Thursday, June 09, 2005
The mouth that won't stop roaring/Even some Democrats weary of Dean's bluntstyle
Are Republicans mad because Dean is the only Democrat who has the spine to call them out on their lying ways. They pick a couple of token African Americans and believe that they have the right to say that Colin Powell, Condelezza Rice, Clarence "Yes Boss" Thomas, and Armstrong "Uncle Tom" Williams represent the African American community. I have a message for you 92% of African Americans voted for Kerry in 2004. Ronald Reagan gained a higher percentage (10%) of the African American vote than Bush. Yet, conservatives constantly say that they are making headway in my community. Give it a rest. A black man that supports the conservatives is like a chicken supporting Colonel Sanders; it is not going to happen. Those that do either hate being black or are just plain stupid.
Wednesday, June 8, 2005 (SF Chronicle)
Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, unapologetic in theface of recent criticism that he has been too tough on his political opposition, said in San Francisco this week that Republicans "all behavethe same, and they all look the same. ... It's pretty much a white Christian party. " "We're more welcoming to different folks, because that's the kind of people we are," Dean said Monday, responding to a question about diversity during a forum with minority leaders and journalists. "But that's not enough. We do have to deliver on things: jobs and housing and business opportunities and college opportunities."
Dean's remarks are an example of why the former Vermont governor, who remains popular with the party's grass roots, has been a lightning rod for criticism since being elected to head the Democratic National Committee in February. His comments last week that Republicans "never made an honest living in their lives," which he later clarified to say Republican"leaders," were disavowed by such leading Democrats as Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.
Dean's latest remarks -- made as he trolled California this week, stoking his party's coffers and meeting with grassroots activists as part of a nationwide trip -- could ignite more controversy and reaction from his own party. "You know, the Republicans are not very friendly to different kinds of people. They're a pretty monolithic party. Pretty much, they all behave the same, and they all look the same. ... It's pretty much a white Christian party, " the former Vermont governor told a San Francisco roundtable Monday in reaction to a question about the lack of outreach to minority communities by political parties. "Our folks have got to spend time in the communities," he said. "We want avery diverse group of people running for office -- African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos."
After the story of Dean's comments broke on SFGate.com, The Chronicle Website, on Tuesday and was picked up by the Drudge Report, DNC spokesman Josh Earnest scrambled to soften the impact of Dean's comments.
While acknowledging that Dean was quoted accurately, Earnest insisted that once again Dean meant to say "Republican leadership." But Dean's rhetoric -- and his headline-grabbing style -- have become a concern to deep-pocketed donors in California, particularly SiliconValley, which ranks third in the country for political fund raising behind New York and Los Angeles, according to Wade Randlett, a key partyfund-raiser in the high-tech capital. "For small donors, hearing 'George Bush is bad' is enough," Randlett said."What I'm hearing very clearly from big donors is: Tell me how we'll win. "We need a Democratic National Committee that is convincing white Republican Christians that they should be voting for us -- not vilifying them," said Randlett, who supported Dean for the chairmanship. "He's got himself in trouble with social commentary -- and that's not what the DNC chair does."
With that kind of increasing criticism from inside the Democratic Party in recent weeks, gleeful Republicans say they couldn't be happier. "Where do I sign up on a committee to keep Howard Dean?" crowed GOP operative Jon Fleischman, publisher of the FlashReport, a daily roundup ofCalifornia political news and commentary. "He's the best thing to happento the GOP in ages." "I'm thrilled he's the DNC chair," says Tom Del Becarro, chairman of the Contra Costa County Republican Party. "Howard Dean is scaring away the middle. People don't like angry people. They like hopeful people." Simi Valley Councilman Glenn Becerra, a staffer with former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson and a Bush appointee to the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars, said Tuesday he was far from amused by Dean's suggestion that Republicans constitute "a white Christian party," and he called the Democratic Party chairman "an embarrassment." "I'm living proof that the (GOP) isn't what Howard Dean is trying todescribe," Becerra said during a telephone interview. "It's a sad day when Democrats don't have any ideas to put forward and they have to resort to race politics. President Bush didn't get 40 percent of the Hispanic vote(in 2004) because we're a monolithic, white Christian party."
Dean said Monday that coverage of his remarks about Republicans not making an "honest living" was overblown. "This is one of those flaps that comes up once in awhile when I get tough," Dean said. "We have to be rough on the Republicans. Republicans don't represent ordinary Americans, and they don't have any understanding of what it is to go out and try and make ends meet." Dean said that he had been addressing the matter of Americans standing in long lines to vote. "What I said was the Republican leadership didn't seem to care much about working people," he said. "That's essentially the gist of the quote." Still, the words brought sharp rebukes from fellow Democrats such as Biden, who said on Sunday that Dean "doesn't speak for me ... and I don't think he speaks for the majority of Democrats."
Other Democrats, including Richardson, said such comments hurt Dean's effort to increase Democratic registration, contributions and votes in red states dominated by Republicans. But Alicia Wang, a DNC member and vice chair of the California Democratic Party, said: "If there are any criticisms, it comes out of love. It's like family." Grassroots Democrats "love him," she said of Dean, whose roller-coaster presidential bid drew thousands of new voters and donors to the party before his defeat during the primaries. "People again and again say we need him to speak up ... and sound like a Democrat." Still, Randlett said Dean has been criticized for not quickly improving the pace of fund raising for the party. A recent Business Week story suggested that Dean has been far outpaced by Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman. According to the story and FEC filings, the DNC has raised $18.6 millionin the first four months of the year -- less than half of the $42.6 million raised by the RNC in the same period. Dean, whose schedule in San Francisco Monday included the roundtable, a visit to a gay and lesbian house party and a fund-raiser, called thereport "total hooey." "It's silliness and gossip. We're raising twice as much money as we did in 2003," Dean said. "We're raising a million dollars a week. We're doing fine."
But Republicans note that Mehlman wrapped up his third trip to California as chairman last week, following an aggressive schedule in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Jose and Sacramento that included hitting Latino small business events in Santa Ana and addressing African American voters and women's groups. "(Ken's) an operative, a tactician," said Fleischman. "Dean is apolitician." Randlett said he hopes and expects party leaders will soon "have a sit-down" with Dean over his message "that we're smarter than they are, and we ought to be running the country." It's an approach that appears "shrill, angry and dismissive of all things Republican," Randlett said. Garry South, a leading Democratic strategist, said of Dean, "The only thing we can hope is that he understands the difference from being a shadow president to being the head of the party when we're out of office." His job is to "get the Democratic Party ready for the next election,"South said. But "if he views himself as the public face of the Democratic Party, then we have a problem." Dean says the criticism doesn't bother him. "I'm used to it. Look, this is a tough job. But it's not as tough as running for president."
Howard Dean: In his own words
Some of Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean's commentswhile speaking this week with minority community leaders and journalistsat a roundtable in San Francisco:
On Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger: "Gov. Schwarzenegger has been a big disappointment to a lot of Californians. ... Americans are tired ofpoliticians that break their promise, especially in an area like education... so I think there's going to be a lot of questions about whether the governor really cares about average Californians."
On Schwarzenegger's endorsement of the Minutemen: "This is why I don't agree that there's no difference between Republicans and Democrats. ...You would never have heard a Democrat talk like that ... I think the Republicans are always like this. I remember (former Republican Gov.) PeteWilson ... got elected by victimizing immigrants. Republicans always divide people."
On illegal immigration: "(Democrats) understand we have a border problem.But we think that if you enforce the laws you already have, the people who are already here ... they haven't broken any laws, they paid their taxes, a lot of them are paying into the Social Security system and getting nothing. Those people ought to be on a reasonable track toward citizenship."
On past promises by Democratic officials to minority communities: "It does make a difference that we now have senior management that is African American (and minority) ... which means we're not going to have the whiteboys' club make all the decision anymore. Everybody's going to be included."
On San Francisco politics: "It's always a pleasure to come to San Francisco because I don't look so liberal when I come to San Francisco." On the Democrats' strategy for 2008: "We're trying to resurrect this party. We're going to be in every state. You're not going to see any18-state strategies. We're going to be in places like Mississippi and Kansas and Idaho. We're going to be in the Republican counties of California from now on; we're not going to try to win by getting San Francisco and Oakland and Berkeley ... we're not going to sit around anymore. We are going to fight back. We haven't been fighting back."
E-mail Carla Marinucci at cmarinucci@sfchronicle.com.----------------------------------------------------------------------Copyright 2005 SF Chronicle
Wednesday, June 8, 2005 (SF Chronicle)
Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, unapologetic in theface of recent criticism that he has been too tough on his political opposition, said in San Francisco this week that Republicans "all behavethe same, and they all look the same. ... It's pretty much a white Christian party. " "We're more welcoming to different folks, because that's the kind of people we are," Dean said Monday, responding to a question about diversity during a forum with minority leaders and journalists. "But that's not enough. We do have to deliver on things: jobs and housing and business opportunities and college opportunities."
Dean's remarks are an example of why the former Vermont governor, who remains popular with the party's grass roots, has been a lightning rod for criticism since being elected to head the Democratic National Committee in February. His comments last week that Republicans "never made an honest living in their lives," which he later clarified to say Republican"leaders," were disavowed by such leading Democrats as Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.
Dean's latest remarks -- made as he trolled California this week, stoking his party's coffers and meeting with grassroots activists as part of a nationwide trip -- could ignite more controversy and reaction from his own party. "You know, the Republicans are not very friendly to different kinds of people. They're a pretty monolithic party. Pretty much, they all behave the same, and they all look the same. ... It's pretty much a white Christian party, " the former Vermont governor told a San Francisco roundtable Monday in reaction to a question about the lack of outreach to minority communities by political parties. "Our folks have got to spend time in the communities," he said. "We want avery diverse group of people running for office -- African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos."
After the story of Dean's comments broke on SFGate.com, The Chronicle Website, on Tuesday and was picked up by the Drudge Report, DNC spokesman Josh Earnest scrambled to soften the impact of Dean's comments.
While acknowledging that Dean was quoted accurately, Earnest insisted that once again Dean meant to say "Republican leadership." But Dean's rhetoric -- and his headline-grabbing style -- have become a concern to deep-pocketed donors in California, particularly SiliconValley, which ranks third in the country for political fund raising behind New York and Los Angeles, according to Wade Randlett, a key partyfund-raiser in the high-tech capital. "For small donors, hearing 'George Bush is bad' is enough," Randlett said."What I'm hearing very clearly from big donors is: Tell me how we'll win. "We need a Democratic National Committee that is convincing white Republican Christians that they should be voting for us -- not vilifying them," said Randlett, who supported Dean for the chairmanship. "He's got himself in trouble with social commentary -- and that's not what the DNC chair does."
With that kind of increasing criticism from inside the Democratic Party in recent weeks, gleeful Republicans say they couldn't be happier. "Where do I sign up on a committee to keep Howard Dean?" crowed GOP operative Jon Fleischman, publisher of the FlashReport, a daily roundup ofCalifornia political news and commentary. "He's the best thing to happento the GOP in ages." "I'm thrilled he's the DNC chair," says Tom Del Becarro, chairman of the Contra Costa County Republican Party. "Howard Dean is scaring away the middle. People don't like angry people. They like hopeful people." Simi Valley Councilman Glenn Becerra, a staffer with former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson and a Bush appointee to the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars, said Tuesday he was far from amused by Dean's suggestion that Republicans constitute "a white Christian party," and he called the Democratic Party chairman "an embarrassment." "I'm living proof that the (GOP) isn't what Howard Dean is trying todescribe," Becerra said during a telephone interview. "It's a sad day when Democrats don't have any ideas to put forward and they have to resort to race politics. President Bush didn't get 40 percent of the Hispanic vote(in 2004) because we're a monolithic, white Christian party."
Dean said Monday that coverage of his remarks about Republicans not making an "honest living" was overblown. "This is one of those flaps that comes up once in awhile when I get tough," Dean said. "We have to be rough on the Republicans. Republicans don't represent ordinary Americans, and they don't have any understanding of what it is to go out and try and make ends meet." Dean said that he had been addressing the matter of Americans standing in long lines to vote. "What I said was the Republican leadership didn't seem to care much about working people," he said. "That's essentially the gist of the quote." Still, the words brought sharp rebukes from fellow Democrats such as Biden, who said on Sunday that Dean "doesn't speak for me ... and I don't think he speaks for the majority of Democrats."
Other Democrats, including Richardson, said such comments hurt Dean's effort to increase Democratic registration, contributions and votes in red states dominated by Republicans. But Alicia Wang, a DNC member and vice chair of the California Democratic Party, said: "If there are any criticisms, it comes out of love. It's like family." Grassroots Democrats "love him," she said of Dean, whose roller-coaster presidential bid drew thousands of new voters and donors to the party before his defeat during the primaries. "People again and again say we need him to speak up ... and sound like a Democrat." Still, Randlett said Dean has been criticized for not quickly improving the pace of fund raising for the party. A recent Business Week story suggested that Dean has been far outpaced by Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman. According to the story and FEC filings, the DNC has raised $18.6 millionin the first four months of the year -- less than half of the $42.6 million raised by the RNC in the same period. Dean, whose schedule in San Francisco Monday included the roundtable, a visit to a gay and lesbian house party and a fund-raiser, called thereport "total hooey." "It's silliness and gossip. We're raising twice as much money as we did in 2003," Dean said. "We're raising a million dollars a week. We're doing fine."
But Republicans note that Mehlman wrapped up his third trip to California as chairman last week, following an aggressive schedule in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Jose and Sacramento that included hitting Latino small business events in Santa Ana and addressing African American voters and women's groups. "(Ken's) an operative, a tactician," said Fleischman. "Dean is apolitician." Randlett said he hopes and expects party leaders will soon "have a sit-down" with Dean over his message "that we're smarter than they are, and we ought to be running the country." It's an approach that appears "shrill, angry and dismissive of all things Republican," Randlett said. Garry South, a leading Democratic strategist, said of Dean, "The only thing we can hope is that he understands the difference from being a shadow president to being the head of the party when we're out of office." His job is to "get the Democratic Party ready for the next election,"South said. But "if he views himself as the public face of the Democratic Party, then we have a problem." Dean says the criticism doesn't bother him. "I'm used to it. Look, this is a tough job. But it's not as tough as running for president."
Howard Dean: In his own words
Some of Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean's commentswhile speaking this week with minority community leaders and journalistsat a roundtable in San Francisco:
On Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger: "Gov. Schwarzenegger has been a big disappointment to a lot of Californians. ... Americans are tired ofpoliticians that break their promise, especially in an area like education... so I think there's going to be a lot of questions about whether the governor really cares about average Californians."
On Schwarzenegger's endorsement of the Minutemen: "This is why I don't agree that there's no difference between Republicans and Democrats. ...You would never have heard a Democrat talk like that ... I think the Republicans are always like this. I remember (former Republican Gov.) PeteWilson ... got elected by victimizing immigrants. Republicans always divide people."
On illegal immigration: "(Democrats) understand we have a border problem.But we think that if you enforce the laws you already have, the people who are already here ... they haven't broken any laws, they paid their taxes, a lot of them are paying into the Social Security system and getting nothing. Those people ought to be on a reasonable track toward citizenship."
On past promises by Democratic officials to minority communities: "It does make a difference that we now have senior management that is African American (and minority) ... which means we're not going to have the whiteboys' club make all the decision anymore. Everybody's going to be included."
On San Francisco politics: "It's always a pleasure to come to San Francisco because I don't look so liberal when I come to San Francisco." On the Democrats' strategy for 2008: "We're trying to resurrect this party. We're going to be in every state. You're not going to see any18-state strategies. We're going to be in places like Mississippi and Kansas and Idaho. We're going to be in the Republican counties of California from now on; we're not going to try to win by getting San Francisco and Oakland and Berkeley ... we're not going to sit around anymore. We are going to fight back. We haven't been fighting back."
E-mail Carla Marinucci at cmarinucci@sfchronicle.com.----------------------------------------------------------------------Copyright 2005 SF Chronicle
# posted by The Alabama Hammer @ Thursday, June 09, 2005 
