chimpy Teflon, but sound-proofed-I-can't-hear-anything-about-an-extraconstitutional-support-of-Contra-militias-and-sell
ing-arms-to-Iran sorta Teflon. And what if that Teflon was used for Progressive and Constitutionally legal causes?
What if Chuck Krauthammer and Davie Brooks and Billy Safire and Paulie Gigot and Bobby Novak and all the other kool kids played and played and played with all their might on the keyboard ... and the pipes bellowed ... and all the vast majority heard was DEAN DEAN DEAN DEAN DEAN. What if Annie Coulter and Dinesh and Hannity and Kristol and O'Reilly banged and banged with their feet on the keyboard, and all the pipes transmitted to the public was DEAN DEAN DEAN DEAN DEAN. What if FOX and the GOP Leadership and the WSJ and the Scaife papers turned it up to eleven, and all the public heard as the GOOPERS lost their congressional seats was DEAN DEAN DEAN DEAN DEAN. What if Dean just smiled and pointed at the obstructionism. What are they going to do? Call him angry? Say he doesn't cheat on his wife? Say he smiled once at an intern? Say his kids are closet Jews? All the people would hear is DEAN DEAN DEAN DEAN DEAN.
Brooks is nervous. He's willing to fake shutting off the Wurlitzer. Dean isn't just about the election. He's about making the Wurlitzer irrelevant.