I finally read Matt Bai’s The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers, and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics over the break. I’ll have more to say about it soon, but my favorite anecdote has to be this illustration from 2005 (which I missed) of how Howard Dean often fails to restrain himself verbally:

The other main part of the chairman’s job description, aside from fund-raising, was getting the party’s message out. Here, too, Dean did little to reassure his critics in Washington or in more conservative states… In June 2005, Dean made headlines when he charged that Republicans had “never made an honest living in their lives,” then outdid himself a few days later when he said, “They all behave the same. They all look the same. It’s pretty much a white, Christian party.” During a subsequent appearance on MSNBC, Dean accused Republicans of playing “hide the salami, or whatever it’s called,” with nominations to the Supreme Court. He was stunned to learn from aides, on his way out of the studio, that he had just suggested that Republican leaders were copulating in the cloakroom. Dean had had no idea what the term meant. It had just kind of popped into his head.

Here’s the exact quote from Hardball:

MATTHEWS: Do you believe that the president can claim executive privilege [in refusing to release documents about Harriet Miers’ work as White House counsel]?

DEAN: Well, certainly the president can claim executive privilege. But in the this case, I think with a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, you can’t play, you know, hide the salami, or whatever it’s called. He’s got to go out there and say something about this woman who’s going to a 20 or 30-year appointment, a 20 or 30-year appointment to influence America. We deserve to know something about her.

Am I glad Dean isn’t negotiating with foreign dictators? Yes.