Sounds more like Howard the Chicken. Bwwwuuuckk, bwuckk, bucckk, bucckkk...

Maybe he doesn't want to have to talk about his lousy fundraising, which is the thing that he supposedly was hired to do (and if he did it, his claw-in-mouth tendencies might be forgiven). Ken Mehlman would be sure to rib him for it in a head to head, but Russert might have been too polite to mention it.

[Update a couple minutes later]

The photoshoppers are having fun already.

"This doctor is a quack."

Howard Dean may be a poor fundraiser, but he doesn't need to be one. When George Soros and the 531's are raising oodles of money, the DNC chairman's job becomes infinitely easier. All Dean needs to do is continue the stream of vitriol that makes wealthy liberals turn to MoveOn.org in the first place.