DEAN'S DESCENT: Forget about Rove's alleged complicity in the Plame affair; I'm convinced he must somehow be responsible for Howard Dean's slow-motion political suicide. Latest development: Dean declares that Pennsylvania Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Bob Casey's Jr.'s opposition to abortion is a matter of principle. "You have to respect people's positions of conscience," said Dean. "I think Bob Casey's position is a position of conscience." So what about Rick Santorum's opposition to abortion? How is that different from Casey's stance? Dean says the difference between his party and Republicans is that "we believe a woman has a right to make up their own mind and they believe (House Majority Leader) Tom DeLay should make it up and Rick Santorum should make it up for them." Wrong. Until Santorum declares that his opposition to abortion is based on his desire to make up women's minds for them, it's only fair that both men's views about abortion be considered conscience-based or both men's views' be called anti-women. Democrats believe in "fairness," item number one on the talking points, right? In a way I admire Dean's visceral partisanship — it's one of the job requirements for a party chairman. But aren't intelligence and proportion and some sense of intellectual integrity also part of the job? Wait — the Democrats' goal is to start winning elections again, yes?