Paul Yandura: The Joe Wilson to Hitchcock's Valerie Plame, Yandura ruffled Democratic feathers when he wrote an open letter denouncing the DNC.

Wrote Yandura:

For many months a number of us have made appeals to Howard Dean and party officials to care about and defend the dignity of gay and lesbian families and friends, in the same way they defend the dignity of other key constituencies.

As the enclosed article shows, the DNC is fighting the vicious attacks being waged upon immigrants by the Republican party. Its the right thing to do and I applaud their action. Why then is it so difficult for them to do the same for us?

Why are gays and lesbians continually left to fight these battles alone? Where are our allies?

All progressives need to be asking how much has the DNC budgeted to counter the anti-gay ballot initiatives in the states. We also all need to know why the DNC and our Democratic leaders continue to allow the Republicans to use our families and friends as pawns to win elections.

Yandura definitely knew what he was talking about.

A longtime democratic activist, George Washington University graduate Yandura directed LGBT outreach for the Clinton/Gore presidential campaigns. He also gained gay ground as director of the Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council, which Hitchcock would later helm. Yandura currently presides over Scott and Yandura, the DC-based consulting firm he founded with Marsha Scott.

Howard Dean: Who doesn't know DNC Chairman Howard Dean? The former Vermont Governor caused a ruckus as a 2004 presidential candidate, but lost it all after that infamous "Dean Scream".

Raised in East Hampton, Dean enjoyed the trappings of a wealthy white man, but made sure to dialogue with people of all walks. In fact, he requested to room with black people while studying at Yale, from which he received a political science degree in 1971. Dean then went to Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx before moving to Vermont, where he practiced medicine and set up shot with his wife, Dr. Judith Steinberg.

Dean entered the political fray in 1982, when he joined Vermont's House of Representatives. He later became Lt. Governor and took over after Richard Snelling died in office. Dean held the post until 2003 and signed civil unions into law in 2000. The politician framed his decision in religious terms: The hallmark of Christianity is to reach out to people who have been left behind. So there was a religious aspect to my support of civil unions."

After failing to win the Democratic presidential nomination, Dean went on to found the political action group, Democracy For America. He later left to Chair the DNC, where he's caused a lot of gay drama for foling the gay outreach program into the AMP and misrepresenting the party's stance on marriage. In case you don't remember, Dean told the 700 Club that the Democratic Party defined marriage as being between a man and a woman. He later clarified that statement.

Julie Tagen: Lesbian Julie Tagen works as the DNC's deputy finance director. She raised eyebrows last week when we published internal DNC emails chronicling her and others' plotting against the Washington Blade. Donald Hitchcock claims that Tagen, who donated to Howard Dean in 2003, asked him to keep Yandura silent. She also allegedly asked Hitchcock to quit after the letter's publication. Hitchcock alleges that DNC brass put Tagen up to the challenge. If Tagen's testimony concurs with Hitchcock, well, the DNC's going to come out looking more manipulative than it would like us to believe.