Via the Rude Pundit, I learned about this interesting take on the Howard Dean brouhaha. From CNN’s Live Sunday, anchor Carol Lin speaking with political analyst Carlos Watson:

LIN: Howard Dean, he is fighting Republicans and many members of his own party. But is Howard Dean’s tell it like it is style exactly what the Democrats need?…

…Howard Dean is still a man very much in the fight to stay Democratic Party Chairman and fend off critics in his own party. Now, in the staid world of politics, saying something like this doesn’t win you many points.

DEAN: The Republicans are not very friendly to different types of people. I mean, they’re a pretty monolithic party. They’re pretty much — they all behave the same and they all look the same. And they all, you know, it’s pretty much the white, Christian party.

LIN: There you go. Democratic leaders came out swinging against Dean last week….

WATSON: …[Democrats] don’t control the Senate. They don’t control the House. They don’t control the White House, or the supreme court. The situation from a Democratic perspective maybe as bad as its been in 50 years. And in some ways, they sometimes want a Howard Dean who can be a little bit of a lightning rod. In fact, in some cases you can argue he sets the lead and they ultimately follow.

Carol, in fact, listen to what Howard Dean had to say in December of 2003 as an example of where he sometimes leads the party.

DEAN: The capture of Saddam is a good thing, which I hope keeps the soldiers in Iraq and around the world safer. But the capture of Saddam has not made America safer.

WATSON: Now, you remember that right after that, Carol, he was criticized heavily by quote unquote Washington Democrats, including John Kerry. But then listen to what Kerry had to say just a couple months later after criticizing Dean for making that point about not being safer.

SEN. JOHN KERRY, (D-MA) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have traded a dictator for a chaos that has left America less secure.

WATSON: You know, Carol, many ways Howard Dean is to Democrats what New York is to fashion. Meaning, he’s often kind of six months ahead of where they ultimately end up.

…So, whether it’s on that issue or confederate flags. And later on John Edwards shows up saying, essentially something very similar, which is we need to go after the south. Howard Dean is often kind of the lead dog.

LIN: OK. So, you’re saying he can be useful to the party. So, what does a party do with a man that they don’t know how to channel? I mean, if the Democrats had a Karl Rove, what would that Karl Rove tell the party to do with this man?

WATSON: You would channel your political provacateur. You would send him into states where they’re open Senate seats this upcoming year like Minnesota, like Maryland, like Tennessee. And where the actual candidate herself or himself may not be able to change the topic to healthcare or to national security. You let Howard Dean throw out the explosive statement either about an issue or about a candidate. And that way, you might actually start to get a foothold. You know, good cop/bad cop. Let Howard Dean be your bad cop more often than not.

…And you know what’s so interesting that is that Republicans already do it. In fact, Republicans have a whole chorus, if you will of political provacateurs. They’re are in the media, whether it’s Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly or others and the reality is with the exception of Michael Moore who shows up with a movie every two or three years, Democrats don’t really have that political provacateur to move the needle and ultimately reshape debate. So there’s a role for Howard Dean if he’s managed and used properly.

…I want the directors to pull up a screen, if you will, of a guy filled with tattoos. And you’re going to wonder why I’m asking them to do this.

…Dennis Rodman, you remember him. The old basketball star. Now, Dennis Rodman with his multicolored hair and his sometimes wild antics, put on the wrong team could be a detriment and the team could go nowhere — his time with the Los Angeles Lakers. But produced properly, and choreographed well, and put with the right players, Michael Jordan and the right coach, [Phil] Jackson, he can help you win two or three championships.

I think of Howard Dean similarly to the extent of Democrats used him to be a lead dog, whether on the healthcare issue, whether it’s on the upcoming Supreme Court fight, whether it’s frankly on some of the bills that is have passed the Democrats think are still problematic — around tax cuts, et cetera, I think he actually could be of help. But Democrats have to work with him and choreograph the message with him.

Any political analyst who can compare The Worm and Jordan’s Bulls to Maple Powered Howard and the Democrats is alright in my book. And as I talk to my friends, both liberal and moderate, they all say the same thing: “Why are Democratic leaders like Biden and Edwards cutting down Dean for telling the truth?” You don’t hear any Republicans criticizing their own, even when it’s nonSense’n’bluster illegally shutting down a Judiciary Committee hearing, Tom “The Scammer” DeLay turning political tricks faster than Heidi Fleiss on meth, John “Kill da judges!” Cornyn justifying violence against the Judicial Branch, and George W. Bush… well, being George W. Bush!

No, Republicans learned early the lesson “we all hang together or we’ll all hang apart.” Yes, certainly, it is easier to keep the rank and file Republicans in line when you have a political philosophy based on maintaining the status quo and absolute obedience to authority. Democrats, by their nature, are going to be as difficult to herd as cats in a catnip field.

But gawsh! Is it too much to ask that the Democrats don’t do the Republican’s work for them? Let Limbaugh, Hannity, and O’Reilly browbeat Dean, they don’t need your help, Biden!