Thursday, October 30, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

EDITORIAL: Dean's pandering

Democratic presidential front-runner Howard Dean dropped by town Tuesday to attend a $100-dollar-a-plate reception, further padding his money lead over his challengers.

At a press conference prior to the event Mr. Dean, former governor of Vermont, engaged in the usual tap dance on the issue of Yucca Mountain. "Nevada will vote Democratic this time simply because George Bush tried to make you into a nuclear waste state," he said.

That's a laugh. Mr. Dean is no less likely to endorse Yucca Mountain than any other candidate, Democrat or Republican -- and his support as governor of Vermont for the repository provides evidence of that. The notion that Mr. Dean has now "seen the light" (his words) on the matter reeks of cynical pandering.

This kind of disingenuousness is becoming more and more typical of the Dean candidacy.

For instance, during the 1990s, Mr. Dean -- a physician by trade -- endorsed a handful of market-oriented Medicaid reforms. Having had first-hand experience dealing with the federal Medicaid bureaucracy, Mr. Dean correctly recognized that structural changes were necessary to ensure the program's long-term survival.

Yet once a few of his fellow Democrats pointed out that those same reforms were embraced by -- gasp! -- Newt Gingrich (flash slide of the devil himself), Mr. Dean turned tail and ran from his previous position on the issue.

Then there's affirmative action. In 1995, Mr. Dean backed the perfectly defendable idea that such programs be based "not on race, but on class." So when race-baiter Al Sharpton this week accused Mr. Dean of pushing an "anti-black agenda," in part due to that quote, what did the candidate do?

Again, Mr. Dean turned tail, saying he now believes "affirmative action has to be about race."

And this guy is supposed to be the straight shooter in the crowd.