Howard Dean: On Topic

Chris Matthews was actually pretty hard on Howard Dean last night on Hardball. I note these two exchanges:

DEAN : Third of all, I am concerned about Judge Alito's record. Judge Alito in one case said he believed that Congress did not have the right to regulate the sale of machine guns. I think that's a mistake.

MATTHEWS: I thought they had done that since the '30s. Tommy guns have been outlawed since the mob days back in the early '30s.

DEAN: In a case when he was on the court, he dissented from an opinion that upheld Congress' right to regulate machine guns. In other words, he made the case, in a dissent, that he did not believe that Congress had the right to regulate the sales of machine guns.

MATTHEWS: Automatic weapons?

DEAN: Yes. Machine guns.

Then, minutes later:

MATTHEWS: The Democrats, your party, is a pro-choice party?

DEAN: No. My party respects everybody's views, but my party firmly believes that the government should stay out of people's personal lives.
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MATTHEWS: Do you believe in abortion rights?

DEAN: I believe that the government should stay out of the personal lives of families and women. They should stay out of our lives. That's what I believe.

My dad and I were dying for Matthews to go for it with this query:

MATTHEWS: "Do you believe a husband should be able to sell his wife a machine gun?"

Alas, but they just went to spot.

After the break, Dean trotted out this whopper:

DEAN: Well, I don't know who did, but somebody did, because the case wasn't there, and the 9/11 Commission said it wasn't there. The 9/11 Commission, chaired by a Republican, I might add, said there was no connection between terrorism and Saddam Hussein.

Go Howie! It's your birthday!

Dean discusses Alito, abortion, Libby and Iraq - Hardball with Chris Matthews - MSNBC.com