Give 'em Hell, Howard!

Oh, boy, do I adore this guy:

Democratic Party boss Howard Dean, under fire for blunt comments about Republicans, refused to back down on Wednesday and said Republican critics were trying to divert attention from their own failures.

Republicans attacked Dean for saying in San Francisco on Monday, when asked about the lack of outreach to minorities by political parties, that Republicans are "pretty much a white, Christian party."

Republicans accused Dean of trying to divide Americans by religion and faith. Rep. Eric Cantor (news, bio, voting record) of Virginia called the comments "Howard Dean's games of division and hate." House Speaker Dennis Hastert's spokesman, Ron Bonjean, said "Dean likes the taste of his own foot."

Even Democrats grumbled about Dean's judgment and choice of words.

But Dean, known for fiery rhetoric during his unsuccessful 2004 presidential campaign, stuck by his comments during an appearance on NBC's "Today" show.

"It's pretty hard to deny that predominantly that's what the Republican Party looks like. It is a party controlled by the conservative Christian agenda," the former Vermont governor said, adding "I'm a white Christian myself."

He said Republicans were trying to make him the issue so they could dodge a discussion about the Iraq war, proposed changes to Social Security and other controversies.

"We believe that this is a diversion from the issues that really matter: Social Security and adequate jobs opportunities, strong public schools, strong defense where our troops aren't pinned down when we should be doing something about Iran and North Korea, because those are real threats to America," Dean said.

Are you listening, Messrs. Richardson, Biden, and others?

It's going to be a very interesting couple of years. Dean was elected to the party chair position not BECAUSE of the party apparatchiks, but in spite of them. This was the PEOPLE trying to take the Democratic Party back from the whores and the corporate lapdogs who have taken it over and turn it back into the party of people.

Dean doesn't always express himself gracefully, and he's the master of the inflammatory "taken out of context" comment, but the fact of the matter is that he's right, just as he's been right about just about everything else for which he's been blasted by the punditocracy. The Republican party IS controlled by white Christians, and their agenda favors ONLY white Christians.

The Democrats who have their little delicate panties in a twist over the things Dean says are just showing how out of touch they are. Let them continue to suck up to the punditocracy and end up being blasted by them anyway. Let them continue to take the leftovers from the corporate political cash orgy. Let them continue to fan themselves and have the vapors -- and lose elections while Dean tells it like it is.

Pussies don't win elections, as has been shown in 2000 and 2004.

Meanwhile, Howard will keep fighting the good fight against his own fucking party, getting people involved in politics at all levels, and doing an even better job at fundraising than Terry McAuliffe did -- 50 voter bucks at a time.

And oh, by the way...how come nobody branded it "hate speech" when conservative Republican ex-Senator John Danforth said this earlier this year:

By a series of recent initiatives, Republicans have transformed our party into the political arm of conservative Christians.

[snip]

I do not fault religious people for political action. Since Moses confronted the pharaoh, faithful people have heard God's call to political involvement. Nor has political action been unique to conservative Christians. Religious liberals have been politically active in support of gay rights and against nuclear weapons and the death penalty. In America, everyone has the right to try to influence political issues, regardless of his religious motivations.

The problem is not with people or churches that are politically active. It is with a party that has gone so far in adopting a sectarian agenda that it has become the political extension of a religious movement.

When government becomes the means of carrying out a religious program, it raises obvious questions under the First Amendment. But even in the absence of constitutional issues, a political party should resist identification with a religious movement. While religions are free to advocate for their own sectarian causes, the work of government and those who engage in it is to hold together as one people a very diverse country. At its best, religion can be a uniting influence, but in practice, nothing is more divisive. For politicians to advance the cause of one religious group is often to oppose the cause of another.