Amazing. It actually seems to be an ABC News editorial opinion that the various controversies triggered by Howard Dean’s logorrhea may be the result of clever machinations by you-know-who: Frame Up? Dems, Dean Hit in Message War. (Hat tip: In Vino Veritas.)

Does ABC sense the sinister hand of Rove behind this diabolical scheme—or is it something more inchoate, more vaguely terrifying and scary?

Dare we surmise that it could be … the Republican Message Machine?

“The Republicans are attacking Howard Dean more than Howard Dean is attacking Republicans — but the way the stories are being handled in the news media, everybody is assuming the opposite,” said Anthony Pratkanis, co-author of “Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion,” and a psychology professor at the University of California-Santa Cruz.

’Republican Message Machine’

Experts on propaganda and political branding declared Republicans the winners of the dust-up over Dean’s comments, calling Dean’s attacks imprecise, poorly targeted and open to mischaracterization (Dean was forced to clarify several remarks once they were reported).

The result is little surprise to George Lakoff, a linguistics and cognitive science professor at the University of California-Berkeley, who said “the Republican message machine” has been far more effective than Democrats in recent years at framing the opposing party through disciplined message management, repetition of phrases and other techniques. Democrats, he said, can’t currently match the GOP’s level of organization.

“The reason for this [Dean flap] is that you have Republican media people putting this stuff out — combing through the speeches, taking out a quote and taking them out of context,” said Lakoff, a self-styled “progressive” Democrat who was in the audience for Dean’s “honest living” remark and feels it got mischaracterized in the media.

Oh yes, Berkeley linguistics prof George Lakoff. We had his number back in November 2003 (with no thanks to anyone’s message machine but our own), and he’s now the unhinged left’s “message guru:” Berkeley Prof Tries to Figure It Out.