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Uhm, I beg to differ. Meet the Press May 22,2005 Howard Dean was promoting Bernie Sanders as the next senator for Vermont. When confronted that Sanders was a socialist Dean replied that he wasn't. Russert said that not only was he a socialist but that he had said so on the floor of Congress. Dean replied that it was a matter of semantics. Sanders voted with the Democrats 98% of the time anyway. Here is the give and take:
MR. RUSSERT: In your home state of Vermont, there's a vacancy for the United States Senate about to occur. Bernie Sanders, the congressman from Vermont, wants to run for that seat. He is a self- described avowed socialist. DR. DEAN: Well, that's what he says. He's really a populist. MR. RUSSERT: But is there room in the Democratic Party for a socialist? DR. DEAN: Well, first of all, he's not a socialist, really. MR. RUSSERT: He... DR. DEAN: He hasn't said that for a while. MR. RUSSERT: Oh, he has a--he wrote in his book: "Outside or in the House, I am a Democratic socialist." DR. DEAN: Well, a Democratic socialist--all right, we're talking about words here. And Bernie can call himself anything he wants. He is basically a liberal Democrat, and he is a Democrat that--he runs as an Independent because he doesn't like the structure and the money that gets involved. And he actually has, I think, some good points about campaign finance reform. The bottom line is that Bernie Sanders votes with the Democrats 98 percent of the time. And that is a candidate that we think... MR. RUSSERT: So you'd support him? DR. DEAN: We may very well end up supporting him. We need to work some things out because it's very important for us not to split the votes in some of the other offices as well. MR. RUSSERT: In 1996 you said you would never have voted for Bernie Sanders. Instead, you opted in recent years to leave the ballot blank. DR. DEAN: Bernie and I have had our difficulties over the years. We've had our strong disagreements. He's a strong personality. We're fighting for the future of America, and a Bernie Sanders in the United States Senate is going to be a whole lot better than somebody who will vote to confirm right-wing judges, somebody who will vote to undo minority rights, somebody who will vote to kill Social Security. This is a battle where personalities and differences have to be put aside, and we have to do what's right for America. MR. RUSSERT: You describe... DR. DEAN: And Bernie Sanders will be a strong candidate.
Sorry if the cut and paste isn't good. I got it from the transcript : msnbc.msn.com/id/7924139. Or, you could just type in "meet the press transcript may 22 2005" like I did on Yahoo. It is about halfway down. The point is, that if the head of the DNC says that a socialist is just a liberal democrat, is your position really still valid? After that time I have kept my tagline the same. Write off everything I say as the ravings of a nut? Maybe you better check out the transcript first.

Its germane to note when making the case that Democrats are socialists the Congressman you cited is not in fact a member of the Democratic party but a loud and proud independent. Thats a pretty big problem for your argument, its like saying that a Libertarian and a Republican are the same because they often vote the same way. Bernie Sanders has a 34 year long political career, in all of that time he has never been a Dem. Dean is just positioning himself to look like he has a hand in events beyond his control. The truth is Sander is so widely popular he's a virtual lock to win Jeffords seat in the senate. If you knew anything about the guy you'd know he regularly rips the Dems as a "do nothing spineless party".