THE STANDARD READER
The Standard Reader Books in Brief Howard Dean: A Citizen's Guide to the Man Who Would Be President edited by Dirk Van Susteren (Steerforth, 230 pp., $12.95). When the New York Daily News called...
...But there are some notable omissions, particularly on the subject of the civil-unions legislation Dean signed in 2000...
...At least in the latter chapters, readers hear from non-leftist critics...
...That will be news to those still working to reform those restrictive laws...
...Howard Dean: A Citizen's Guide is not a bad book...
...Howard quite frankly has been blessedly unencumbered by deeply held principles," says one of his gubernatorial opponents, a moderate Republican from Montpelier...
...Also missing is the tale of the gay minister who faked an arson attack on his own car in order to give the appearance of a hate crime...
...Thus, for example, journalist (and former Democratic legislator) Hamilton E. Davis writes that Dean's approach to several developmnnt projects "signaled to the environmental community the final hollowing-out" of the state's intrusive land-use law...
...Even the critical words in the Citizen's Guide could help Dean...
...When the New York Daily News called former Vermont governor Howard Dean a "motor mouth" for his comments on the Middle East this fall, Vermont's Rutland Herald didn't take Dean to task for his gaffe...
...He signed the civil-unions bill in private, and the book does, in fact, include speculation that he might have done so to avoid a photograph that could be used against him in the current campaign...
...Non omnia pos-sumus omnes...
...The most interesting chapters of the book deal with Dean's early life (where readers actually learn the name of the back problem that he says kept him out of the draft: spondylolisthesis) and with his campaigns...
...The Rutland Herald's editorials are often like that—apologizing for the mistakes of the left, especially those of favorite son Howard Dean, and sharply critical of the right...
...Bottum...
...Otherwise Ronald Reagan wouldn't have been elected...
...It could be because Dean speaks his mind, muses Margolis, and Americans are attracted to "a candidate who speaks his mind even if they disagree with what he is saying...
...Reporter Mark Bushnell tells of hate messages the governor received, but he leaves out how Dean threatened the tax status of churches when he was vilified in a crude anti-civil-unions ad...
...Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War by Newt Gingrich, with William Forstchen (Thomas Dunne, 384 pp., $24.95...
...Some of the harshest critiques come from the left—enhancing the middle-of-the-road image Dean is now trying to project...
...So it's no surprise that a book on Howard Dean by "reporters for Vermont's Rutland Herald & Times Argus" would be complimentary...
...Subtitled A Citizen's Guide to the Man Who Would Be President, the book runs from Dean's privileged childhood through his years in Vermont politics and his leap to the presidential primary stage...
...A pair of former politicians attempt to write historical romances...
...Quickly put together and offering no index, the Rutland Herald's book isn't long enough to be a compendium of Vermont politics while Dean was in charge...
...Libby Sternberg The Hornet's Nest: A Novel of the Revolutionary War by Jimmy Carter (Simon & Schuster, 480 pp., $27...
...Instead the newspaper opined that Dean's treatment at the hands of the Daily News was nothing compared with what he could expect from George Bush's operatives...
...Former Chicago Tribune and News-day writer Jon Margolis pens a chapter on why Dean is gaining so much attention...
...Margolis also refers to the "pro-Bush media and the deference of the mainstream press" making dissent "treasonous...
...It's more like a lovingly rendered portrait, where shadows and blemishes are added merely to add depth and contrast, but ultimately don't mar the final image...
...Vermont was aflame with discussion during the civil-unions debate, but Dean was hardly a Joan of Arc, leading the cause...
Vol. 9 • January 2004 • No. 17
