mixed signals from Clark regarding Veep

It seems that Clark's campaign pepole are not communicating with their candidate - we are seeing some contraductory statements:

n an e-mail to reporters, Clark's communications director, Matt Bennett, said the Dean campaign should get its facts straight. Bennett declared, nonetheless, that Clark "is not interested in being a candidate for vice president -- on anyone's ticket."

Yet on a New Year's Eve cruise around Portsmouth Harbor, Clark was overheard telling Garrett Scholes, a commercial photographer from Kittery, Maine, not only that Dean had indeed asked him to be vice president but also that he hadn't "ruled it out."

Scholes said Clark made clear, though, that he was still fully focused on winning the Democratic presidential nomination. Clark said he had been surprised that his initial conversation with Dean had been leaked to the media because it was supposed to be "private."

Bill Buck, Clark's national press secretary, insisted yesterday that Clark has clearly stated that he is not interested in being part of the Dean team.

What we do know is that when Clark and Dean met in September, Dean encouraged him to run for President. And Clark is committed to that - his campaign is not a vanity Veep-promotional tour like Graham's was (my early support for Graham as Veep has faded given what I now know about his role in authoring the PATRIOT Act). I think that the response from the campaign has been driven by the consultants and the handlers more than the candidates - Clark's actual feelings on the matter are probably best represented in his comments to Scholes.