Excellent

I like this:

U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris demanded an apology Thursday from Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean, who during a speech this week likened the senatorial candidate to former Soviet ruler Joseph Stalin.

Dean, in a speech to Democratic business leaders in West Palm Beach, made the remark in reference to Harris' handling of the 2000 presidential election recount when she was Florida secretary of state and an honorary chairwoman of George W. Bush's Florida campaign.

Harris certified Bush's 537-vote win in Florida over Democrat Al Gore, putting him in the White House.

Dean said in Wednesday's speech that Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson is "going to beat the pants off Katherine Harris, who didn't understand that it is ethically improper to be the chairman of a campaign and count the votes at the same time. This is not Russia and she is not Stalin."

Dean, of course, did not go far enough, because he said that Harris "is not" Stalin, but that is a minor quibble.

What I'd like to see is prominent Republicans having to constantly demand apologies from prominent Democrats. There just isn't enough of that going on, which means that the Democrats are not attacking enough. David Mamet's poker analogy comes to mind:

The American public chose Bush over Kerry in 2004. How, the undecided electorate rightly wondered, could one believe that Kerry would stand up for America when he could not stand up to Bush? A possible response to the Swift boat veterans would have been: "I served. He didn't. I didn't bring up the subject, but, if all George Bush has to show for his time in the Guard is a scrap of paper with some doodling on it, I say the man was a deserter."

This would have been a raise. Here the initiative has been seized, and the opponent must now fume and bluster and scream unfair. In combat, in politics, in poker, there is no certainty; there is only likelihood, and the likelihood is that aggression will prevail.

Dean appears to understand Mamet's point.