Former Democratic National Committee chairman Don Fowler has never been one to mince words…

And the South Carolina professor and businessman more than lived up to his reputation today when NPR asked for his take on calls by some from the party's left wing - and from fellow former DNC chairman Howard Dean - to kill the health care bill still being debated in the Senate.

"It's childish - and I'm as liberal as anybody," said Fowler, who has been following the intra-party imbroglio from Minnesota, where he's scheduled to have knee replacement surgery Friday at Rochester's Mayo Clinic.

NPR, by Liz Halloran, 12/17/09

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