Did Howard Dean Just Speak the Truth?

Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, a medical doctor who served as governor of Vermont, said at a town hall meeting on Tuesday night that Democrats in Congress did not include tort reform in the health care bill because they were fearful of “taking on” the trial lawyers.

*Sorry, the video would not play correctly when embeded. But his quote was:

“This is the answer from a doctor and a politician. Here is why tort reform is not in the bill. When you go to pass a really enormous bill like that the more stuff you put in, the more enemies you make, right? And the reason why tort reform is not in the bill is because the people who wrote it did not want to take on the trial lawyers in addition to everybody else they were taking on, and that is the plain and simple truth. Now, that’s the truth.”

So is Dean speaking "truth to power?" Apparently so.

But, to be fair, as a commentor at HotAir noted,

"...the Republicans haven’t done much better in trying to force tort reform.
Oh sure, they put up a little minor “stink” once in awhile, but they don’t really push it, just enough to be able to say “I support tort reform”.
The dems are infinitely worse on this, but Republicans don’t have many successes.
Ironically the one success, in 2005, a few dems did hop on board. Leiberman, Schumar, etc."