Q. What's up with Trudeau running a big Howard Dean campaign the last few weeks. Is Trudeau in the tank?
-- M. Mahoney, Sacramento, CA


A. Damn near. Here's the skinny for full-disclosure buffs: GBT and Dr. Dean were childhood buddies and college classmates. During a wrestling tournament, the feeble Trudeau pinned the athletic Dean twice, an humiliation (attention, biographers) that has haunted Dean ever since. After graduating from college, the two pretty much lost track of one another until Dean became governor of Vermont and told a reporter that he'd developed his sense of humor hanging out with Trudeau. Trudeau wrote him to protest, because when the two had been tight as teenagers, GBT didn't actually have a sense of humor. This may explain why reporters don't think Dean has one, either. Actually he does, at least around Trudeau, so GBT gave him $2000 (maxing out early) on the promise of relief from daily Dean For America fundraising spam, a promise that his friend has yet to make good on. Dean has also refused to soften his position on gun control, drug reform, or any other issue of importance to GBT, so a lot of good it's done.