The quintessential Washington moment comes every four to eight years when administrations change and the new folks come to town. What would they be like if the world went mad and Dean became president? An amusing article in the WaPo Style section this am gives us a hint. The “unofficial rule” in New Hampshire has always been that the staffs are rivals by day but socialize at night. Post scribe Hanna Rosin went to New Hampshire for New Year’s Eve to report that the Dean folks prefer to stay to themselves. “In guessing what the Dean people may be doing New Year’s Eve, Mark Kornblau, press secretary for Kerry, sticks to the techno-geek stereotype. ‘Blogging,’ he jokes, mock-tapping his fingers on an air keyboard.


“In fact, the Dean campaign’s New Year’s Eve plans do involve blogging in a small way. The Dean campaign sent its invitation in the form of a rap, weaving in many campaign themes with lots of blogged responses at the bottom.


“Wednesday we will get on track

“And take this goddamn country back


“27 days to phone the masses


“Just 1 night to shake our asses


“It’s the last night we will rock the nation


“Until H Dean’s inauguration.”


Maybe it’s just as well they don’t mingle. In August the Dean and Kerry staffs engaged in a softball tournament. Kerry won, but Rosin reports that Dean “called every ten minutes for the results.” Yikes.


America hasn’t seen such attention to detail since Jimmy Carter took to assigning the White House tennis courts himself.