HoHo gets ready to rumble

Dean to Iowa opponents: "You won't like me when I'm angry."  

Well, he didn't say that, but I certainly wouldn't have minded.  Dean's been trying to stay above the fray, perhaps forgetting that what many of his supporters admire most about him is his willingness to mix it up.  

Looks like the gloves are coming off.

After weeks of trying to stay above the fray while his Washington-based rivals hammered away at him on a variety of issues, the former Vermont governor said "we're not going to put up with it anymore" and fired back during campaign stops in south central Iowa.

"The reason Democrats don't win elections in Washington is that they'd almost rather lose and be cozy than they would have somebody stand up against the interests in Washington. I'm going to change that," he said at a campaign stop in Sigourney, Iowa...

"This is what's been going on for two months and we're not going to put up with it any more," he said. "We've been attacked by everybody including the establishment news media, the establishment candidates from Washington."

Dean's return to the fiery style that first propelled him to the top of the Democratic presidential pack came as a Reuters/MSNBC/Zogby poll showed him holding a slim three-point lead in Iowa over Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt one week before the Jan. 19 caucuses.

"The attacks have become so intense in recent weeks we feel we have to remind voters what this is all about," Dean spokeswoman Tricia Enright said of the new approach. "He didn't get down on bended knee to ask Washington for this job. He went to the people."

Dean, who served more than 11 years as governor of Vermont, said at a later stop in Pella, Iowa: "We cannot have politicians anymore representing our party -- we're going to lose if we do."

"I was willing to stand up to George Bush on issues like No Child Left Behind (education reform) and the war (in Iraq) when the other politicians weren't willing to do it," he said.

This is my favorite part:

Dean mocked the assertion by Edwards, a first-term senator who is not running for re-election to the Senate this year, that he is not a Washington politician.
"You go to Washington, you're a Washington politician," Dean said.

I think that qualifies as "brusque."