Most people find Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean's seemingly mad attacks of late hard to understand. He has called Republicans "evil," brain dead," "corrupt" and "liars." He has also said that Republicans are "not very friendly" people who "behave the same" and "look the same" and "never made an honest living in their lives." Trying to stir up racial and religious tensions (the bread-and-butter of Democrats), Dean also accused the GOP of being "a white Christian party," although he fits that description himself -- as do the other major leaders of that party, as well as most of the people they put in high positions when they're in power. In fact, it fits the majority of the country, too, 77.1% of Americans being white and 76.5% calling themselves Christians as of 2001. Certainly this "revelation" that he's a white Christian who looks like all other Republicans must have come as a surprise to party Chairman Ken Mehlman, who happens to be Jewish. It probably also came as a surprise to Condoleeza Rice, Elaine Chao, Carlos Gutierrez, Alberto Gonzales, Norman Mineta, Alphonso Jackson... and that's just a few members of Bush's current Cabinet.

Howard Dean was supposedly elected to his position due to his fabled fundraising skills. Although he did very well raising money over the internet for his failed 2004 presidential campaign, he has been unable to duplicate that success for his party as a whole. Through the end of April 2005, the DNC raised $18.2 million, while the much less vicious RNC fundraising attempts raised $42.6 million in the same time period. So what's Howard Dean doing -- is he really running around insulting three-fourths of the country, stirring up anger and hatred, and doing his best to sink his own party out of sheer malice? Why is he still the head of the DNC, if that's the case? There's actually a good reason for Howard Dean's hate-filled tirades: Hillary Clinton.

While Dean has been doling out red meat to the Liberal base with both hands, presumptive 2008 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has been subtly shifting her position to the right on important issues. In an interview on WABC radio, she attacked the Bush administration's loose border policy. "I am, you know, adamantly against illegal immigrants," she said. Of course, this is a blatant lie, since she has co-sponsored plenty of bills designed to reward illegal immigrants for breaking our laws. She has also embraced pro-life advocates, telling abortion supporters that both sides of the debate should find common ground. This sudden shift is at odds with her 100% lifetime rating from NARAL (National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League), a stridently pro-abortion group. On issue after issue, Hillary is attempting to divorce herself from her Liberal record, in preparation for her presidential campaign. And Dean is giving her the room she needs to run to the right.

Howard Dean's job is to keep the anger- and fear-driven Liberal base from abandoning the Democratic party before 2008. That's got to be as difficult as herding cats. As long as he keeps pouring on the vitriol, playing to the far Left lunatics (known as the "Democratic wing of the Democratic party" to Deaniacs), they will stay on the plantation and vote as they're told. Hillary knows she needs the moderate Democrats in addition to as many moderate Republicans and others she can fool in order to win in 2008, but can't lose the loonies, either. She can't afford to let the party split, as they show every sign of doing. So she plays to the moderates as Dean keeps the base in line.

We'll just have to see how long they can keep up the song-and-dance act. The way Dean's been scaring the stalwarts in his own party, he may be forced to tone down the rhetoric before long. It's too bad for them that Vaudeville's dead.