He seemed to take glee in attacking us at every opportunity and using us as a way to form alliances with more conservative elements," said former state Sen. Cheryl Rivers, a leader of the state Democrats’ liberal wing and former chairwoman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee...
To the anger of more liberal members of his own party, he insisted that the tax increases be rolled back on schedule and then went on to work for additional tax cuts later in his tenure...
Throughout, he held a tight rein on state spending, repeatedly clashing with the Democrats who controlled the Legislature for most of his years as governor...
"Certainly the Democratic caucus was never 100 percent behind him and where there were differences, it was around how progressive or how moderate he was," Chard said.
Rivers blames Dean for helping a third political party to flourish in Vermont that many say siphons votes from Democrats. "The Progressive Party gained some momentum during his years as governor because he was so conservative," Rivers said, although she said she still may support Dean for president.
http://premium1.fosters.com/2003/news/may%5F03/may%5F19/news/reg%5Fvt0519a.aspMore problem with Dean opposing Democrats. THIS time a bill to regulate prescription Drug Costs in Vermont:
Committee threatens to regulate drug prices
Dean said he would not support the price controls unless six or seven other states joined in the regulatory effort as well. That way, he said, the legal costs of defending the bill against a likely constitutional challenge would at least be spread around the region.
http://www.rutlandherald.com/legislature/leg2000/regdrug.htmlI believe what the Senate Appropriations Committee presented to you was a budget that listens to what Vermonters have asked us to do,” committee Chairwoman Susan Bartlett, D-Lamoille, said just before the vote.
“I believe that it is responsible of government, when times get difficult, to protect our most needy and our most vulnerable. ... I think turning our backs on Vermonters is what’s fiscally irresponsible.”
Even the governor’s closest allies in the Senate ignored him. Sen. Nancy Chard, D-Windham, recommended restoring $440,000 to one of the pharmaceutical assistance programs and the Senate voted 22-7 to go along with her.
“I’ve become convinced that we have a philosophical difference between the governor, the Republican House and this Senate,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin, D-Windham.
“The governor and the Republican House want to balance this budget on the backs of our most vulnerable Vermonters. The Senate wants to balance this budget on the backs of the pharmaceutical companies who are charging too much for drugs.”
http://timesargus.nybor.com/Legislature/Story/46513.htmlThe Progressives, with support of a couple dozen Democrats and one Republican, proposed two new income tax surcharges. Taxes would go up 12.5 percent on taxable income between $43,000 and $158,000. On taxable income above $158,000, taxes would be increased 25 percent...
Dean reiterated his opposition to raising the income tax shortly after the Progressives unveiled their tax plan. Dean contends Vermont’s marginal income tax rate — that is, the top rate paid by those in the highest income brackets — already is too high.
http://timesargus.nybor.com/Legislature/Story/41293.htmlTHIS is just a newpaper editorial about Dean, from Burlington Free Press:
Although sometimes loose with the truth, Dean's attack strategy seems to have paid off. He has put his opponents on the defensive and has drawn considerable attention from political commentators and Democratic contributors. Polls show him neck and neck with Kerry in the critical New Hampshire primary and closing in on the favored Gephardt in the Iowa caucuses.
As Dean becomes a top-tier candidate, however, his casual approach to facts and abusive tactics against his opponents could get him into serious trouble -- and severely damage Vermont's reputation for political civility and intellectual honesty.
http://www.sover.net/~auc/deanbites.htmnot, though. Throughout his governorship, Dean found himself repeatedly trying to tug the Democratic party toward the center. The battles took place especially over budgetary, taxation, and environmental issues. They were so fierce that we remember one state representative from a liberal town telling us that Dean wouldn't even dare to show his face there. It was an article of faith among many Vermont Democrats that Dean was really a Republican in disguise. Dean, for his part, famously characterized one budget proposal from the Democratic Senate as being from "La-La Land," a remark he probably regrets now but which accurately reflected his frustrations then.
http://www.rherald.com/news/2003/0807/Editorial/e02.htmlFormer State Sen. Cheryl Rivers (D-Windsor) just laughed when we ran that one by her. She battled nose-to-nose with Republican, er, sorry, Democratic Gov. Howard Dean through the 1990s. Rivers was a liberal and proud of it. Dean was a penny-pinching, Rocke-feller Republican masquerading as a Democrat.
The mere mention of Sen. Rivers' name during Dean's weekly press conferences would cause the governor to clench his hands, tighten his neck and stiffen his spine. That was Dean 1, the fiscal conservative.
http://www.geegaw.com/stories/sleepless_in_iowa_and_seattle.shtmlAt one point, he wrote to the leader of the Vermont Senate Democrats, Dick McCormack, apologizing for telling Senate liberals they ought to learn from what happened in Eastern Europe.
"I and many others interpreted that as calling us communists," says McCormack, chuckling about it now. McCormack says Dean wrote many apologies to him over the years.
Dean also atoned for saying publicly that then-Vermont Sen. Cheryl Rivers shouldn't be re-elected, two weeks before the 1994 election. He clashed with the fellow Democrat on health care and budget issues.
"He flew off the handle," says Rivers, who won re-election anyway and shrugs off his criticisms now.
http://www.primarymonitor.com/blog/index.phpBURLINGTON, Vt. - The new governor faced a roomful of fellow Democrats in 1992, liberal warriors eager after two years of Republican rule to right every perceived wrong in Vermont. But Howard Dean issued no call to arms.
All of your progressive ideas, Dean told his party caucus, won't amount to anything if Vermonters don't trust you with their money - and they don't. We're seen as tax-happy liberals who spend money unwisely.
Dean's words foreshadowed years of acrimonious battles with his party's formidable liberal wing, which controlled the legislature. From 1991 to 2002, Dean issued more vetoes than any previous governor. But he slowly bent Democrats to his will. When he left office in 2002, Vermont had a fairly balanced budget, while states across the nation bled fiscal red ink.
http://www.cmonitor.com/stories/news/politics2003/0803_deanrecord_2003.shtmlIn fact, many of Vermont's liberal Democrats and Progressives dislike Dean, whom they paint as practically a closet Republican (Clavelle is a notable exception, though he describes himself as part of the "pragmatic" wing of his party). In 2000, when Dean ran for his fifth term as governor of Vermont, Progressives ran a candidate against Dean--knowing full well that they might hand the Vermont governorship to a right-wing Republican. This was after Dean had signed Vermont's landmark civil unions bill--which grants same-sex couples access to the same rights and protections enjoyed by married couples--and he was facing a heated "Take Back Vermont" Republican challenge. The Progressive candidate wound up taking almost 10 percent of the vote, and Dean squeaked back into office.
http://www.thestranger.com/2003-05-15/feature-2.htmlThis was not the same Dean who governed Vermont for 11 years. Known as a pro-business, fiscal conservative, Dean established a reputation as a non-ideological moderate who waged some of his toughest legislative battles with liberal Democrats on such issues as health care and welfare reform.
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/specialnews/dean/edit1.htmFINALLY, LAST BUT NOT LEAST...
Dean set out to balance the budget with spending cuts, vetoing some spending on social services for the elderly. He angered liberal legislators with a record number of vetoes in 11 years as governor. When he left office, the budget was in balance.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/columnists/orl-insdean31083103aug31,0,2032875.columnThere are lots of articles in which Vermont Democrats criticize Dean. Dean received little criticism from Vermont Republicans, who greatly favored his fiscl policies. The ONLY real fallout that campe for Dean in Vermont with Republicans was over Civil Unions, and that sprked more problems for Republicans who splintered into pro and anti Dean factions.
Problem with this post is that it is simply FILLED with your opinions, but your posts do not contain facts to back up your opinion.
And from these articles, there is indication that there would be far fewer Vermont Progressives, if it had not been for Howard Deans Conservatism.
The "Rivers" who blames Dean for Democratic Party losses to the Progresive Party is Cheryl Rivers, leader of thwe Liberal Wing of the democratic party.
The articles indicate that most of Deans battles were with the liberal wing of the Democratic Party.
From this post, all that can be inferred is that ther is ONE Vermont Democrat who did not oppose Dean...You.
You even must uses those old Joe McCarthy slurs about leftists, Socialists,Commies, in order to attack those who opposed Dean. Well these parties constitutef a VERY SMALL percentage of the Vermont electorate, and Dean nearly lost in 2000, because he drove thousands of liberal democrats into the Progressive Party.
Well as Democrats, we should be more worried about a candidate who got a great deal of support from Republicans" and conservative elements, and who was opposed by Progressives, Socialists, Greens and other liberal parties, than one who was opposed by Republicans, and supported by progressive and left leaning parties.
WE are looking for a liberal candidate, not a conservative one.
WE have one of those in the White House already. We do not need to replace a Republican ultra-conservative, with another one. Democrat in name only.
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