Here's just the thing to bring Howard Dean some much needed credibility in foreign policy: Apparently he scares the bejesus out of Kim Jung-Il. It seems that his first exposure to Dean was watching the infamous Iowa "I have a scream" speech. According to a Newsweek column:

As Dean built to a crescendo, Kim appeared alarmed and agitated, the sources said. "Who is that madman?" the madman reportedly asked.

According to one of Kim's aides, "There's only one way to describe the look on Kim's face when he was watching Dean: pure, unadulterated terror."

Kim's every waking moment is now haunted by his fear of Howard Dean, the aide revealed. "At night, Kim gets out of bed and wanders the hallways in his pajamas, muttering Dean's name," the aide said. "Dean really gives him the willies."

Now this sounds just a bit questionable, but if I were sure this was true, I might would consider voting for Dr Dean. The ability to intimidate our enemies rates pretty high right now as a presidential asset.

I hadn't given any consideration to how such dirtbags might take our Democrat candidates, but I can see how this Dean thing might spook them. We need a president who is calm and carefully considered in his actions, but it can be very useful for the bad guys to think he's a little crazy and unpredictable.

Good for the doctor.

Also, if Dean's people could document this at all, he'd be well advised to absolutely use this in campaign ads. "I personally scare the shit out of the most dangerous bad guy currently on the planet" sounds like a convincing argument to ME.