"Physician, heal thy spouse." -- Maureen Dowd has a decidedly nosy take on the marriage of Dr. Dean and Dr. Steinberg (Dean), i.e. Howard and Judy. Dowd somehow thinks we won't notice that she praises Dr. Judy for not "gazing up from the front row" at her husband's political events in Iowa, but then a moment later clucks over it like a crabby mother-in-law: "He could use a character witness on the road to vouch for his core values." Not that it's anybody's business, but Judy Steinberg is a doctor, not a philanthropist, lawyer, or "former librarian" who can just take off months at a time to go on tour with her husband. They also have teenaged kids at home -- not at some boarding school. The Deans aren't millionaires, either, and if his campaign flops, she'll have been supporting them this whole time. Oh, and of course, this is what she wants to do! Shocking! Surely if/when Dean moves into the big time over the summer, things will change, but for now what good does it do for journalists to make the same old personal judgments? Buzz off.

UPDATE: Maureen catches hell from AlterNet! Nice!

Of course, there may be another woman in Howard Dean's life -- Carol Mosely Braun is set to drop out of the race herself and endorse him, as of this afternoon. This could be a real boost, once they leave Iowa and NH especially. And hey, did you know Carol was ambassador to New Zealand for a while? Ah, trivia.

UPDATE: It's done, Carol is now officially for Howard. Here's a quote: "Gov. Dean has the energy to inspire the American people, to break the cocoon of fear that envelopes us and empowers President Bush and his entourage from the extreme right-wing." Yeah! Memo to HD, though -- time to work on that camera face...