M
miles
Guest
Dean was made to look like a fool. Then to make matters worse, he acted like an arrogant prick when someone in the audience told him what he thought.
Buh-bye Dr. Dean.
DES MOINES, Iowa -- Democratic presidential front-runner Howard Dean acknowledged Sunday night that he never named an African American or Hispanic to his cabinet as governor of Vermont.
Dean's grudging acknowledgment in a debate on minority issues came in response to questions from the Rev. Al Sharpton of New York, who challenged the former governor's credibility on racial matters.
"It seems as though you discovered blacks and browns during this campaign," Sharpton said in one of the most contentious moments of the two-hour Brown and Black Forum, the last debate before next week's Iowa presidential caucus.
"If you want to lecture people on race, you want to have the background and track record in order to do that," added Sharpton, one of the two African Americans seeking the Democratic Party's 2004 presidential nomination.
To deflect Sharpton, Dean said what he often says: "If the percentage of African-Americans in your state was any indication of what your views on race were, then Trent Lott would be Martin Luther King." Lott is a Republican senator from Mississippi.
Vermont is 96.2 percent white, 0.5 percent black, 0.9 percent Hispanic and 0.8 percent Asian.
Despite having appointed no ethnic minorities to his cabinet during his 12 years as governor of Vermont, Dean said, "I will take a back seat to no one in my commitment to civil rights in the United States of America."
When Dean boasted that he has more endorsements from African American and Hispanic members of Congress than any other presidential candidate, Sharpton quipped, "You only need co-signers if your credit is bad."
Former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, the other African American in the Democratic presidential field, lashed out at Sharpton, challenging him to explain how he would bring Americans together on racial matters. "This country cannot afford a racial screaming match," she said.
But Braun also challenged claims by Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri that he had promoted proposals for equity capital targeted to minorities during his lengthy career in Congress. "To hear you tonight talk about that is a little shocking to me," she said.
Gephardt blamed Republican majorities in the House with blocking Democratic initiatives to help minorities, but noted that congressional Democrats had saved affirmative action from being scrapped. He also promised that as president he would raise the percentage of federal contracts set aside for minorities from 5 percent to 10 percent.
Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts insisted that all the Democrats seeking the presidency occupy the "moral high ground" on racial matters. But he argued that "the problem is not just one of black and brown " but rather of "poor people (and) one of power" against "the powerful interests" aligned with President Bush and the Republican Party.
Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina made a similar point, arguing that "we still live in two Americas" divided as much by inequalities in health, education and economic opportunities as by race.
And referring to the controversy over the Confederate flag, Edwards said, "The Confederate flag is not just a symbol of hatred, a divisive symbol, to African Americans. It's exactly the same thing -- it should be the same thing -- to all Americans."
All the candidates generally agreed with allowing immigrants to earn American citizenship, but Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut said the president's immigration reform proposal last week was "an election-year conversion" aimed at helping him get re-elected by cutting into Democratic support among Hispanics.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio took the criticism of the president's proposal to let foreign workers enter the country temporarily for previously arranged jobs a step further, saying it amounted to "indentured servitude" aimed more at helping American corporations than immigrants.
When all the candidates were asked to raise their hands if they had ever hired an illegal immigrant, none did.
The forum, created 20 years ago to highlight minority issues early in the nominating process, was the last debate before the Jan. 19 Iowa caucus, the first major event in the race for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. The caucuses coincide with the federal holiday honoring slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
The two-hour forum was broadcast nationally by MSNBC and statewide by Iowa Public Television and hosted by MSNBC's Lester Holt and Maria Celeste Arraras of the Spanish-language network Telemundo.
Retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark was the only Democratic presidential candidate absent from the forum. Clark has concentrated his efforts in New Hampshire, which hosts the first-in-the-nation primary Jan. 27, and South Carolina, which holds the first-in-the-South primary Feb. 3.
Ironically, the forum is held in Iowa, 92.6 percent of whose 2.9 million people are white, 2.8 percent of Hispanic origin, 2.1 percent black and 1.2 percent Asian.
It capped a weekend of intense campaigning in Iowa by most of the major candidates, including an incident in which Dean displayed his much-discussed temper in a town hall gathering earlier Sunday.
It involved Dean and Dale Ungerer, a 66-year-old retiree from Hawkeye, Iowa, who urged Dean and the other Democratic candidates to stop "tearing down your neighbor" and their "slam, bam and bash Bush" rhetoric.
"George Bush is not my neighbor," Dean began in response. But when Ungerer stood and tried to interrupt, Dean shouted: "You sit down. You had your say. Now I'm going to have my say."
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/0104/12debate.html
Buh-bye Dr. Dean.
DES MOINES, Iowa -- Democratic presidential front-runner Howard Dean acknowledged Sunday night that he never named an African American or Hispanic to his cabinet as governor of Vermont.
Dean's grudging acknowledgment in a debate on minority issues came in response to questions from the Rev. Al Sharpton of New York, who challenged the former governor's credibility on racial matters.
"It seems as though you discovered blacks and browns during this campaign," Sharpton said in one of the most contentious moments of the two-hour Brown and Black Forum, the last debate before next week's Iowa presidential caucus.
"If you want to lecture people on race, you want to have the background and track record in order to do that," added Sharpton, one of the two African Americans seeking the Democratic Party's 2004 presidential nomination.
To deflect Sharpton, Dean said what he often says: "If the percentage of African-Americans in your state was any indication of what your views on race were, then Trent Lott would be Martin Luther King." Lott is a Republican senator from Mississippi.
Vermont is 96.2 percent white, 0.5 percent black, 0.9 percent Hispanic and 0.8 percent Asian.
Despite having appointed no ethnic minorities to his cabinet during his 12 years as governor of Vermont, Dean said, "I will take a back seat to no one in my commitment to civil rights in the United States of America."
When Dean boasted that he has more endorsements from African American and Hispanic members of Congress than any other presidential candidate, Sharpton quipped, "You only need co-signers if your credit is bad."
Former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, the other African American in the Democratic presidential field, lashed out at Sharpton, challenging him to explain how he would bring Americans together on racial matters. "This country cannot afford a racial screaming match," she said.
But Braun also challenged claims by Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri that he had promoted proposals for equity capital targeted to minorities during his lengthy career in Congress. "To hear you tonight talk about that is a little shocking to me," she said.
Gephardt blamed Republican majorities in the House with blocking Democratic initiatives to help minorities, but noted that congressional Democrats had saved affirmative action from being scrapped. He also promised that as president he would raise the percentage of federal contracts set aside for minorities from 5 percent to 10 percent.
Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts insisted that all the Democrats seeking the presidency occupy the "moral high ground" on racial matters. But he argued that "the problem is not just one of black and brown " but rather of "poor people (and) one of power" against "the powerful interests" aligned with President Bush and the Republican Party.
Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina made a similar point, arguing that "we still live in two Americas" divided as much by inequalities in health, education and economic opportunities as by race.
And referring to the controversy over the Confederate flag, Edwards said, "The Confederate flag is not just a symbol of hatred, a divisive symbol, to African Americans. It's exactly the same thing -- it should be the same thing -- to all Americans."
All the candidates generally agreed with allowing immigrants to earn American citizenship, but Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut said the president's immigration reform proposal last week was "an election-year conversion" aimed at helping him get re-elected by cutting into Democratic support among Hispanics.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio took the criticism of the president's proposal to let foreign workers enter the country temporarily for previously arranged jobs a step further, saying it amounted to "indentured servitude" aimed more at helping American corporations than immigrants.
When all the candidates were asked to raise their hands if they had ever hired an illegal immigrant, none did.
The forum, created 20 years ago to highlight minority issues early in the nominating process, was the last debate before the Jan. 19 Iowa caucus, the first major event in the race for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. The caucuses coincide with the federal holiday honoring slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
The two-hour forum was broadcast nationally by MSNBC and statewide by Iowa Public Television and hosted by MSNBC's Lester Holt and Maria Celeste Arraras of the Spanish-language network Telemundo.
Retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark was the only Democratic presidential candidate absent from the forum. Clark has concentrated his efforts in New Hampshire, which hosts the first-in-the-nation primary Jan. 27, and South Carolina, which holds the first-in-the-South primary Feb. 3.
Ironically, the forum is held in Iowa, 92.6 percent of whose 2.9 million people are white, 2.8 percent of Hispanic origin, 2.1 percent black and 1.2 percent Asian.
It capped a weekend of intense campaigning in Iowa by most of the major candidates, including an incident in which Dean displayed his much-discussed temper in a town hall gathering earlier Sunday.
It involved Dean and Dale Ungerer, a 66-year-old retiree from Hawkeye, Iowa, who urged Dean and the other Democratic candidates to stop "tearing down your neighbor" and their "slam, bam and bash Bush" rhetoric.
"George Bush is not my neighbor," Dean began in response. But when Ungerer stood and tried to interrupt, Dean shouted: "You sit down. You had your say. Now I'm going to have my say."
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/0104/12debate.html
