Is Peter Freyne a reliable source?

[Feanorcurufinwe]

I have sometimes quoted Peter Freyne, a Vermont political writer. I first saw his name in a Counterpoint article entitled: Howard Dean: the Progressive Anti-War Candidate? Some Vermonters Give Their Views:

Reporter Peter Freyne, now one of Dean's great supporters, asked his readers at the time to "Remember the guy who once said 95 percent of people charged with crimes are guilty anyway so why should the state spend money on providing them with lawyers?"
http://www.counterpunch.org/jacobs08292003.html

I don't know why they label Freyne as "now one of Dean's great supporters" or if that's true. In the course of researching another quote attributed to Dean that sounded remarkably similar to this one, I searched out Mr. Freyne's email address and asked him about both quotes. Before he answered, he quized me about who I was and why I was researching Dean. Apparently satisfied with my answer, he confirmed the above quote, saying it was from a news conference early in Dean's administration, but said he didn't recall the other.

Another passage from Freyne that I sometimes reference is from an interview with George Washington University's Democracy in Action website:

(When Dean became governor) they (liberal Democrats) were all thinking, oh we got a Democrat back in the governor's office. And all of the sudden they find Howard Dean's worse on spending (than Snelling). The state was headed into a recession at the time. And Snelling before he died, he and Ralph Wright cut a deal on raising the income taxes and (inaud.) the deficit--a few years of austerity. Howard stuck with the plan. And as Dick McCormack (Democratic Senator from Windsor) will tell you of the meeting where he (Dean) met with the Democratic Caucus and told them then, and this might have been before, when he was still lieutenant governor, and told the Democratic Senators, you're never going to win because people don't trust you with their money. None of your great and lofty goals and plans and aspirations will ever be achieved because people don't trust Democrats with their money. We got to prove it to 'em. And that was key. I mean his political enemies for the first three terms were Democrats at the State House, not Republicans. Republicans loved his budgets.
http://www.gwu.edu/~action/2004/dean/dean0702/freyneint.html

Whenever I post these, there is an inevitable response from some Dean supporters that Freyne is a 'hack', who's 'making things up', or words to that effect. But if you read the entire GWU interview, it's actually quite complimentary to Dean, although from a strictly non-partisan viewpoint.

I don't know anything about Peter Freyne other than the background paragraph on the GWU site, and the email interaction I've described here.

So, your biased opinion, please:

Is Peter Freyne a reliable source?

[Feanorcurufinwe]

1. Kick cuz I want to know what you think

not an overwhelming response so far...