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Dean's tax turnabout

"After months of touting his plan to repeal all of President Bush's tax cuts, former Vermont governor Howard Dean is moving toward embracing a tax-relief package for middle-income Americans, which would amount to a major revamping of a centerpiece of his Democratic presidential campaign," the Boston Globe reports.

"Dean's action comes after his team of economic advisers privately gave him a 'unanimous' recommendation to back a middle-income tax cut to offset the increases that would come with repealing Bush's plan, a top campaign official said.

"The economic team has been especially concerned that Dean's proposed repeal of the Bush cuts has enabled critics to accuse him of supporting what amounts to a $2,000 tax increase on families earning between $73,000 and $145,000," Globe reporter Michael Kranish writes.

"[Tuesday], Dean signaled that he is heeding his team's advice to provide some form of middle-class tax relief, saying during an Iowa debate, 'Ultimately, we will have a program of tax fairness for middle-class people.'

"A top Dean official said [Tuesday] that the campaign has made a 'strategic' decision for Dean to refrain during the primaries from revealing details of a proposal to trim middle-class taxes, preferring to announce it during the general election."

Mass. backlash

Sixty-nine percent of likely voters in Massachusetts would like to vote on a constitutional amendment to block homosexual "marriage," according to a Zogby International poll done for the Coalition for Marriage.