Dean Reiterates In Washington Post Op-Ed: Kill The Bill

Howard Dean has a clear, unified message about the health reform legislation currently under consideration in the U.S. Senate: kill the bill.

After telling as much to Vermont Public Radio on Tuesday, and then in greater detail to ABC's George Stephanopoulos in a TV interview Wednesday morning, Dean has now penned an op-ed for The Washington Post asserting that the health care bill needs major improvement to be worth passing.

Dean's Washington Post op-ed will run Thursday morning. It begins: "If I were a senator, I would not vote for the current health-care bill."

Dean goes on, near the end of the op-ed, to reiterate a point he made to Stephanopoulos: "In Washington, when major bills near final passage, an inside-the-Beltway mentality takes hold. Any bill becomes a victory. Clear thinking is thrown out the window for political calculus. In the heat of battle, decisions are being made that set an irreversible course for how future health reform is done. The result is legislation that has been crafted to get votes, not to reform health care."