DURING A LUNCH LAST WEEK with reporters and editors of the New York Times, Howard Dean was asked how he would vote, were he a member of Congress, on the proposal to spend $87 billion to cover troop deployment and reconstruction costs in Iraq. Dean, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, refused by saying, “I’m not running for Congress; I’m running for president.” By that logic, Dean needn’t answer any question on which a member of Congress might vote. But does the candidate really believe his logic? During the Times interview, Dean also urged the repeal of recent tax cuts to pay for the reconstruction on which he wouldn’t opine. Obviously, there could be no such repeal unless Congress approved it, and Dean surely wouldn’t want to be understood as saying he has no view on whether a member should vote for or against a course of action he unequivocally has endorsed.