Dean: “a solidly moderate Democrat”
[What does my gut say, when I listen to Dean, and read what he has to say? Clinton, it whispers… he’s Bill Clinton, without the bimbo eruption problem… he means well, but he’ll sell out his principles without hesitation, if it is to his political advantage… if he’s elected, you’ll spend the next four years thinking, “but at least he’s not Dubya…”
“The leftist designation has amused political
observers in Vermont, who have known Dean as a solidly
moderate Democrat for years.”
… I voted for Clinton in ‘92, voted for Nader in ‘96 and 2000, and don’t regret any of those votes…
–Thomas]
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2003 : SOCUNMOD
http://rutlandherald.nybor.com/News/Story/67136.html
Dean aligns with Bush on death penalty
June 14, 2003
By Tracy Schmaler Vermont Press Bureau
Former Gov. Howard Dean appears to be shedding some of
the liberal tendencies that have won him national attention,
as he now expands his support for the death penalty.
In his 11 years as Vermont’s governor, his position on
capital punishment “evolved”, from staunch opposition to
limited support, Dean acknowledges.
Now, on the stump for the Democratic nomination for
president, Dean has extended his endorsement of a death
sentence for those who kill children or police officers to
include those who commit terrorist acts.
“As governor, I came to believe that the death penalty would
be a just punishment for certain, especially heinous crimes,
such as the murder of a child or the murder of a police
officer. The events of September 11 convinced me that
terrorists also deserve the ultimate punishment,” Dean said
in a statement released by his campaign last week.
Dean, who was unavailable for an interview, did not define a
terrorist act in his statement. He elaborated only to say the
punishment would be sought in “very serious cases” and he
would do his best to avoid any “unjust imposition of the
death penalty.”
“If elected president, I would apply the federal death penalty
with great care. I would instruct my attorney general to
seek capital punishment only in very serious cases, including
those involving vulnerable victims and those involving
terrorism.”
A political decision?
It is a curious contradiction for Dean, who has emerged in
the field of nine Democratic contenders as the liberal
maverick. The leftist designation has amused political
observers in Vermont, who have known Dean as a solidly
moderate Democrat for years.
But as a presidential candidate, Dean has planted himself on
the left and gotten a great deal of attention for it,
particularly his early, outspoken criticism of President Bush
and the Iraq war.
His shift on the death penalty - his second in his political
career - has some questioning his motives.
“This doesn’t surprise me. I think Dean’s willing to do what he
has to do to win,” said Frank Bryan, a political science
professor at the University of Vermont and longtime
observer of Dean. “I really believe he’s very ambitious and he
wants to win badly. He has to get to the final plateau, and I
think he will take risks with his inconsistencies being
discovered in order to get to the next step.”
Dean’s support of the death penalty for terrorists puts him
in agreement with President Bush. Attorney General John
Ashcroft told lawmakers last week that the Justice
Department is working on an addendum to the USA PATRIOT
Act that includes imposing the death penalty for some
terrorist activities.
Dean needs “to get back to the middle. That’s where he lives,”
said Garrison Nelson, a political science professor at the
University of Vermont. “And he’ s going to have real trouble
getting back there because A, it’s clogged and B, any feeling
of a lack of agenda commitment is going to undermine him
with the ideologues. These are issue voters, these are people
who work like crazy, but they are fundamentally suspicious
and critical. If he starts to burn them on issues, they’ll be
ferocious.”
Eric Davis, a Middlebury College political science professor,
summed up Dean’s change in two words: South Carolina.
It is home to the first primary election in the South and, like
most of its neighbors, a conservative state.
“I think what’s going on here is Dean is trying to appeal to
electorates in more conservative states, probably South
Carolina being the most obvious example,” Davis said. “I think
this is an example where, in many states, the opinion on this
is more supportive. Perhaps Dean feels he needs to appeal
to a more law-and-order constituency.”
A change
The first time Dean softened on the death penalty was in
1997. He had been governor for six years, and the political
speculation was that he was eyeing a bid for the presidency
in 2000.
In interviews with reporters at the time, Dean said he
realized some crimes warranted death as the ultimate
punishment.
“I really just became so convinced that some acts are so
incredibly depraved that the death penalty is an appropriate
redress,” he had said in reports published in the Rutland
Herald and Times Argus. “When someone gets put to death
for a heinous crime, I don’t feel the least bit conflicted about
that.”
That position was starkly different from the one Dean
projected to a group of students at Springfield High School
five years earlier.
In the infancy of his governorship, Dean was an outspoken
opponent of the death penalty.
“I don’t support the death penalty for two reasons. One, you
might have the wrong guy, and two, the state is like a parent.
Parents who smoke cigarettes can’t really tell their children
not to smoke and be taken seriously. If a state tells you not
to murder people, a state shouldn’t be in the business of
taking people’s lives,” he said in 1992.
But Dean did not act in 1997, or later when the issue
resurfaced, to get any legislation passed in Vermont, where
the death penalty was abolished in 1965. His lack of action
prompted some to charge that his softening was politically
motivated.
He dismissed those claims, saying the chances of getting a
death penalty bill passed in Vermont were slim.
“If I thought the death penalty was going to stop the next
depraved murder that might occur in Vermont, I would ask
the Legislature to enact it. . I truly don’t believe it’s a
deterrent,” he said in 1997, after the father of a girl who
was murdered in 1986 publicly charged Dean with
changing his stance for political reasons.
In defending his switch, Dean attributed some of the
impetus to a weak judicial system, that allowed murderers
to go free, and, in some cases, kill again.
“Until life without parole means life without parole, the
public is not safe without a death penalty,” Dean said in
1997. “Until we have a judicial system that can adequately
protect us, the only thing that will is the death penalty.”
Ron Weich, Dean’s senior policy adviser, said Dean is now
broaching the issue from a different perspective.
“What’s happening is, he was governor at the time. He
necessarily has to broaden his view now,” Weich said. “A
governor is looking at ordinary, street-level homicide. A
president has to look at national security.”
Weich acknowledged that Dean and Bush may stand on
common political ground on this issue, but said a Dean
administration would employ the federal death penalty in a
much different way.
“It’s true he and President Bush share the view that the
death penalty should be available in some cases of
terrorism,” he said. “But (Dean) would not apply the death
penalty in the kind of wanton and reckless manner Attorney
General Ashcroft has used.”
Contact Tracy Schmaler at
tracy.schmaler@rutlandherald.com .
–
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