Howard Dean floated onto his balcony this afternoon, favored the adoring crowd below with a regal wave, turned his back, and disappeared into the billowing curtains.
Okay, not really. What he did was issue a lengthy, self-indulgent statement about his dalliance with running for governor that didn’t actually make a commitment either way. In other words, stay tuned!
Methinks he’s getting a kick out of having #vtpoli-land hanging on his every word for the first time since he ran for president nearly a generation ago.
All he said about running was that he would hold “a press event when and if I file.” Curiously, he then sent a text to VTDigger declining its interview request because he is “not doing interviews until I file.”
Until, eh? Not “Until or unless”? Freudian slip? Intentional foreshadowing? Misdirection for the sake of drama? Only Dean knows for sure.
In his statement, Dean walked a very careful line between our popular Republican governor and the dominant Democrats of the Legislature. He began by saying he is “deeply alarmed by the coming fiscal crisis in Vermont” and predicting “similar fiscal turmoil over the next few years.”
In what seems like a thinly veiled dig at Gov. Phil Scott, he asserted that “We must NOT finance today’s programs by borrowing from tomorrow’s Vermonters.” Scott recently suggested that we mitigate this year’s property tax increases by effectively putting some school costs on the state’s credit card.
(Some of us recall that it was under Dean that the state began to underfund its public sector pension plans, setting us up for the slow-burning pensions crisis we’re still dealing with. So yeah, no borrowing, no sirree.)
Otherwise, the digs were couched in nonpartisan language. Dean bemoaned “the atmosphere of anger and disrespect which permeates Montpelier” without assigning a hint of blame to any particular individual or party. Dean contrasted today’s toxicity with the Golden Age of his own governorship, when “I had my battles in Montpelier over money, but we always worked out our differences and the budgets were solid, thoughtful and mostly negotiated respectfully.”
Lawmakers who tussled with Dean — who until Scott came along, was far and away the record-holder for the most gubernatorial vetoes in Vermont history — may remember a tad less mutual respect.
He parceled out a measure of praise for both sides of that “atmosphere of disrespect,” extolling Scott’s handling of the Covid pandemic and saying that in “some ways, [this is] the best Legislature I have seen in Montpelier” since his salad days of working with Republican House Speaker Walter Freed to close a “huge potential budget gap.”
See, he’s the guy who can really work across the aisle, bring fiscal discipline to Montpelier, and — his only nod to a specific policy agenda — “make Health Care available for all.”
Note he said “available,” not necessarily “affordable” and certainly not “government run.” None of that socialism stuff here.
I have to say, it’s nice to hear a prominent politician talk about health care at all. It’s been a No Man’s Land of our politics since Peter Shumlin’s career went up in the flames of single-payer. But Dean did not talk about housing, homelessness, substance use, mental health, or workforce, and he did not offer anything remotely like specifics on addressing the cost of public education.
In other words, he’s got a long way to go before he can be considered a serious political force in the year 2024, not a nostalgia act making one last bid for the spotlight.
Finally, while the melodrama is appealing for junkies like me, he’d better not drag this out much longer. With every passing day, there’s less and less opportunity for the Democrats to recruit a credible candidate not named “Howard Dean.” Granted, that chance wasn’t looking great, but if anyone is thinking about it, they’re not going to make a move until the old movie star exits the scene.
Dean’s statement in full:
The Vermont Political Observer. 
Some of us recall that it was under Dean that the state began to underfund its public sector pension plans
Yes, with predictable results fifteen years later.
Not to mention it was during one of his administrations in the late ’90’s the initial discovery of PFOAs in Bennington wells was made, also swept under the rug for fifteen years.
Not to mention his shilling for the Mujahidin el Klik (along with a truly bipartisan kettle of vultures), well before State decided the group might be a useful stick to have in the bag and therefore no longer listed as a terrorist group, in 2012.
“I believe Vermont is in real danger of losing much we have fought for and much of what we have accomplished, in the atmosphere of anger and disrespect which permeates Montpelier,” (VTDigger story)
I’m sorry, exactly what “atmosphere of anger and disrespect” is being referred to? Anybody?
In the meantime – Howard – you’ve devolved … please don’t run.
Howard Dean (2024): I Have a Scream Speech:
… I’m sure there are some disappointed people here, disappointed in the current state of affairs in how the State of Vermont is currently being run. You know what? You know something? You know something? If you had told us two years ago that in 2024 we were going to run for Governor of Vermont again, we would have said, “hell, no!”.
And you know something? You know something?
Not only are we going to run for Governor of Vermont in 2024, we are going to win in Chittenden County … we’re going to win Washington County and Windham County and Windsor County and Rutland County and Bennington County, and we’re going to win in Caledonia County and Orleans County and Addison County. And we’re going to win in Lamoille County and Orange County and Franklin County and Essex County. And then we’re going to Montpelier to take back the Governor’s Office. Yeah!
We will not give up.
We will not give up Vermont. We will not give up in Montpelier. We will not give up across the entire state.
We will not quit now or ever. We’ll earn our state back for ordinary Vermonters.
And we’re going to win in each and every County of the State.
Let me — wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait.
…
(no, not really)
John – You said, “I have to say, it’s nice to hear a prominent politician talk about health care at all. It’s been a No Man’s Land of our politics since Peter Shumlin’s career went up in the flames of single-payer.”
While I don’t think of myself as a politician (our work is non-partisan) – and I’m certainly not “prominent”, I am a statewide elected official and my office has had a lot to say about health care. We will continue to do so as long as I occupy this office.
2014 – Health care price transparency (https://auditor.vermont.gov/sites/auditor/files/documents/Final%20VHCURES%20Report%206.25.2014.pdf)
2016 – Health care price transparency Part II (https://auditor.vermont.gov/sites/auditor/files/documents/Healthcare%20Transparency%20Investigative%20Report.pdf)
2019 – OneCare’s community-based initiatives (https://auditor.vermont.gov/sites/auditor/files/documents/OneCare%20Memo%20v.2.pdf)
2020 – The growing cost of health care (https://auditor.vermont.gov/sites/auditor/files/documents/HCE%20Report%20-%20revised%201-12-21.pdf)
2020 – Vermont’s All-Payer Accountable Care Organization Model (https://auditor.vermont.gov/sites/auditor/files/documents/ACO%20Model%20Final%20Report_0.pdf)
2020 – Health care affordability (https://auditor.vermont.gov/sites/auditor/files/documents/Health%20Care%20Affordability%20Memo%20Final.pdf)
2021 – ACO implementation costs (https://auditor.vermont.gov/sites/auditor/files/documents/ACO%20Implementation%20Costs%20with%20Letter%202.pdf)
2021 – The rising cost of State employee health care (https://auditor.vermont.gov/sites/auditor/files/documents/20211110%20%20State%20Employee%20Health%20Care%20Price%20Variation%20Report.pdf)
2023 – Incentive programs for nursing workforce (https://auditor.vermont.gov/sites/auditor/files/documents/AHS%20Memo_Nursing%20Incentive%20Programs%20final.pdf)
And we have an audit underway of The Blueprint.
“And we have an audit underway of The Blueprint.“
Great, Doug, and thanks much for the audit of the blueprint. I’ve been a healthcare activist for many long years now and never quite understood the blueprint, except as a way to dodge single-payer (like ACOs, HMOs, AHEAD, and all the rest of them) and feed more money to the healthcare robber barons in the process with obvious expectations in return.