Relax. Howard Dean is a mouth-breathing cretin , and I'm still your buddy.

But he still needs defending. He does. Not what he says, which is as butt-stupid as it comes, but Howard himself.

Howie-boy has come under a lot of fire lately with pundits of all stripes referring to him as a loose cannon, irresponsible, a crackpot, and Republicans can barely conceal their glee, begging for more vintage Howard. Please talk some more, Howard. Yell it for me one more time, baby.

I fear, though, it is misplaced gloating. Follow me here, my friends. What is Howard’s JOB?

Anyone? Yes, you in the Red State – exactly. Chairman of the DNC, the Democratic National Committee. And what does he do? Right again. He cracks the whip, speaks to and rallies the party faithful, and brings loyal Democrats into the crowd moving in the same direction.

Let’s break it down to simpler terms. He preaches to the choir. He’s a damn cheerleader, for crissakes. His target audience is the core constituency, the proverbial Yellow-Dog Democrats who pull, have always pulled, and will continue to pull the party lever for “Democrat.” They will do this until they drop dead. If the Democratic Party ever folds, they will probably cease to participate. They wouldn’t vote for anyone with an “R” next to their name if they were to the left of Ted Kennedy, and would vote “D” if the guy in question made Newt Gingrich look like a socialist.

A lot of people, I am afraid, have a serious lack of understanding on the totality of communication. They become fixated on “logic,” forgetting credibility and passion (The famous Logos, Ethos, and Pathos of communication). They don’t know the difference between rousing the rabble, persuading people, informing, entertaining – and they completely miss the point of what we call a target audience.

Picture this – you have some old woman next November saying, “That Johnson Boy is such a good candidate for the Democrats. He’s smart, polite, right on the issues, so handsome with a lovely wife and kids. He’s got all these qualifications, and has done public service for years. Too bad I can’t vote for him because of that nasty Howard Dean. I’ll just have to vote for the Republican who is for everything I’m against and against everything I’m for.”

Yeah. Riiiiiiiight. There’s what? Six – seven of them nationwide? Agatha Meeks of Butte, Montana; Edith Crane of Council Bluffs, Iowa…. Well, there goes the White House till 2012.

The Democrats are not as dumb as they look, folks. You don’t stay a major party, especially with boneheaded positions, but being less than politically astute. Howard Dean has been put in not only the place where he can do the least damage, they have actually found the one thing he can do which can turn his flannel-mouth into an advantage.

Your CANDIDATES are the ones who are going to be out persuading people to vote for them (under which auspices the Democrat’s best investment today would be an industrial crate of Duct Tape for Dick Durbin’s mouth) and it is they who have to be moderate and circumspect in what they say and how they present themselves. They will be the ones to knock the fence sitters on one side or the other. Howard Dean? Piffle. He’s just going to piss off Republicans. Hell, it’s just one part of his job to piss off Republicans.

See, when Howie goes round, he’s dealing, 99.9% of the time with the party faithful, people who are actually doing the work. Like I said – these people are Democrats already. Tried and True. If Howard Dean wanted to drive these people away from the Democratic Party, he’d have to plot and work at it, and probably at a personal level.

Best player for the GOP? Don’t bet on it.

If the Republicans want to make hay with ill-considered speech, though, they can take heart. With the Democrats, idiocy is never in short supply.