Kos has a rumor that may be even more mind-blowing than the Dean-Clark rumor:

There's more to it than that. It can now be revealed that the Dean-Clark meeting in California was the cover for a decidedly more consequential encounter. The real dark horse in the presidential derby is a familiar face. It's not Al Gore, and it's not Hillary Clinton.

It's a Washington insider, progressive Democratic party stalwart, ubiquitous talking head, Barney Frank's sister, former Clinton White House Communications Director Ann Lewis (who just happens to be in CA working on the recall).

If Ms. Lewis can translate her connections, media savvy and precedent-setting insider/outsider appeal into the high single-digit preference numbers in a key state or two, look for the General to park his bandwagon and sign on as VP. Now that's a ticket with truly historic potential!

Getting Ann Lewis would be a major victory for Dean. She is one of the savviest media operatives in the business and definitely in the "take no prisoners" mold that Dean seems to prefer. It would be a good fit.

It's interesting that this rumor comes out now since I was just thinking the other day that Dean has no prominent communications directory. Bush had Karl Rove as his brain and Ann Hughes as his mouth. Dean has Trippi to fulfill the brain role (brain as in brain of the campaign) but he really doesn't have a designated spokesperson to go on the TV talk shows and speak for the Governor.

I don't know what the basis for Kos' rumor is, but I hope it is true.

Update: I think I may have missed the joke here. I thought that Kos was saying that Ann Lewis was meeting with Howard Dean. Upon re-reading I now see he might have said that Lewis was meeting with Gen. Clark. The resulting team-up would be ... drumroll please ... Lewis and Clark.

Still, even if this was just meant to be a joke, I think Dean really should consider hiring someone to be his designated spokesperson. He can't be the only voice of this campaign in the coming months.