Kerry advisor: "We can take out Howard Dean whenever we want to"

[killbotfactory]

2004 Campaign: Lying in Wait for Dean

ADVISERS TO THE other front runner, Sen. John Kerry, don’t want to attack Dean now because they think he’ll crumble quickly when they finally do. In the meantime, Kerry advisers say, it’s good for the race to be seen by many party insiders as a two-way Kerry-Dean contest, since that deprives the other top-tier candidates—Dick Gephardt, John Edwards and Joe Lieberman—of media attention and campaign donations. “We can take Howard Dean on whenever we want to,” said one Kerry adviser. “Why do it now?”

If it really is a two-man race, Kerry hopes ultimately to argue that the party can’t afford to nominate the antiwar Dean. Another Kerry adviser says, “The Democratic Party isn’t going to want to nominate another 49er—a guy who loses 49 states, the way George McGovern did in 1972.”

Take him on like they did during the SC debates? Right. To quote Gephardt, "stop with the phony, macho rhetoric".

EDIT:

This should be take "on" not "out".