Dean keeps fighting.

Just what we need to start seeing more of. I say let Howard Dean be the lightning rod for the Democrats-- it isn't going to shift votes to the Republicans at this point ("they might be fascists, but that Dean is just too brash"), and it'll keep Fox and the right-wing blogs distracted like a shiny set of keys. The trick is to keep the wussy faction of the Dems from piling on, too...

''We are going to be much tougher and in-your-face with the Republicans when they say things that aren't true," Dean said, in an apparent response to criticism outside and inside the Democratic Party that he is using over-the-top language to rally his party.

Dean also responded directly to Cheney, who last week said of Dean, ''Maybe his mother loved him, but I've never met anybody who does."

''I don't care if Dick Cheney likes my mother or not; we are going to fight back," Dean told a boisterous crowd of about 300 Democrats at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel. ''I think it's great that Dick Cheney went after me. At least they know there's a Democratic Party that's not going to put up with this stuff anymore.

''As the head of the Democratic Party, I will not be lectured about morals by Tom DeLay and Rush Limbaugh." he said, referring to the House majority leader and the prominent conservative radio host.