Interviewed on Rev. Pat Robertson's 700 Club, Dean spoke for the party in terms probably not one in 10,000 Democrats would. Not only did he orally instantly reverse the party's policy, placing it against same-sex marriage, he pandered to the Christian right, saying Democrats had much in common with them and needed to accommodate them more.
We need a new spokesmodel, one with a brain installed.
You can watch the whole bizzarre interview here. Perhaps even stranger, you can scour the national Dem site and find zip, zilch, nada, rien, nothing about it. Even if there were nothing about his going into detox, there should have been some clarification about how he could be so out there, addled and alone.
Listen to the interview and wonder whether Dean:
- Can't read (as in the party platform).
- Is simply a bigot.
- Figures anything he says goes for the party.
- Will pander to anyone for a vote.
- Truly doesn't like homosexuals and truly doesn't believe in equal rights.
I'm not saying we're going to agree with everything, between the more conservative evangelicals and the Democrats, but there's a lot more common ground than most people realize, and we're willing to work with the evangelical community.Oddly enough, though, it does not cover what the video shows, his totally wrong comments about SSM. Specifically, "The Democratic Party platform from 2004 says that marriage is between a man and a woman. That's what it says."
On Earth, in reality, in this century, as the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force noted, "In fact, the DNC 2004 platform says, 'We support full inclusion of gay and lesbian families in the life of our nation and seek equal responsibilities, benefits, and protections for these families. In our country, marriage has been defined at the state level for 200 years, and we believe it should continue to be defined there. We repudiate President Bush's divisive effort to politicize the Constitution by pursuing a Federal Marriage Amendment. Our goal is to bring Americans together, not drive them apart.'"
The Washington Post offered background and details here and here. Its coverage notes that this is not Dean's only blunders on gay issues. "Earlier this month, Dean fired the DNC's gay outreach adviser, Donald Hitchcock, less than a week after his domestic partner, Paul Yandura, had criticized Dean's efforts to protect gay rights. He was immediately replaced by another activist, but over the past year, other concerns have been raised about Dean's bridge-building to gays."
Following the 700 Club interview, Dean caught some hell. The Post quoted him as saying simply, "I misstated the Democratic Party's platform, which does not say marriage should be limited to a man and a woman." He affirmed equal protection for all Americans, for the moment at least.
The Task Force will return a $5,000 check from the DNC, at least until the party gets its stuff together on fundamental issues. According to the Post, their executive director, Matt Foreman, "said Dean should be persuading Democrats to fight against ballot initiatives seeking to ban gay marriage, but instead has misrepresented the party's 'important and affirming plank' several times. 'There has been a disturbing lack of clarity from Governor Dean about where we fit into the party and the country.'"
From here, it looks like Dean would do anything, say anything to get mindless votes. It's a pity that a few million were listening last week.
Tags: massmarrier, Democratic Party, Howard Dean, DOMA, same-sex marriage, National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce, 700 Club
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