Dean for DNC

It's offical, he's running:

Former presidential candidate Howard Dean, once the early front-runner for the Democratic nomination whose candidacy stumbled, has decided to seek the party's chairmanship.

"The Democratic Party needs a vibrant, forward-thinking, long-term presence in every single state," Dean wrote in a letter to members of the Democratic National Committee. "We must be willing to contest every race at every level. We can only win when we show up."

Dean's entry into the race appears to pre-empt another bid for the presidency in 2008. The chairman's job carries a four-year term and Dean has said that anyone who serves as chairman should be ruled out as a presidential candidate.

In his letter, Dean made it clear that he remains part of what he calls "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party," a phrase he borrowed from the late Sen. Paul Wellstone of Minnesota.

"That word -- 'values' -- has lately become a codeword for appeasement of the right-wing fringe," Dean wrote. "But when the political calculations make us soften our opposition to bigotry, or sign on to policies that add to the burden of ordinary Americans, we have abandoned our true values."