Howard Dean and the DNC haven't always had the best relationship with gay press, a fact made evident in this testimony from the ongoing Donald Hitchcock discrimination lawsuit. Watch as Dean discusses the "hysterical" Washington Blade, the DNC's arch-nemesis. And he doesn't mean funny.

Howard Dean's most certainly got a headache today.

As the Democratic party veers toward complete and utter madness, the politico had to take some time to defend the Democratic National Committee against Donald Hitchcock's discrimination allegations. Dean's one of many DNC officials and insiderS who have been deposed in the suit, which may pave the way for a trial.

Hitchcock's legal team sent out a press release this week in which they give the nitty-gritty details of the case – some less-than-kind words about the DNC's post-scandal behavior:

The DNC's inconsistent and unsupported reasons for Mr. Hitchcock's firing keep evolving and changing over time including "not the best fit," "spiral of bad publicity," "willful misconduct," "lack of access to senior DNC staff," "not doing enough outreach," and "insufficient fundraising".

"With over one year of discovery and depositions of every senior DNC official involved, the DNC and defendants have failed to produce any documentation or facts supporting their assertions of Mr. Hitchcock's alleged misconduct or bad performance," stated lead attorney, Lynne Bernabei.

We're getting bits and pieces about Dean's testimony today, but we hear that he took some time to trash Washington Blade's coverage of the discrimination discovery and equated the weekly paper's picking with Fox News' anti-Democratic coverage. This gossip isn't surprising, of course – the DNC and gay press have a rocky relationship.

Dean's drama continues tomorrow.

Read the aforementioned release, after the jump…

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It's a big day for Howard Dean and the Democratic National Committee! Chief of Staff Leah Daughtry takes the stand today in the ongoing discrimination discovery hearings.

The fur continues to fly in the DNC gay discrimination case. Yesterday we published some less-than-flattering internal emails in which DNC staffers discuss the gay press, including the Washington Blade. Blade editor Kevin Naff promptly issued a biting response.

Today we hear that gay activist and former National Stonewall Democrats executive committee member Lee Bolin wants to see deputy finance director Julie Tagen fired.

Tagen, of course, derided the Blade and other gay publications thus, "I tend to use the Blade and other gay papers in the bottom of the birdcage." Tagen's candid response led Bolin to write to some pink peers, "If a DNC staffer disparaged black, Latino, or Jewish media the way Deputy Finance Director Julie Tagen did LGBT media, that person would already be out of a job." We're not convinced that Tagen deserves to be fired, for she didn't really insult gay people, just gay press. We do that all the time!

We called the DNC for a statement regarding Bolin's burning desire. Though staffers can't comment, DNC Chief Counsel Joe Sandler sent over this statement:

The DNC has consistently refrained from commenting about ongoing litigation out of respect for the legal process and to protect the interests of everyone involved. It is therefore unfortunate that Donald Hitchcock has chosen to abuse the discovery process by selectively leaking documents.

We can't say where we got the documents, but we can say we don't find anything "unfortunate" about it…

Washington Blade editor Kevin Naff ain't happy with the Democratic National Committee. Nor should he be. As we reported this morning, DNC staffers griped about the Blade snubbing a story on their delegate training program. In retaliation, communications director Karen Finney inquires, "Who is their largest competitor?" Deputy Finance Director Julie Tagen lobs that question to gay leadership leader Brian Bond. Writes Tagen: "You probably have a better sense since I tend to use The Blade and other gay papers in the bottom of the birdcage.” Those politicos can be vicious!

Naff, however, insists he's above such shenanigans:

I’ll take the high road — someone has to — and ignore the personal attacks. It’s astounding, though, that the DNC’s communications director has time in her day to plot revenge against the Blade.

The reality is that the Blade has covered the DNC and its delegate training program. In addition to two news stories on the subject in the past year, I personally extended an invitation to the DNC to draft an op-ed on its program, which I later published.

We will continue to cover the news in an objective and non-partisan way.

And there you have it…

The Democratic Party's certainly the more friendly of our two major political camps, but internal Democratic National Committee emails show how they play the gay game.

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The homo heat's on Howard Dean and the Democratic National Committee.

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