OK, ladies and gents. New rule: Thou shalt not speak ill of your fellow Democrat.

In the last week or so, Howard Dean said some things that some Democrats didn't precisely agree with. So all those Democrats are giving quotes to the press about how they don't agree.

Note that none of the newspaper stories about this disagreement have headlines like "Republicans criticize Dean." That's because Republicans attacking what we say isn't news. Democrats attacking each other is news.

So - if you want the story to die and you don't want the party to look bad, you just ignore it. Seriously, the Republicans do enough stupid stuff, that if you're looking for someone to criticize they will always provide material.

Republicans have learned this rule well. In fact, Ronald Reagan was the first to issue this commandment during his presidency. The entire right wing noise machine got the message and began the Democrat-bashing Rush Limbaugh-ization of their message. Have you ever felt like Republicans are always working in lockstep and never seem to eat their own like we do? This is why.

Bottom line: If you feel like criticizing a Democrat, don't. Talk about how George Bush lied about Iraq instead.

Finally - I'm sorry that this post is somewhat cryptic. I've done my best to follow my own rule. I haven't told you what Dean said. I haven't given you my opinion of it. I haven't told you what the other Dems said. I haven't passed judgement on those reactions. If you want to know what the controversy actually is, you'll have to go somewhere else.

There's a reason for that. When I don't say anything bad about other Democrats, there's no story to pin on me later. See how easy that is?