Melissa Hart's campaign had to be happy to see this picture of her opponent, Jason Altmire, in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Sunday. Hart's 4th Congressional District in Western Pennsylvania leans Republican (Cook Partisan Voting Index R+3, voted for Bush by 9 points over Kerry and by 6 points over Gore) thanks in no small measure to the type of culturally conservative Democrats who can't stand the hard-left wing of the party which Howard Dean so perfectly epitomizes. Altmire's efforts to portray himself as a "centrist" to folks in Pa-4 can't be helped by cruising the district with Dean.

(Photo: V.W.H. Campell, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)