Howard and Judy Dean Discuss Anger Issue

Jan. 22, 2004 -- At a critical point in his presidential campaign, Howard Dean and his wife, Judy Steinberg Dean, spoke to ABCNEWS' Primetime's Diane Sawyer about the future of his campaign, their relationship, and his often-discussed anger.

Asked about the guttural shout he gave during his concession speech at the Iowa caucuses on Monday, Dean said: "I did it. I own it. Maybe it was over the top.

"I was trying to pump up 3,500 kids who gave me three weeks of their lives, and I'm not a perfect person," he said. "But, my attitude is, that's done. And, now we gotta get back to running for president.

It was the first time in Dean's long political career that his wife, Dr. Judy Steinberg Dean, spoke on television. Judy Dean said she only heard the now-infamous sound bite on Wednesday, and had not heard much of the reaction to it. But she said she understood what happened.

"I think he had already told me where he was, and what he was doing," Judy Dean said. "I heard him say he had a lot of kids working for him, who had worked really, really hard for him, and the outcome wasn't what they had hoped for, and he wanted to pump them up. I mean, maybe he did a little too much, but that's what he wanted to do."

The Angry Candidate?

Sawyer asked the couple about the common perception that Howard Dean is the candidate most driven by anger.

"We've been married 23 years, and he is very easy to get along with," Judy Dean said. "I can't remember the last time [he lost his temper]."

The former Vermont governor said the image of him as an angry candidate began last March because of the passion of his campaign. Recently a story has been circulating about how the police were called at a hockey game his son attended in the mid-1990s, but Dean said "a lot of this stuff is urban legend."

There was "no fighting," Dean said. "It was nothing of that sort."

He said his record in public service should attest to his even temperament. "Have I ever blown up? Yes. Did I blow up once at a staff member in 12 years? Not ever."

However, he conceded that his speech on Monday was not presidential. "Not for a moment," he said.

As a counterpoint, he said: "Last time I went to a hockey game, my son got an assist on the first goal, I went 'yahoo,' and jumped up in the air. That's presidential? Probably not.So, I'm a dad, I'm a human being, I'm going to keep being a dad and a human being.

"I am who I am," said Dean. "And, I am going to be who I am? I'm the outside-the-Beltway guy. I don't play by the same rules [as] the people inside the Beltway. I put my heart on my sleeve. I let people know who I am."

A ‘Stand by Your Man’ Moment?

In light of Dean's disappointing third-place showing at the Iowa caucuses, and his much-talked about yell, there have been concerns that he is trying to stage a comeback with a public relations event — a "stand by your man" interview such as the one Bill and Hillary Clinton gave when Clinton faced allegations of infidelity.

Dean has also previously said that he would not drag out his wife to use as a prop in his campaign. However, the candidate said, "I do think people do have to understand Judy, because understanding Judy has something to do with understanding me."

Judy Dean said she has given interviews before — but they have never been on television, and they were mostly conducted from Burlington, Vt., where the couple live.

"I am kind of private, and I have a son in Burlington I like to stay with, and I have a medical practice which I love," she said. "It's really important for me, and Howard knows it's important to me. But, I also love Howard, and I think he would make a terrific president.

"If I can help him, I will. And that doesn't mean he's going to disrupt my life, disrupt my patients, my son, but if he calls on a Saturday, and I'm not on call that weekend, I'll be out there Sunday," she said.

Dean said he thinks it would be easier for him politically if his wife was out on the campaign trail with him, but he doesn't wish she was.

"One of the things we share is the family always comes first, and to have her out on the trail, and have our son at home by himself is just unthinkable," the candidate said. "Never mind the issue of career. I think she has the right to have her own career. She didn't sign on to this."

Dean says his wife's career is a big part of who she is. "Judy's a doctor, and she's a good doctor, and she loves medicine, and I'm not going to try to convince her for a moment that she has to give that up," he said.

"I have women, my age, coming up to me in the campaign trail saying, 'Thank God your wife is like that,' " said Dean. "We just got a bunch of letters at home saying, 'Thank God. Hallelujah. A woman who has her own career and doesn't get dragged around.' "

Talking Policy

Sawyer asked the couple what happened in Iowa. Dean had been the leading candidate entering the caucuses, especially among the newest and youngest voters. But political pundits have been declaiming the failure of the "Dean Machine."

"There was no juggernaut. The juggernaut was the creation of the media and expectations," he said. "I'm not a rock star and you know, some people [think] I am."

However, Dean said young people in the United States are desperate for change and that he was energized by them. One of their major priorities, he said — and one of his priorities as well — is the economy.

"My idea is to get rid of all the Bush tax cuts, then redo the tax code after you balance the budget and get real," he said. "Until we can show how to balance the budget, we can't promise people tax cuts."

Dean said he did well as governor of Vermont because he didn't mind giving people bad news. "They'll respect you a lot more as a political leader if you give them bad news straight to their face," he said.

As for the issue that first brought him attention as a candidate — his opposition to the recent Iraq war — Dean declined to say if the current outcome is better than if Saddam Hussein were still in power today.

"We don't know the answer to that yet," Dean said. "We had contained Saddam Hussein for 12 years, he had virtually no air force … we had total control of Saddam's ability to cause trouble."

President Bush has spent billions of dollars, commercial airliners are still being escorted by fighter jets and more than 500 U.S. soldiers have died, he said. "Saddam was never an intimate threat to the United States of America and that's been very clear … and to this day, I don't think we're any safer with Saddam gone."

Inside the Relationship

Sawyer asked the couple for more details about their relationship: Dean is Christian, and his wife is Jewish, but they say this has never caused any tension. They celebrate the Jewish holidays with her family and Christian holidays with his family.

"And we try to involve the children with both faiths and have them make their own decisions about what they want to do," Judy Dean said. The Deans have two children, Anne, a student at Yale University, and Paul, who is in high school.

"Even my grandmother loves Howard," she added with a laugh. In return, Dean quipped, "I think she would've been happier if I was Jewish."

But Dean says their religious differences were never much of an issue with his family. His parents had a rough time because his father was Protestant and his mother was Catholic, he said. When it came to him, he said, "They were never going to make an issue of that and they never did."