Dean's Day Two News (UPDATED)

The staff of the Harvard Crimson, our nation's next generation of inside the Beltway journalists and pundits says, "Deaniacs Rejoice-The Doctor will point Democrats in the right direction." Sadly, the only place I could find "Howard Dean Announces DNC Transition Team" came from an obscure website. It is, however, worth examining. Actually, I now see that Political Wire also found it worth sharing with the American populace. They even use the official DNC version of the press release. The Fox-watching "News Hounds" site looks at their coverage of Dean's appointment. MyDD notices that NY Times columnist Paul "Krugman in Harmony with Blogsphere on Dean." They quote Krugman at length, but here's a taste: "Those words tell us what the selection of Mr. Dean means. It doesn't represent a turn to the left: Mr. Dean is squarely in the center of his party on issues like health care and national defense. Instead, Mr. Dean's political rejuvenation reflects the new ascendancy within the party of fighting moderates, the Democrats who believe that they must defend their principles aggressively against the right-wing radicals who have taken over Congress and the White House. It was always absurd to call Mr. Dean a left-winger. Just ask the real left-wingers. During his presidential campaign, an article in the muckraking newsletter CounterPunch denounced him as a "Clintonesque Republicrat," someone who, as governor, tried "to balance the budget, even though Vermont is a state in which a balanced budget is not required." Even on Iraq, many moderates, including moderate Republicans, quietly shared Mr. Dean's misgivings - which have been fully vindicated - about the march to war." Update: CounterPunch, one of the sites that Krugman quotes to prove his point, responds today and stands by it description of Dean: "Dean a "Safe" Moderate."