Howard Dean was in Hawaii this past week. katydid at DailyKos was there and writes it up. Pictures and relayed details of Dean's thoughts on Kerry available as well.

Dean said that he and Kerry disagreed about strategy for the general election. He said that Rove had figured out that the way you win is by firing up your base so that they come out in droves, and that's how they won the 2004 midterms. He thinks the Democrats should do the same thing, that Kerry is moving too far to the center to inspire the left and remove the Nader threat. He thinks the center strategy worked for Clinton only because he was such a talented politician.

[...] Dean talked about what they were trying to accomplish. He said all they were interested in was supporting good people who would work hard on their campaigns, who were willing to align themselves with DFA. No litmus tests. He said that they took recommendations from local Dean organizations about who to support (at any level), then vetted them only for character and willingness to work hard (not their positions), then promised them that if they didn't get enough support by being on the Dean Dozen list, DFA would donate the difference.

He said DFA didn't care at all if the ones they picked could win. Unlike the DNC, they want to run people in every race, to get the Democratic message out, to lay the groundwork for the future. He said, how can you get Utah and Missouri to vote for the Democrats if they haven't been hearing the Democratic message. He also said he wanted people in place in case there was a 'throw out the incumbents' mood developing.

I don't know what vetting for "character" and not "positions" means -- but I'll be curious to see how it develops.