ONE REASON I LIKE HOWARD DEAN

Read his statements on Rick Santorum's attack on gays here. Via atrios. The Bush administration does have to make a choice here. It's at least plausible -- not necessary, but plausible -- to describe the Bush administration's relationship to gays and lesbians as one of "semi-benign semi-neglect." As the election heats up, I suppose we'll get a chance to see whether or not this, too, will become a casualty of Bush's perceived domestic political near-invincibility. We already know that Bush really just wants to cut taxes, come hell or high deficits. We already know that he wants to stack the courts with his extreme nominees -- and that the next-best outcome for him is to whip up his conservative, court-hating base with tales of predictable Democratic "obstructionism." We already know a lot. Maybe we'll know a lot more as the primaries approach.