Howard Dean on Black & Southern Voters

“They think if you have [former Secretary of State Colin] Powell or [Secretary of State Condoleezza] Rice, this means equal rights,” Dean said, “but the Democratic Party knows equal rights is about hiring power, and we know it’s important that people who make decisions should also be people of color. Imagine trying to convince black ministers that cutting Social Security is a good idea,” he said. “On the other hand, I think it’s a good for the Republicans to reach out because it makes us work harder. We have the most diverse senior staff in the history of Democratic National Committee, and that’s important because the Republicans are 30 years behind,”

From the post on BlackAmericaWeb.com

“If the Democrats want to win in Tennessee, the first thing they have to do is campaign here, Howard Dean told a packed house at Vanderbilt University last night. Dean, national chairman of the Democratic Party, was greeted with a standing ovation from the largely student audience. He said that as the party moves forward it needs to show those who live south of the Mason-Dixon Line that it respects them and the values they hold. ”I don’t believe in blue states or red states,” the former 2004 presidential candidate said. ”I believe in purple states — and some are more purple than others. During a question-and-answer session with the media before his speech, Dean said he had not heard a state GOP radio commercial airing during his visit that pegged him as a ”Northeastern liberal.” It also labeled Dean and Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen as ”peas in a pod.” ”I’ve been called worse things than a liberal,” Dean said. ”The reason the Republicans call names is because they have nothing to say about balancing the budget, creating jobs or doing anything about health care or education.”

From the story in today’s Tennessean.

“The result has been fierce criticism of these Republican doctor-lawmakers by some medical ethicists who say they have blurred the line between medicine and politics, and by Democratic doctor-politicians who say their colleagues have gone too far. Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee and an internist, told reporters that Dr. Frist’s remarks were not “medically sound.” Another Democrat, Representative Jim McDermott, a psychiatrist from Washington, accused his colleagues on Tuesday of committing “legislative malpractice.” “This poor woman and this poor family are being used as a political football, and these guys will do anything to push the point that they think is so important, that they will invade this family’s privacy,” he said in an interview. He singled out Dr. Weldon, saying, “This is a guy who’s lost track of who he is.”

From the story in today’s NY Times, “Legislators With Medical Degrees Offer Opinions on Schiavo Case.”