[This may just be a portion of the appearance. This is the clip that was provided on the Late Night website]

David Letterman, host: ...on Hardball with Chris Matthews the other day, and you were talking about Harriet Miers and the Supreme Court, and you talked about "hiding the salami" with Harriet Miers. [Dean is shaking his head and grinning sheepishly]

Now, honest to God, what was goin' on there?

Howard Dean, DNC Chair: I almost brought you a salami, 'cause I figured you might do this. [Letterman is laughing]

Letterman: He asked you a question about something on the Supreme Court, and you said, "I don't know, let's play hide the salami!" Now...

[Audience laughs]

Letterman: ... is that what it was?

[more laughter, and applause]

Dean [laughing too]: That's not exactly how it happened. We were appealing to the ethnic vote, actually...

Actually, you know, this is one of those moments in television that everybody...

[points to someone in the audience who apparently said something off mike, and laughs]

... that everybody...

Chris asked me, about... [laughs, and everyone is laughing. The whole room cracks up.]

Letterman: I'll just.. I'll be over here. [sidling away from Dean] I'll be right here.

Dean: Chris asked me about her credentials, and I actually think that she is qualified, I think we need to find out a lot more about her. And I was saying, this is one area where the President can't hide the... information like he did under Judge Roberts.

[laughter breaks out again]

Dean: So, unfortunately, I was thinking of 3-card monte, but then I thought, nobody outside New York is gonna know what 3-card monte is, so I was thinking of the shell game, and I said "hide the..." and I got stuck, and I knew I had about three seconds to avoid looking like Jeannette Pirro, so I said, so I said "hide the, hide the..." first thing that came into my mind was kielbasa, but I didn't want to say that, so I said "salami"...

[Audience cracks up]

Dean: It's true, it's true.

"Or whatever it is!"

Letterman: That'll get her confirmed, I dunno.

[Laughter]

Originally posted as video on "Big Show Highlights" (this will drop off the bottom of the list there after roughly January 2006).