Where do people get the idea Howard Dean's a liberal?

The WSJ reserves judgement on Dean.

Who's the pied piper of this lefty brigade? Howard Dean, a physician, son of a Wall Street executive, whose chief passion is fiscal moderation; as governor of Vermont, the Washington Post chronicled last weekend, he was "a careful, even cautious steward."

No, what the Dean complaints really are about is a battle more intrinsic to presidential politics than ideological struggles: outsiders versus insiders, insurrectionists versus the establishment.

This also explains his appeal, ventures Hamilton Jordan, who brilliantly ran the successful Jimmy Carter insurgency in 1976. "When these other guys gang up on Dean and say, 'He's not one of us,' it's not hurting him. When you give voters a chance to vote against the political establishment it's very attractive."

Like any outsider, Howard Dean should expect more than the usual share of scrutiny and attacks. And it'll start soon.