Howard Dean - the gift (for the Republicans) that keeps on giving...

DNC Chairman Howard Dean appeared on Face The Nation with Bob Schieffer on Sunday morning, and produced the normal, standard DNC talking points. Which is, of course, his job. But there are a couple of passages, noteworthy for hypocrisy and insanity. (Bob Schieffer, tough no-nonsense "journalist" called him on none of it, of course...)

First, we have the issue of dead Americans in Iraq.

SCHIEFFER: Governor Dean, polls are showing that people are losing confidence in the president's handling of the war in Iraq...a majority now believe it's left us more vulnerable, rather than less vulnerable, to the terrorists. But what do Democrats propose to do about it?

Dr. HOWARD DEAN: Well, I think, first of all, we need a plan...Eighteen hundred and fifty Americans lose their lives because the president can't figure out what he's going to do, had no plan when we got there and has not plan when we get out

5 minutes later...

Mr. JOHN HARRIS (The Washington Post): Governor, you're the political leader of the Democratic Party. As you well know, many of the--your people in Congress, Democrats in Congress, voted for the war in 2002. Next year, 2006, do you expect this will be a good political issue for Democrats to run on, what you consider the president's failures on Iraq?

Dr. DEAN: Well, we don't--I can't imagine using 1,850 lost American soldiers, who have died in defense of their country, using that as a political issue.

He "can't imagine using 1850 lost American soldiers...as a political issue," despite the fact that he himself had done so 5 minutes earlier. Right.

And he had a comment about women and Iraq that makes one wonder for his sanity. First, we'll start with an excerpt of a document from the US state department - Saddam Hussein Acknowledges Crimes Against Women

Another woman with a husband and three children was beheaded without charge or trial. According to Amnesty International, her husband was wanted by the security authorities because of his alleged involvement in Islamist armed activities against the state. He managed to flee the country, but men belonging to Feda'iyye Saddam (the paramilitary unit) went to his house and found his wife, children, and mother-in-law. His wife was taken to the street and two men held her by the arms while a third pulled her head from behind and beheaded her in front of residents. The security men took the body and the head in a plastic bag and took away the children and the mother-in-law. Their fate remains unknown.

Women are often raped in order to blackmail their relatives. Men who leave Iraq and join Iraqi opposition groups regularly receive videotapes showing the rape of a female relative. These tapes are intended to discourage Iraqi nationals abroad from engaging in opposition activities. Some authorities carry personnel cards identifying their official "activity" as the "violation of women's honor."

Cut to Howard Dean:

"...as of today, it looks like women will be worse off in Iraq than they were when Saddam Hussein was president of Iraq. That's a pretty sad commentary on this administration's ability to do anything right."
- DNC Chairman Howard Dean, 8/14/2005 (Face The Nation)

There's a sad commentary here, all right, but it's not what he's claiming it is...