I don't have anything against Dean Phlilips other than the fact that he defeated an acquaintance of mine to become the Congressman from Minnesota's Third District. 

I am told he is a decent guy, and hardly the radical that Ilhan Omar is. For a Democrat he is OK, I guess. 

But it really is pathetic that he was the only Democrat in Congress willing to state the obvious before it became necessary to do so: Joe Biden is unfit to be president. 

Rep. Dean Phillips, the Minnesota Democrat who mounted a failed primary challenge to President Biden last year, said fellow Democratic lawmakers are now privately lamenting to him they did not take his campaign more seriously.

Democrats find themselves in a difficult moment as they begrudgingly stand behind President Biden’s reelection campaign following his weak debate performance against former President Donald Trump and mounting concerns over whether the 81-year-old Mr. Biden is up to the job.

“It won’t surprise anybody that the likelihood of my candidacy succeeding was secondary to the likelihood of it inspiring the conversation I was trying to inspire,” Mr. Phillips told reporters. “I’m disappointed with those in power in my party for not heeding that call at a time where they all knew the same thing I did — absolutely.”

Phillips stood up to run for president, not, I believe, because he wanted the job especially or that he had any illusion that he could win, but to sound the alarm about Biden and push his colleagues to step up. He even gave up his safe House seat to go on his crusade. 

Democrats find themselves in a difficult moment as they begrudgingly stand behind President Biden’s reelection campaign following his weak debate performance against Trump and mounting concerns over whether the 81-year-old Biden is up to the job. https://t.co/ASrJ3tAe9h

— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) July 11, 2024

Phillips was savaged by his colleagues, "journalists," opinion writers, and anybody who wanted to maintain the fiction that Biden still has a brain. They were vicious, seeing him as a traitor to the party when he was only trying to save it. 

Now he is getting apologies. No doubt he is gracious enough to accept them, but I hope he retains a bit of seething resentment toward the cowards who stabbed him in the back. They deserve his contempt. 

Seven House Democrats have already called upon Mr. Biden to withdraw from the race and others have privately voiced concerns about whether he can serve for another four years. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado confirmed on CNN that he did tell his Democratic colleagues he did not think Mr. Biden could win in November.

Some Democratic lawmakers who say they support Mr. Biden’s candidacy are doing so tepidly, adding that he must prove himself on the campaign trail to the voters.

Phillips didn't just take fire from legislators from other states. Tina Smith, a Senator from Minnesota, was nasty about Philips telling the truth. 

How dare he?!

Well, Phillips was right, and though I am glad it took this long and Democrats are now in so deep that Biden's brain is in crisis, I salute Philips for doing what he thought was right despite the consequences. He deserves credit.