FINEMAN: I'M HILARIOUS!

Apparently one of the reasons Newsweek's Howard Fineman thinks his fellow Howard, Mister Dean, has seen his campaign tank in the last two weeks is because Dean failed to appreciate Fineman's special brand of humor.

Dean is in many ways an unassuming guy, but he doesn’t like criticism, and can’t stand being teased. I had dinner with him in late 2002, just as he was gearing up to run. He told me that he wasn’t a typical liberal, and by way of explanation said that he had supported civil unions, but also had never supported gun control. Being the jerk that I am, I said: “Well, governor, I guess you have the gay hunter vote locked up.” (It was a fresh joke at the time.) His response was an icy stare. Maybe it wasn’t that funny. But he couldn’t fake tolerance for sophomoric humor – and isn’t that required in politics?

Sometimes, you don't even have to check if something made it into the magazine or was just a "web exclusive".

Of the list of factors cited by Fineman, I'd say about half of them are actually valid, I'll let you decide which half.

Lastly, via Kick the Leftist, I see that Joe Trippi might be getting bumped out of his manager position, at least that's what MSNBC is reporting...