Kristol: Dem Establishment 'Terrified' of Dean

A senior Democratic Party strategist has private confided that party leaders are "terrified" at the increasingly likely prospect that presidential front-runner Howard Dean will win the nomination.

"I had lunch with a senior Democratic strategist this week," Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol told "Fox News Sunday." "They are terrified of Dean."

Kristol predicted that the Democratic Party establishment will rally behind the "anyone-but-Dean candidate," but he added, "I don't think they can stop Dean."

The rivalry between Dean and presidential hopeful Dick Gephardt is reminiscent of what happened to the Democratic Party in 1972, he noted, when Hubert Humphrey and George McGovern faced off for the nomination.

McGovern won the battle but lost the war, losing 49 states to Richard Nixon.

Oddly enough, the aging former senator from South Dakota said earlier this year that even he sees parallels between himself and Dean.

Commenting on the Vermont Democrat's insurgency in September, McGovern observed, "It reminds me a lot of what we did 30 years ago."

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