Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. After excoriating President Bush for his excessive moral line-drawing--making a distinction between good (innocent victims of terrorism) and evil (terrorists)--the Democrats (some of them, at least) have taken their own dive into the moral deep end. Here, via Hugh Hewitt is DNC Chairman Howard Dean: "This is a struggle of good and evil. And we’re the good." The evil? Well, that would be "right-wing" pastors and politicians who don’t believe that a woman has a right to choose to have an abortion and who "don’t think tolerance is a virtue." All this didn’t go far enough to satisfy at least one member of Dean’s Lawrence, Kansas audience:

"I feel like he could have gone even stronger with his language," said Katherine Dessert, a student and preschool teacher. "I feel like he was a little bit too conservative. It didn’t move me.

So there you have it: there is evil in the world, and it’s coming to a neighborhood near you. Actually, it’s already there--in culturally and theologically traditional churches, synagogues, and temples, which are really little different from the Wahhabi madrassas from which the Islamicist terrorists were recruited.

Of course, this hyperbolic rhetoric is nothing new: Bill Clinton made much the same point from the pulpit at Riverside Church in New York City right before the DNC convention and accusations of religious fanaticism were regularly hurled at President Bush during the campaign. But I don’t recall anyone in a position of leadership ever using the word "evil."

I suppose Dean could be defended by saying that his job is to keep the base stoked so that money keeps flowing into party coffers, and we all know how much money Bush-hatred generated during the last campaign season. Keep it up, Howard: give us enough of this kind of invective to make it impossible for any Democratic nominee in 2008 to reach out beyond her base. We’re listening. And we’re remembering.