Some companies may need re-regulation...

...some may just need a little adult supervision. Howard Dean's record doesn't provide much encouragement regarding his supervision skills, though.

A Boston Globe story reports that "As governor of Vermont, Howard Dean presided over the creation of a program that authorized $80.1 million in corporate tax credits without verifying that many of the companies had made good on promises to bring new jobs and investments to Vermont..."

The result? "...the credits had probably cost the state more money than they had brought in and had contributed to a 44 percent decline in corporate tax receipts, from $57 million to $32 million, between fiscal years 1999 and 2002."

This isn't something that just slipped by without Dean noticing. That would be bad enough. Rather, an independent audit found that "Dean urged the council members evaluating bids for the tax credits to relax their inquiry into whether companies would have gone ahead with expansion and investment in Vermont "but for" the offer of tax credits, a legislatively mandated cost-benefit analysis."

As the audit report explained, "If an applicant's `but for' is weak, it means there is reason to believe the company would create jobs without the tax credits. If so, any credits awarded represent a potential waste of taxpayer money."

That's right. The reknowned budget hawk, while offering draconian cuts in social programs and scolding TANF recipients, was helping corporations pull $25 million out of the state coffers without securing proof that the state would gain commensurate benefits.

Add that to his enthusiastic promotion of the 'captive insurance' scheme and explain why Democrats should have any faith at all that this populist-come-lately will behave any differently in the White House.