OVER THE OVER THE TOP: I love the glorious Ralph Peters, but Howard Dean makes him plum goofy. There's this:

But Howard Dean and his Deanie-weenies do all they can to restrict the free speech of others. I can predict with certainty that Dean's Internet Gestapo will pounce on this column, twisting the facts and vilifying the writer, just as they do when anyone challenges Howard the Coward.

And this:

In Dean's alternate reality, everything the Bush administration has done and might do is a failure, no matter the facts. The president's even responsible for Mad Cow Disease. It's Goebbels again: Just keep repeating the lies until the lies assume the force of truth.

Then this:

Dean never deals in specifics on security issues. Because he doesn't know the specifics. It's all Big Brother Doublespeak.

Plus this:

Dean began his campaign as an uncompromising Lenin. Now that his Bolsheviks have been organized, he's trying to pose as Gorbachev for the masses. But for anyone who pays attention to what this power-hungry huckster says and does, he comes off as a down-market Brezhnev.

So--yes--within the same column, Ralph compares Dean to lots of Nazis, lots of communists, and George Orwell's own Big Brother. Well BOY HOWDY--that there is some restrained, rational debate. This column deserves some sort of prize for sheer breadth of goofiness; it's almost in the "So bad, it's good" category. I think Ralph either needed to make a deadline so he lapsed into Usenet-speak, or he's a misunderstood genius whose misfires are vibrant and colorful, even if they smell like crap. Or he's just goofing on us. Hey, it was in a Murdoch paper.

Via Dan Drezner.