Marek - there is nothing of what you describe about Dan, he is consistent and morally honest, he says what he believes and means what he says.
As for taking Dan seriously. I have just watched a Fox news report and interview. The Fox reporter is a bit over the tiop in his praise of Dan and 'the man to watch' and so on. What is clear though from that report is that Dan is being taken very seriously and people are sitting up and taking notice of him.
'The man who rocked the world' is one description of Dan.
The interview is also interesting in respect of some critisism he has made of the Conservatives, politicians in general and bankers in respect of this crisis. I post a link to the report below and it is worth bearing with to the end, past the bit about American politics to hear what he said. Fortunately we Tories are strong enough to acknowledge when we make mistakes and, unlike Labour, Dan will be respected even more in the Party for these critical comments. I have always liked him since his early days as a MEP but he has certainly gone up in my estimation even more.
Worth a look here:
http://www.foxnews.com/video/index.html?playerId=videolandingpage&streamingFormat=FLASH&referralObject=3998161&referralPlaylistId=playlist