Free Republic

Christians in Vermont aren't surprised Howard Dean wields the word "Christian" as a curse not a compliment. They have long chuckled over the mainstream media's lazy acceptance of Dean's self-description as a moderate willing to make overtures to the religious. That's not the Howard Dean they recall. On a Vermont radio talk show, Dean once referred to pro-lifers in the state as common criminals whom he didn't care to meet, and would demonize conservative Christians as "haters" while choking on his own hate. Dean, who oversaw abortions as an executive board member for Planned Parenthood New England, had no use...

Howard Dean won the chairmanship of the national Democratic Party over the weekend and quickly began looking for a home in Washington. "This is really goodbye to Vermont, for now. There's lots of work to do," Dean told supporters. Eyebrows were raised after it was revealed that Dean's wife, Judy, will not be joining her husband in his move. "She has a career as a doctor, her patients require her attention," said one Dean friend. The Deans will join the growing ranks of "commuter marriages," with both partners living in different locations. Developing...

Diane Sawyer's interview with Howard Dean and his wife last week was a textbook case of everything that is wrong with television coverage of politics. It reduced his campaign to the banal level of mere personality and perceived missteps, replacing issues with image — it was a frame-up. Out of the 96 questions that Sawyer asked, 90 were about personality and temperament and only six were even vaguely about issues; virtually all 96 were hostile and negative. Thirty-six were about Dean's supposedly out-of-control Iowa concession speech, his alleged bad temper and the loss of momentum of his campaign. ("So did...

Wife of Presidential Candidate Values her Privacy The Associated Press February 15, 2003 By Christopher Graff As Howard Dean crisscrosses the country in his frenetic pursuit of the presidency, his wife Judy tends to patients in her medical practice. They speak nightly, discussing their children, her patients and the weather, but not politics. That's the way it's been for the Deans: He pursues his politics and she practices her medicine. In the nearly dozen years Howard Dean served as governor of Vermont, Judy Dean was all but invisible. No speeches. No interviews. No campaigning. No public appearances. This unconventional arrangement...

If you did not recognize this woman, you would not a alone. She is Howard Dean's wife Judy, and she is "coming out" into the primary season, accompanied by puff-pieces like the one below from AP: Judy Dean, wife of Democratic presidential hopeful and former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, sits in her medical office in Shelburne, Vt., Feb. 6, 2003, where she is an internist in private practice. If her husband wins the presidency, America's next first lady could be a doctor tending to her patients while her husband tends the country. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot, file) Howard Dean's wife is...