Howard Dean's pragmatic side

[Khephra]

Howard Dean's pragmatic side

HOWARD DEAN isn't just flavor of the month. So far he's the flavor of both spring and summer. Indeed, this week twin scoops of Old-Fashioned Liberal Delight landed on the covers of Time and Newsweek.


But if Democratic voters are flocking to the former Vermont governor out of a notion that he is a no-holds-barred progressive combatant, they might want to consider what Ralph Wright, former speaker of the Vermont House of Representatives, has to say.

Wright, a hard-charging liberal Democrat, served as speaker from 1985 to 1995, a prime perch from which to observe Dean's career in Vermont politics.

Through a friend, Wright sent word that he's retired from politics and has no comment. But he was neither so reticent nor so retiring when he wrote his 1996 memoir ''All Politics is Personal.''

Wright admired Dean's skill, marveled at his luck, and liked him personally. Indeed, it was Wright who helped make Dean one of Bill Clinton's favorite governors. After former Boston Herald columnist Peter Lucas, a longtime friend of Wright's, told Clinton that the Vermont speaker might support him in his 1992 presidential campaign, Clinton called Wright, who not only signed aboard but persuaded Dean to back the Arkansan as well.

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