Those who know Dean says he's no classic liberal

Howard Dean may be many things, say those who worked with him over nearly a dozen years as Vermont governor, but an elitist liberal is hardly one of them.

He's actually a lot more moderate many would say conservative than the reputation he's built during his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Many of the people who were his allies and adversaries in Montpelier over his 20-year political career have been quietly bemused by the liberal persona he's built as he campaigns in Iowa and New Hampshire, especially through his outspoken opposition to the war in Iraq.

But when the leaders of the Democratic Leadership Council dismissed him last week as an elitist liberal in the mold of unsuccessful Democratic presidential nominees Sen. George McGovern in 1972 and Sen. Walter Mondale in 1984, some of Dean's Vermont colleagues decided they'd had enough.

''He seemed to take glee in attacking us at every opportunity and using us as a way to form alliances with more conservative elements,'' said former state Sen. Cheryl Rivers, a leader of the state Democrats' liberal wing and former chairwoman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee.

Dean fashioned himself a position in the political center of Vermont politics even as the state has moved steadily to the left.

''He's socially progressive on issues of human rights and all the social issues and he's fiscally very conservative. To me, that makes him a moderate,'' said former Sen. Nancy Chard, a member of the DLC who was chairwoman of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee during some of the years that Dean was pushing the Legislature to expand access to health care.