THE "D" WORD.(Michael Dukakis)

Howard Dean, the putative Democratic front-runner, may be gathering strength around the country, but in Washington, D.C., political professionals have tended to see him as a sure loser, a reincarnation of the Democrats' disastrous 1988 nominee, Michael Dukakis. Many commentators have suggested that Dean bears the markings of a Dukakis liberal. Certainly, Republicans would like to think so. One Republican operative has even coined a political verb, promising to "Dukakis-ize" the Democratic candidate, whoever it turns out to be.

One Democrat who has not found these comparisons particularly amusing is the former standard-bearer himself, the original Michael Dukakis. Reached by phone at home, in Brookline, Massachusetts, on a recent Sunday afternoon, Dukakis, the former governor of Massachusetts, who now teaches political science at Northeastern, took a moment to clarify the record. It would appear that Howard Dean should not be called a Dukakis liberal, for one simple reason: Dean was among those who declined to endorse Dukakis's Presidential bid when it mattered most, back in the early spring of 1988, and the reason, Dukakis said, was that Dean, who was then lieutenant governor of Vermont, "thought I was too liberal for him."

"Hell no, it doesn't bother me," Dukakis said, with a touch of forced jollity, when he was asked about the irony of this. "But no one then thought of Howard Dean as a liberal. He was a moderate Democrat. I'm a progressive Democrat." Although Dukakis said that he has got over the slight, he still sounded a bit prickly when it came to judging Dean's record. "He was a pretty good governor," Dukakis said. At the time, he added, Dean's endorsement wouldn't have made much difference; the governor of Vermont, ...