This is UFC for political wonks. Two of the country’s brightest—and most diametrically opposed—political minds will converge on Las Vegas this weekend for what should truly test that immovable-object-vs.-irresistible-force theory.

In one corner, Karl Rove, the GOP strategist who marketed George W. Bush as someone people would want to have a beer with; Bush’s senior advisor and deputy chief of staff until resigning in 2007; a frequent contributor to Fox News; and, most recently, the author of Courage and Consequence, a memoir that is distinctly pro-Bush.

In the other, Howard Dean, the former head of the Democratic National Committee and governor of Vermont; a man who tried unsuccessfully to capture the Democratic nomination for president in 2004; a man who opposed the war in Iraq; a man who, sadly, ended up as little more than a punch line thanks to a disastrous “Yee-Haw!” speech in Iowa.

Regardless of your political leanings, this is an evening you really don’t want to miss. Rove is a political insider unlike any other, and Dean is a six-term governor and physician who helped establish universal health care for children and pregnant women in Vermont. Expect to hear lively debate on health-care reform, the economy, foreign policy, immigration and much more. It’s not likely we’ll hear informed debate of this caliber in Las Vegas anytime soon.