There’s A Little Bit Of Dean in Me by Paul Vitello, Newsday.com

Dean has spoken for me. Whether I ever get to vote for him or not, Dean has captured the real frustration in me, and I suspect millions of people, as citizens of a country gone nuts. …

Dean is the only one who ever voiced the level of anger and alienation I’ve felt since the launch of the war in Iraq. [mjh: many would say ‘since the 2000 election.’] …

The angry Citizen Dean was right on all counts:

President George W. Bush launched the war on Iraq without evidence that Iraq played any role in 9/11 or in any other terrorist attacks against the United States.

Bush’s government virtually suppressed intelligence from within its own agencies warning us that there was no hard evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Bush insisted on this massive expenditure on this unnecessary war while the economy was in the tank.

Bush thumbed his nose at the United Nations and our European allies when our own intelligence community – and probably our own State Department – knew that their doubts about the war were justified.

Bush insisted on a second massive tax cut in two years, primarily for the wealthy, in the midst of this vastly expensive and needless war.

The capture of Saddam Hussein did not make the world safer from terrorism.

This is just the bill of particulars in foreign affairs. Dean has made a strong case against the Bush government’s domestic policies, too. But the point is, he did it first and he did it resoundingly. He said the war was wrong, and he never added a “but … “