Critics in Vermont Rally Around Dean
Candidate Finds Support From Liberals With Whom He Once Butted Heads
By Jonathan Finer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 28, 2003; Page A02
MONTPELIER, Vt. -- They called themselves "the usual suspects." As a steadfast core of liberal Democratic politicians in Vermont, they spent more than a decade working closely, and often butting heads, with Howard Dean.
Now they also call themselves something else -- strong supporters of their former governor's surging presidential campaign.
"I know there are a lot of people up here surprised that I am backing him, 'cause I was one of the group that did not just go along with everything he wanted us to do," said Democrat Cheryl Rivers, a former six-term state senator from Stockbridge, who warred with Dean over his plan to change Vermont's health care system early in his tenure as governor. "I am preparing to be frequently disappointed, as I always am. But I see what Howard did here and what he brings to the race, and I give him my full endorsement."
As Dean vaulted from long shot to leader of the Democratic pack, some of his most vocal critics have closed ranks behind the man who reportedly once referred to fellow Vermont Democrats as inhabitants of "La-La Land." They did not share his penchant while governor for pragmatic politics and fiscal conservatism. And some bristled at his brusque leadership style. But now those differences have been largely forgiven, if not forgotten, in the face of a common goal.
"Many of them are very strongly opposed to [President] Bush -- they like [Dean's] outspokenness on the war and the priorities of the Bush administration more generally," said Eric Davis, a political science professor at Middlebury College. "There may be a sense that these disagreements among Democrats here are sort of in the family, so to speak, and now that he is running on a different stage, they are on board."
Democratic Rep. Ann Seibert of Norwich, another fervent Dean critic in the legislature who now backs him, said, "I always told Howard that he could have people call me if they wanted proof that he's not a liberal."
But now she sees their squabbles in a new light. "I think it's not unlike fighting with your sister or brother. You disagree, but at the end of the day, you are all on the same side."
Dean's coverage in the Vermont media -- always considered positive, on balance -- has become more glowing in recent months, several journalists and politicians here said. Peter Freyne, a columnist for the Burlington alternative newspaper Seven Days, was considered one of Dean's staunchest and most effective critics. Freyne derisively referred to Dean as "Ho-Ho" and called him a Republican in his dispatches. Now, he said, he is frequently contacted by readers who say he "kisses Howard's you-know-what."
Freyne acknowledges that the tone of his writing on Dean has evolved along with Dean's national profile. "I went after him every week at his press conferences. My job is to chew on the governor of Vermont, and we have a new guy doing that now," Freyne said. "The Dean I see on national television is somewhat admirable. He reflects well on Vermont and the politics we practice here. And many of us had never seen that passion before. Some people who had never seen this new Howard like him better."
Activists who once clashed with Dean over his agenda find themselves in a difficult position. Annette Smith, head of Vermonters for a Clean Environment, battled Dean over a gas-pipeline project in Rutland, a prospective mine in Danby Four Corners and a factory farm in Highgate. Under Dean, she once said, "EP meant expedite permits," instead of environmental protection.
But even she is singing a slightly different tune lately. "Look, it's no secret I don't think highly of many things he's done. He has plenty of explaining to do," said Smith, who has not endorsed a candidate despite what she said were repeated overtures from the Dean campaign. "But I also don't want to help Bush to be reelected. I have already seen quotes of mine used by conservatives on Web sites, and that is even worse."
Largely silent, as the primary season heats up, has been Vermont's Progressive Party, formed in the mid-1990s at least partly in response to Dean's influence on the Democratic Party. A spokesman at the Montpelier office said that the party has not endorsed a Democratic candidate and would not comment on the record about Dean.
"All of a sudden, people who were his enemies have nothing bad to say about the guy," said Michael Colby, editor of the monthly journal Wild Matters, which has headquarters in Vermont. In February, he wrote a strong rebuke of Dean's environmental record as governor, generating complaints from people he expected to endorse his views. "I think what is happening is that Vermont loves itself and pretends it is different from other states. You see one of your own in the national spotlight, and it gets people excited."
Dick McCormack, a self-described liberal Democrat and former state senator, said, "I look at the economy struggling in this country, and here's little Vermont riding out the storm. He should get a lot of credit for that."
"Frankly, I do have some reservations," McCormack said. "He does have a temper. He tends to see disagreements on issues as personal disloyalty. I will vote for him in a minute, and while I am doing it, I will be thinking of every time we argued, and how I still think I was right." |
