Do we really need a Senate majority Leader saying things like this?

"I can play hardball as well as anybody," he said, unprompted, at the end of a recent interview. "That's what I did, cut people's hearts out. On the other hand, I do it to cure them, to heal them, to make them better."

Weirdo. When he starts comparing us to cats, it's time to call the police.

Dean's got it. That, at least, is how it looks, with the only potential obstacle being some bizarre Fowler-led revolution, which I'm just not seeing. Beyond the race and into the reactions, Pelosi and Reid would probably do well to refrain from kneecapping the party's titular head just days before the votes come in. He's clearly got the loyalty of the party's base and, during the primary, attracted significant support. So comments like these are neither truthful nor helpful:

Paul Waldman's distillation of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' new report is a must for anyone wanting a reminder of the great good unions do their members (good to the tune of a 20-25% increase in salary). As for the canard that unions stifle innovation and choke economies, take a peek at the top 10 unionized states and the bottom 10, and try and figure out which group, on average, has the more advanced economies, higher GDP's, largest tech/knowledge sectors, and best quality of life. Don't worry, it won't take you long.

Somewhere in Mother Jones's impossible to navigate archives, Brad Plumer writes:

it might not be the end of the world if democracy in the Middle East gave rise to Islamic governments, as many have feared. Eventually, these leaders have to keep the country running smoothly, and they need to answer to voters. An overly-zealous and incompetent government could well turn people away from religion altogether, or promote the development of a secular society, as we're seeing in Basra.

• The world has an oil problem, but the best solution may be the doomsday scenario of a sharp and irrevocable rise in oil prices. At least, so long as it happens before India and China accelerate into huge dependency on cheap oil.

• The president has a problem with his speeches, mainly, that they contradict his actions. While I've already pointed to a few articles offering a general overview of our despotic allies, Steve's rundown of the Uzbeki leader's tyranny is much more viscerally illustrative.