Duck Season

Karl Rove must be laughing his ass off:

The former Vermont governor, taking a question from the audience after his standard stump speech, found himself being criticized for condemning the policies of President Bush and, with the assistance of the press, showing no respect for authority.

"It just makes me furious when the political media and the columnists slam, bam, and bash Bush," contended Dale Ungerer, 67, a registered Republican from Hawkeye.

"If you analyze it, how many times did you criticize Bush, but what's the sense if you don't actually say that `My plan involves this and this?' "

Ungerer called on the Democrats to heed the biblical maxim of "love thy neighbor," adding: "Please tone down the garbage, the mean-mouthing, of tearing down your neighbor, and being so pompous."

Dean, who listened quietly, immediately replied, "George Bush is not my neighbor." When Ungerer tried to interrupt, the former governor shouted: "You sit down! You had your say, and now I'm going to have my say."

Jeebus, sports radio talk show hosts are more polite than this.

Dean went on to tell Ungerer: "George Bush has done more to harm this community right here with unfunded mandates, standing up for corporations in a takeover of farmers' land, . . . sending our kids to Iraq without telling us the truth first about why they went. Our problem is we haven't stood up to George Bush enough."

In his party call to arms, Dean has argued that a unified, conservative majority in Congress has shaken the Democrats' commitment to their core political values. Yesterday, he said Ungerer's criticism was part of that pattern.

"Under the guise of supporting your neighbor, we're all expected not to criticize the president because it's unpatriotic. I think it's unpatriotic to do some of the things that this president has done to the country," Dean said to applause. "It is time not to put up any of this `love thy neighbor.' I tell you, I love my neighbor, but I want that neighbor back in Crawford, Texas, where he belongs."

Translation: we don't need no stinking moderates!

In an interview afterward, Ungerer said he came to the event because he sometimes votes Democratic and it was near his home.

Asked for a rebuttal to Dean's response, he took aim at Dean and his infamous temper.

"He put me down, definitely, because he is who he is," the retired farm equipment worker said.

I wonder which candidate Ungerer will be voting for in November?