Jim Richardson pens an op-ed in at the Duluth News Tribune explaining Dean's appeal across a range of the political spectrum. He makes a good case for why reasonable (not right-wing radical theocratic) Republicans should take a close look at Dean.

Republicans. To many fiscal conservatives, Bush has been an embarrassment. My Republican friend (who went to business school at Yale) likes the tax cuts, but still thinks Bush is a disaster, because tax cuts are not economically stimulating. My friend says that with his share of the cut, he is going to put none of it back into the economy, because he is rich already, and already spends his discretionary income on whatever he wants. That, plus the fact that Bush does anti-free trade stuff such as propping up the steel industry -- contrary to good Republican sense.

Even though he voted for Bush last time, my Republican friend is voting against Bush this time. He even sent the Dean campaign some money. There is even a "Republicans for Dean" group, because Dean did an amazing job of balancing the budget as Vermont governor. Republicans want fiscal sanity --- and have nostalgia for the Bill of Rights -- and they are turning to Howard Dean.