Kos his very own self lends the Dean-veep rumor some legs by repeating some rumors on the front page of his site. (No denigration meant by that, by the way; we do it here, too.) A 300-comment thread immediately ensued. How entertaining.

I don't want to spend too much time thinking or writing about this possibility. There are implications for Dean, for Kerry, for the country, and for DFA that are all part of the mix. To say nothing of the campaign and the media (second-order issues that unfortunately in this day and age are made into first-order concerns). But, it is certainly tantalizing. NYCO observes in the thread:

But Dean is a bit of a problem for the Democrats - because he hasn't gone away, and in fact, he continues to be damned useful. Has Kerry had a more active and forceful surrogate (besides Ted Kennedy)? Defeated primary candidates, especially insurgents, are supposed to go off and sulk with their tails between their legs. But Dean hardly missed a beat. Not only that, but he's been extremely credible in convincingly prostrating himself to the Kerry cause, even when some of his own followers weren't buying it. Now most of them are well on board the Kerry train. The Democratic party is a... party again. (As in, people making merry together in a political way...)

These things aren't supposed to happen. It just isn't done.

If this rumor exists, I see it not as an indication that Kerry wants Dean to be his VP, but that people in the party are sensing the weirdness of this situation and are trying to draw a box around it. What do we do with Howard?

Then there's this interesting rumor from 'MiklCraw4d' from up Massachusetts' way:

I've had a few friends that have done some work for the Kerry campaign in Mass., and they both told me that Kerry has developed a bit of a man-crush on Howard. They don't have any reason to be telling me stories, as these are people I know well. They say that Kerry gained a real appreciation of the Dean machine once Howard showed him what it could do for the Kerry campaign. They point to the appearances he's done with Howard, and the fundraising Dean has done. They also say if you look at the body language of the two together at appearances you can see that the hatchet has been buried.

Anyway, I thought about posting when I heard this but never got around to it and it was just speculation anyway. But at least two people who worked there have said that it's well know that Kerry wants Dean and is kind of irking his senior staff since they aren't so keen on that. They point to the pushing back of the announcement date as a result of Kerry's push to pick Dean.

Oh, if the stakes weren't so high this election, this kind of gossip would be much more fun.