You Know You're Doing Something Right...

... when hyper-conservative crazies like Paul Weyrich are worried about your appeal to the Republican base.

Weyrich is concerned:

So far, [Dean] appears to be more a scandal-less Bill Clinton than Harry Truman when it comes to offering the voters straight talk on issues. My wager is that, should Dean obtain his party's presidential nomination, conservative groups will need to be aggressive and accurate in exposing his record to the harsh, unrelenting glare of the truth.

I'll let my colleagues at the DDF handle the specifics of Weyrich's claims because frankly, this guy is a caricature of right-wingers ("...national gun registration is being ushered in through the backdoor,") and I can't stop giggling long enough to take his arguments seriously.

This article from one of the leaders of the "movement" could signal a shift in the conservative conventional wisdom. Until now, Dean has been cast as the ultra-liberal they'd just love to go up against.

But as we at Dean Nation have known all along, Dean represents the greatest threat to Republicans because he fires up the Democratic base with his passion, but retains significant crossover appeal based on his record and decidedly moderate positions.

If Weyrich's interpretation gains traction in conservative circles, it may give them more time to prepare to take on Dean. But from the tone of this piece, it seems that Howard Dean has managed to do something we're not used to seeing Democrats do: put the other side on the defensive. Good for him, good for Democrats, and good for America.