et tu Breaux?

I did not see this myself, but apparently Sen. John Breaux was on This Week this Sunday. George Stephanopolous asked him several times about Dean and gave him several opportunities to say, "Yes, I'll support Dean if he's the nominee." Breaux apparently refused to say it and said something to the effect of, "Well, sometimes its better not to vote for anybody than somebody."

This brings up one of my biggest fears about the 2004 general election. Some in the party leadership are so convinced that Dean is bad news for the party that they may actively run against him during the general. This could be a serious concern amongst some Congressman who may think that they will be brought down if they are to closely associated with Dean. Therefore, they will effectively campaign against him in order to win re-election.

The PR value of this for the Republicans would be pure gold. Imagine RNC ads saying that even other Democrats don't want Dean to be President (they already have Miller on record).

Talk about self-fulfilling prophesies!

The way to address this problem is the same way the Dean campaign has addressed all other problems: from the bottom-up. These wavering Democrats need to be identified and targeted with a concentrated effort by their constituents to tell them to support the Democratic nominee. Party unity will be essential in the general election. If Dean loses because of rebellious Dems then they will have only themselves to blame.