Today’s question, which is a bit heavier on the editorial set-up than we’d probably like, is for Dr. Howard Dean, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

LP: Dr. Dean, in recent weeks you’ve said a number of things that seem to have seriously irritated GOP moralists like Tom DeLay and Dick Cheney. Which is fine – getting under the skin of the Republicans is one of the things the chair of the DNC is supposed to do. However, you seem to have equally annoyed some big players in your own party – Pelosi, Biden, and Richardson, to name three. What conclusions should a thoughtful student of politics draw about the state of the Democratic Party when its top leaders, who can’t even seem to agree on as simple a proposition as how to frame the other party’s ethics, character, and policies, are all over Big Media whacking each other silly over the fact that their “leader” may have hurt some Republican feelings?