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Politics : HOWARD DEAN -THE NEXT PRESIDENT? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sylvester80 who wrote (1431)	1/5/2004 6:23:13 PM
From: Victor Lazlo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3079

where did i lie, toad ? my taxes have gone down, and i'm middle class. You're just in denial because bush's tax cuts worked and now the economy is getting stronger all the time.

To: sylvester80 who wrote (1431)	1/5/2004 10:13:29 PM
From: Victor Lazlo	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3079

Some of Howard Dean's sleazy, greedy business dealings .. One interesting topic: his sale of shares in five Vermont banks after he became governor. He told NEWSWEEK he had sold them in 1991 as soon as he realized that briefings from a state banking official contained inside information. Dean told NEWSWEEK that he could have profited more handsomely had he been able to hold on to the shares, but campaign officials say that so far they can't locate records to document precisely when the sale was made. "When she [the banking official] came in and briefed me, I sold the stocks," Dean told NEWSWEEK, "because I knew that that constituted inside information. Or at least I felt that it did." Dean also may have some more explaining to do about his relationship with a drug company called Astra, which by 1997 was in a limited partnership with another big drug firm, Merck. In 1998, two things were happening in Montpelier: Dean was running for re-election, and drug companies, including Merck, were lobbying against the imposition of price controls on drugs in the state. Over the years Dean, who at the time opposed the price-control plan, had taken campaign contributions from the drug industry, including $3,000 from Merck. (Dean later turned tougher on the industry.) In May 1998, NEWSWEEK has learned, Dean earned $4,000 for a speech at a conference sponsored by Astra—a firm that, as it happened, was in the midst of defending itself (unsuccessfully) against a major sexual-harassment suit involving 80 female former employees. Dean was scheduled to give another speech to another Astra meeting five months later, in October 1998—until a reporter got wind of his plan. Asked about it at a press conference, Dean at first defended the idea, but within hours changed his mind, saying he didn't want to give his political enemies ammunition. What he didn't disclose at the press conference—and, indeed, never mentioned later—was that he had already been paid for the earlier speech to the same controversial company. Tax returns made public by the campaign last year show an additional payment, of $5,000, for a speech in 1999. Dean aides said the payment came from Astra, but were unable late last weekend to provide an immediate explanation for the speech or the fee.