Dean aligns with Bush on death penalty By TRACY SCHMALER Vermont Press Bureau
Former Gov. Howard Dean appears to be shedding some of the liberal tendencies that have won him national attention as he now expands his support for the death penalty.
In his 11 years as Vermont's governor, his position on capital punishment "evolved" from staunch opposition to limited support, Dean acknowledges.
Now, on the stump for the Democratic nomination for president, Dean has extended his endorsement of a death sentence for those who kill children or police officers to include those who commit terrorist acts.
"As governor, I came to believe that the death penalty would be a just punishment for certain, especially heinous crimes, such as the murder of a child or the murder of a police officer. The events of September 11 convinced me that terrorists also deserve the ultimate punishment," Dean said in a statement released by his campaign last week.
Dean, who was unavailable for an interview, did not define a terrorist act in his statement. He elaborated only to say the punishment would be sought in "very serious cases" and he would do his best to avoid any "unjust imposition of the death penalty."
"If elected president, I would apply the federal death penalty with great care. I would instruct my attorney general to seek capital punishment only in very serious cases, including those involving vulnerable victims and those involving terrorism."
A political decision?
It is a curious contradiction for Dean, who has emerged in the field of nine Democratic contenders as the liberal maverick. The leftist designation has amused political observers in Vermont, who have known Dean as a solidly moderate Democrat for years.
But as a presidential candidate, Dean has planted himself on the left and gotten a great deal of attention for it, particularly his early, outspoken criticism of President Bush and the Iraq war.
His shift on the death penalty - his second in his political career - has some questioning his motives.
"This doesn't surprise me. I think Dean's willing to do what he has to do to win," said Frank Bryan, a political science professor at the University of Vermont and longtime observer of Dean. "I really believe he's very ambitious and he wants to win badly. He has to get to the final plateau, and I think he will take risks with his inconsistencies being discovered in order to get to the next step."
Dean's support of the death penalty for terrorists puts him in agreement with President Bush. Attorney General John Ashcroft told lawmakers last week that the Justice Department is working on an addendum to the USA PATRIOT Act that includes imposing the death penalty for some terrorist activities.
Dean needs "to get back to the middle. That's where he lives," said Garrison Nelson, a political science professor at the University of Vermont. "And he's going to have real trouble getting back there because A, it's clogged and B, any feeling of a lack of agenda commitment is going to undermine him with the ideologues. These are issue voters, these are people who work like crazy, but they are fundamentally suspicious and critical. If he starts to burn them on issues, they'll be ferocious."
Eric Davis, a Middlebury College political science professor, summed up Dean's change in two words: South Carolina.
It is home to the first primary election in the South and, like most of its neighbors, a conservative state.
"I think what's going on here is Dean is trying to appeal to electorates in more conservative states, probably South Carolina being the most obvious example," Davis said. "I think this is an example where in many states the opinion on this is more supportive. Perhaps Dean feels he needs to appeal to a more law-and-order constituency."
A change
The first time Dean softened on the death penalty was in 1997. He had been governor for six years, and the political speculation was that he was eyeing a bid for the presidency in 2000.
In interviews with reporters at the time, Dean said he realized some crimes warranted death as the ultimate punishment.
"I really just became so convinced that some acts are so incredibly depraved that the death penalty is an appropriate redress," he had said in reports published in the Rutland Herald and Times Argus. "When someone gets put to death for a heinous crime, I don't feel the least bit conflicted about that."
That position was starkly different from the one Dean projected to a group of students at Springfield High School five years earlier.
In the infancy of his governorship, Dean was an outspoken opponent of the death penalty.
"I don't support the death penalty for two reasons. One, you might have the wrong guy, and two, the state is like a parent. Parents who smoke cigarettes can't really tell their children not to smoke and be taken seriously. If a state tells you not to murder people, a state shouldn't be in the business of taking people's lives," he said in 1992.
But Dean did not act in 1997, or later when the issue resurfaced, to get any legislation passed in Vermont, where the death penalty was abolished in 1965. His lack of action prompted some to charge that his softening was politically motivated.
He dismissed those claims, saying the chances of getting a death penalty bill passed in Vermont were slim.
"If I thought the death penalty was going to stop the next depraved murder that might occur in Vermont, I would ask the Legislature to enact it. Š I truly don't believe it's a deterrent," he said in 1997 after the father of a girl who was murdered in 1986 publicly charged Dean with changing his stance for political reasons.
In defending his switch, Dean attributed some of the impetus to a weak judicial system that allowed murderers to go free, and in some cases kill again.
"Until life without parole means life without parole, the public is not safe without a death penalty," Dean said in 1997. "Until we have a judicial system that can adequately protect us, the only thing that will is the death penalty."
Ron Weich, Dean's senior policy adviser, said Dean is now broaching the issue from a different perspective.
"What's happening is he was governor at the time. He necessarily has to broaden his view now," Weich said. "A governor is looking at ordinary, street-level homicide. A president has to look at national security."
Weich acknowledged that Dean and Bush may stand on common political ground on this issue, but said a Dean administration would employ the federal death penalty in a much different way.
"It's true he and President Bush share the view that the death penalty should be available in some cases of terrorism," he said. "But (Dean) would not apply the death penalty in the kind of wanton and reckless manner Attorney General Ashcroft has used."