Actually Dukakis was a fiscal conservative on a personal basis. That is, he threw his own nickels around like they were manhole covers. But he felt obliged to spend taxpayer money like a drunken sailor. That's the way most Massachusetts liberals are. They love to spend money, just so long it is other people's money. Joe Kennedy Sr. taught his sons to walk around with no money at all so that others could keep picking up the tab. It's the way they were raised to think.
Yes, I remember famously over-publicized snowblower.
Along the same lines, it's my experience that most liberals are not pleasant people. Seems to come from the notion that because they believe in feeding the poor, saving world, etc., it's OK for them to behave like total jerks personally. (There are exemptions: a know a couple.)