Democrats Trail in Polls, Battling Self-Inflicted Wounds

Since Hussein’s capture – and Dean’s statement that it would not make the country safer or alter his views about the war – those rivals have attacked Dean in an effort to shake up a race that had seemed to be sliding away from them. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) accused Dean of crouching in “his own spider hole of denial,” Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said Dean had shown he lacked “the judgment to be president” and Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.) accused Dean of “playing politics with foreign policy.”

There is no evidence that any of this has thus far had much impact on the voters choosing the Democratic nominee in a swift succession of primaries and caucuses that begin next month.