What's in Howard Dean's Secret Files?

Newsweek ^ | 11/30/03 | Michael Isikoff

[Mean Daddy]

As investigative reporters and “oppo” researchers flock to Vermont to dig into Howard Dean’s past, they have run into a roadblock. A large chunk of Dean’s records as governor are locked in a remote state warehouse—the result of an aggressive legal strategy designed in part to protect Dean from political attacks.

DEAN—WHO HAS BLASTED the Bush administration for excessive secrecy—candidly acknowledged that politics was a major reason for locking up his own files when he left office last January. He told Vermont Public Radio he was putting a 10-year seal on many of his official papers—four years longer than previous Vermont governors—because of “future political considerations... We didn’t want anything embarrassing appearing in the papers at a critical time.” “Most of the records are open,” said Dean spokeswoman Tricia Enright, adding there is “absolutely not” a “smoking gun” in those for which Dean has claimed “executive privilege.” Still, Dean’s efforts to keep official papers secret appear unusually extensive. Late last year, NEWSWEEK has learned, Dean’s chief counsel sent a directive to all state agencies ordering them to cull their files and remove all correspondence that bore Dean’s name—and ship them to the governor’s office to be reviewed for “privilege” claims. This removed a “significant number of records” from state files, said Michael McShane, an assistant Vermont attorney general.

The battle over Dean’s records began last year when three Vermont newspapers took him to court after being denied access to his official schedule. Reporters were trying to track Dean’s out-of-state political trips. State lawyers argued that release of the schedule could jeopardize his safety and that the governor’s office was not a public “agency” covered by state open-records law—two notions rejected by the Vermont Supreme Court. (The court ultimately ruled that those portions of the schedule related to his political trips had to be released, but those relating to state policy could be redacted.) Then last January, Dean’s chief counsel David Rocchio negotiated a sweeping agreement that resulted in about 140 boxes of Dean records containing several hundred thousand pages of documents being locked up for 10 years at a state archive in Middlesex, said Greg Sanford, the state archivist. The sealed papers include Dean’s correspondence with advisers on, among other matters, Vermont’s “civil unions” law and a state agency that critics charged was used to grant tax credits to Dean’s favored firms. Rocchio said the sealing agreement was driven by “legitimate” policy concerns, but also by, he later acknowledged, political factors. “All you have to do is look at what [Dean’s opponents] are doing with the existing records,” he said. “They’re distorting his record.”

[Mean Daddy]

Rush is right, these people (the Demorats) cannot admit that they are liberal or what their true feelings are as they will never regain power.

[Peach]

My guess what's in his files - I think he performed abortions.

[verity]

That would only be a plus in Democrats' eyes.

[Thebaddog]

I think that his real fear is of being ridiculed for some minor scandal of Vermotian proportions. Suppose he gets dragged over the coals for a hidden ice cream subsidy. Or how about that maple syrup quota that his campaign contributor was able to circumvent.

He'd be laughed off the political stage in a week of tree logging license disclosures.

[07055]

My guess what's in his files - I think he performed abortions.

If this were true, he would get the Democratic nomination by acclamation.

[Semper Paratus]

Looks like we'll see the 'Dean Papers' about the same time as Clinton's medical records.

[TrueBeliever9]

People hide things when they fear! If he had nothing to fear his records would be open. Be suspicous of a governor who goes to these lengths for political advantage!

[Peach]

Agree BUT I think even the DNC is smart enough to realize that the country isn't ready to actually elect someone who performed abortions.

[jimbo123]

Not only was Dean an abortionist, he violated parental consent laws by killing the unborn children of underage girls. The democrats have chosen the Mad Abortionist as their nominee and they'll pay the price for years to come.

[Peach]

That's been my understanding too about Dean. He refused to answer Russert's questions years ago about parental consent and an underage girl.

[KC_Conspirator]

Dean was an abortionist?

[Vermonter]

Dean has admitted to performing at least one abortion, and if I remember the story correctly, he claims the girl was an abuse victim.

However, when pressed on the issue he did not admit to notifying authorities about the abuser.

The abortion issue is not one which will turn up in his locked files. That is from before he ever became governor I believe.

[Mo1]

I was just thinking the other day about Dean's past and how no one realy knows anything about him

And now this??

Hmmmmmmmmm .. makes one wonder what he is afraid of

[witnesstothefall]

This will become a classic case of the coverup outdoing the crime.

You don't get to hide your public record in America and get away with it. At least not yet.

[Travis McGee]

If Bush's poll numbers are low next summer, the 'rat ticket will wind up Clinton/Clark.

[Tacis]

The beauty of Dean's censorship is that it allows anyone to make any claim regarding Dean's position on any issue, leaving it to Dean to either move to oppose the claim or to acquiese. Thus, it is perfectly appropriate to claim that Dean performed many abortions, mostly on black women, and that the sealed records prove this.

The sealed records will also prove that several of his relatives were on the state payroll and made outrageous amounts in salaries and expenses without ever having been in a state office.

Dean, of course, is betting that the neocommunist press will not allow any of these claims to reach the ears of those whom Dean victimized while he was governor. Dean got a piece of every home and farm that was foreclosed on in Vermont (and still does). The subject is nicely covered in state documents, if only we could get to them.

[suzyq5558]

Dean is doing what clinton did,it's ok to keep a dim's record's sealed. clinton paved the way on that issue.
but heaven help the republican that dared to do so.

[Patriotic Bostonian]

I too believe he is an abortionist. Happy to find someone else who thinks as I do.

[dennisw]

Howard Dean and abortions. Has he done some?


http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/962773/posts

[Kaslin]

Dean has admitted to performing at least one abortion, and if I remember the story correctly, he claims the girl was an abuse victim.

He claimed the girl was impregnated by her own father