DEAN'S WASHINGTON SUPPORTERS FACE RETRIBUTION.

This is on The New Republic, which I don't have a subscription to and don't want one. The owner is now a max contributor to Bush. Until recently, this was the liberal, heavily Jewish, political policy weekly. The blurb says "The Democratic establishment has quietly begun punishing the Dean-backers in its midst."

I have a friend Janette, who is a long-time active and involved Democrat. She now refuses to contribute to the national Democratic Party. Why? Because of the war many elements of the Democratic establishment are waging on Dean.

The Washington Democratic insiders were gutless in 2000. Shocked when Dr. Howard Dean showed them that their party was demanding backbone they got scared. They joined forces with GOP financiers to run TV, radio, mail and phone attacks on Dean.

Why the war on Dean? Primarily because Dean was popular and raised money without going through them. If Dean won they would have lost influence and power - he didn't use or need them. There is one other reason - while Dean was a fiscally conservative candidate he was becoming anti-large corporation. They have too much power to the detriment of people. The current national Democratic establishment gets most of its money from the large corporations. Not as much as the GOP does but when they have billions to give out getting 25% to 35% of it is something, particularly if they are the ones who can say they got it.

Dean also has two other strikes against him. He is honest and he is right. The current weak Democratic political bosses can't have that.