The real problem with Roemer, as the crack den reveals, isn’t that he’s too moderate or disagrees with his party’s platform on abortion or might steer the party to the center.

The problem is that he comes across as a puling whining little wuss before he’s even got the job. How’s this “everbody’s pickin’ on poor widdle me” attitude going to play on the Sunday shows? How is he going to have the steel to face down Bush and his congressional crowd of flying monkeys if he can’t inspire an inspiration-starved crowd like the Dems right now? The problem isn’t the abortion issue. That’s a dodge; look what kind of crap we put up with in this party, look at the people who we allow to call themselves Democrats. The problem is he’s playing this like a guy who’s scared of losing, and that’s not the kind of leader we need right now.

I believe people aren’t really looking for a party with which they match up on every single issue on the ideological scale, and that’s why shifting positions to gain people won’t work. People are looking for a vision of the country with which they can identify. People want guts, more than anything, they want a strong pole to hang on to during a storm.

Democrats, people — hell, mammals — are attracted to Dean because he offers that vision, clearly and proudly, unashamedly. Listening to him, even if you disagree with something he says, you know he means it, you know he believes it. And the attitude he has that you can take it or leave it only makes that more admirable. He lost, he got knocked down, and you know what he spent the next months doing? He could have spent it giving whiny speeches about how nobody understood him and everybody was so mean and hey, who threw gum in his hair AGAIN?!!

He spent it getting Democrats elected. Which is what we need the chair of the DNC to do.

In other words, Roemer, seriously, if you want to play the victim’s game, I hear there’s good money to be made in it. Just not as a Democrat, thanks.

A.