11:47 AM :: Stephen (contact)

Two Weeks Notice: Rather than realize he's in a spider hole and stop digging, Howard Dean has decided to repeat his unfortunate comments on Saddam's capture:

In Midwest campaign stops and an interview, the former Vermont governor said developments both abroad and at home give credence to his assertion two weeks ago that the United States is "no safer" with the capture of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

"If we are safer, how come we lost 10 more troops and raised the safety alert" to the orange level, Dean said Sunday night in Ankeny, Iowa.

"All the other Democrats pounced on me and beat me up and said how ignorant I was about foreign affairs," he said. "I think most people in America agree with me today and it's only two weeks later."

News Flash! Saddam was captured two weeks ago, and not everything is better yet!

If Dean were only invoking the continued attacks to make a cheap political point, I would understand. (Not agree, but understand.) But the "most people in America agree with me" line gives me the disturbing impression that he actually believes his own argument; maybe he really thinks that an orange alert 14 days later implies we're no safer with Saddam in custody. It makes me wonder if a President Dean would undertake any foreign policy effort that needs more than two weeks to produce results.

Fact is, I agree with Dean that we must do more to secure our ports, Russian nuclear weapons, etc., as part of the war on terrorism. But I don't get the sense that his foreign policy goals are so much more finely nuanced than those of President Bush (who, after all, told the nation that "The capture of Saddam Hussein does not mean the end of violence in Iraq"), or that he'd be at all capable of working with a Republican majority in Congress to achieve them. From someone who says openly that he needs to "plug that hole in my resume," it's hardly comforting.