Howard Dean’s current bid to chair the Democratic National Committee is a test case of his political viability. It’s his first political quest since a spirited speech, endlessly rebroadcast and lampooned, derailed his innovative and well-funded 2004 presidential campaign. Virtually no account of Dean’s current candidacy has failed to mention his “I Have a Scream” performance and the subsequent collapse of his presidential campaign. It has seemed that the image of Dean whooping and spinning after finishing third in the Iowa caucuses is so engraved in the national consciousness that there is no chance of Dean’s reputation ever recovering.