Legislator: Dean Is New England's Gray Davis

Never mind Howard Dean's wild-eyed statements charging President Bush with complicity in the 9/11 attacks, his pandering to fans of the Confederate flag and his nutty claim that America is no safer now that Saddam Hussein has been captured.

Vermont Republicans say Dean's record governing their state should be enough to disqualify him from ever winning the White House, with one ex-state legislator calling him "the Gray Davis of the East."

According to the Dwinnell Political Report, which kept tabs on Dean's record until he left office earlier this year, the Democratic presidential front-runner left his state with:

• Skyrocketing electricity rates, exploding health insurance costs and nearly the highest workman's compensation rates in the nation.

• A falling per capita income, with the state's nationwide ranking slipping from the mid-20s to the mid-30s on Dean's watch.

• Net job losses in 2002 for the first time in a decade.

A former state legislator tells NewsMax that during Dean's last six years in office, Vermont lost nearly 20 percent of its manufacturing jobs.

Meanwhile, the Green Mountain state now has the sixth-highest welfare spending per capita in the nation.

Vermont also ranks sixth in per capita education spending, but has only average graduation rates and below-average SAT scores.

Said the ex-legislator, "They don't call Howard Dean 'The Gray Davis of the East' for nothing."

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2004 Elections