The Dean nightmare

Below is the transcript from "Hardball with Chris Matthews" last night.

MATTHEWS: The Democrats, your party, is a pro-choice party?
DEAN: No. My party respects everybody's views, but my party firmly believes that the government should stay out of people's personal lives.
MATTHEWS: But you are a pro-choice party? Are you not? You sound like you're against ever being pro-life. Are you pro-choice?
DEAN: I'm not against people for being pro-life. I actually was the first chairman who met for a for a long time with pro-life Democrats.
MATTHEWS: This is the complicated thing for people. The people believe the Republican Party, because of its record, supports the pro-life position. Does your party support the pro-choice position?
DEAN: The position we support is a woman has the right to make -- and a family has the right to make up their own mind about their health care without government interference.
MATTHEWS: That's pro-choice.
DEAN: A woman and a family have a right to make up their own minds about their health care without government interference. That's our position.
MATTHEWS: Why do you hesitate from the phrase pro-choice?
DEAN: Because I think it's often misused. If you're pro-choice, it implies you're not pro-life. That's not true. There are a lot of pro-life Democrats. We respect them, but we believe the government should...
MATTHEWS: Do you believe in abortion rights?
DEAN: I believe that the government should stay out of the personal lives of families and women. They should stay out of our lives. That's what I believe.
MATTHEWS: I find it interesting that you have hesitated to say what the party has always stood for, which is a pro-choice position.
DEAN: The party believes the government does not belong in personal...
MATTHEWS: I'm learning things here about the hesitancy I didn't know about before. We'll be right back with Howard Dean.
DEAN: You know what you're learning...
MATTHEWS: Now, you're getting hesitant on the war and hesitant on abortion rights. It's very hard to get clarity from your party.