Democrats "wringing their hands" = Electoral Gold?

Wanna know why the public criticism of Dean hurts Democrats? Read the lead on this Washington Post piece:

Howard Dean's recent spate of verbal zingers has fellow Democrats wringing their hands, while generating a big shrug from the Democratic National Committee chairman himself.

Do people honestly think the electorate will vote for politicians who sit around "wringing their hands" and worrying about what people will think of Howard Dean? Some people may be turned off by Dean's brusque manner. But far more people are turned off by the wimpy reaction of some of his fellow Dems.

Knock it off!

Jim Jordon has it right:

Democrats are playing into Republicans' hands by allowing Dean to distract them, some party strategists say. "It seems to me that the shots at the chairman from Democratic elites says more about our party, sadly, than it does about Chairman Dean," said Jim Jordan, a Democratic consultant who has advised Dean. Jordan groused, "Not much of a mystery really why we're the minority party."

I suppose it's to much for the tutu wing of the party to understand the dangers of public criticism of fellow party members. But, strangely enough, I think they are getting better at it. The usual suspects (Biden, Lieberman) ran for the mikes and a few others made clumsy, naive mistakes (Edwards, Obama). But many others are starting to get it (Edwards, Leahy, Clinton).

And Dean isn't backing down. That's a huge improvement in and of itself.