Howard Dean's memory continues to fail him. The Democratic National Committee Chairman claims his organization fired Gay & Lesbian Leadership Council director Donald Hitchcock for "poor job performance," not as retaliation for his boyfriend, Paul Yandura's open letter criticizing the party's lackluster gay politics.
Taking a look at Dean's sworn deposition, however, one has to wonder whether his shady recollection says more his parsed replies. And gay Democrats should be wondering how they can stand up and save their party.
We'll start with Chairman Dean's sworn testimony, during which time he claims never to have read Yandura's letter, which lambasted the party for not doing more to combat anti-gay ballot initiatives.
Q: Now, if you recall, do you recall coming to learn at some point that Paul Yandura had written a letter that was critical of the DNC?HD: No.
Q: You never came to learn that?
HD: Are you talking about the famous e-mail –
Q: Yes.
HD: — or whatever it was? No.
It would be great to believe Dean, but his contemptuous response contradicts an early testimony given by Tom McMahon, in which the DNC executive director says he gave Dean the "heads up" in late April of 2006, directly after the Washington Blade published Yandura's letter. Testified McMahon: "The briefing was in conjunction with a press interview he would be doing or press he would encounter at the meeting."
Hitchcock's lawyer, Lynne Bernabei, offers McMahon's testimony to jog Dean's memory, but Dean maintains that he only heard talking points from the letter, never physically saw it and certainly didn't know Yandura penned it. When pressed on the matter, Dean attempts to explain his ignorance by pinning it on McMahon: "He doesn't bring me up-to-date on all this kind of stuff."
We personally find it hard to swallow that a press briefing wouldn't address the source of such a letter, especially when the author's partner works for the criticized organization. Yet, that's the story Dean tells, insisting that if McMahon told him Yandura wrote it, he totally forgot about it and didn't become aware of Yandura's involvement until months after the DNC fired Hitchcock. It seems to us that a piece of press as explosive as Yandura's letter would have received a little more attention than just a "heads up." Even if McMahon had only mentioned it briefly, does Dean have such a disregard for gay constituents that he wouldn't explore the matter further? No disrespect, Mr. Dean, but weren't you curious enough to inquire or did you simply not care?
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Howard's HOT!!
OMG! Politicians lying under oath? I'm shocked!
"That dotted line' relationship became quite contentious for Hitchcock, who wanted a closer relationship with the AMP…but the fact that his request was not granted only reinforced Hitchcock’s theories"
In other words, the little boy was hired to do one job, but he wanted to do a different job and he cried and stomped his feet until Uncle Howard said he could help out a little bit with the AMP. But the temper tantrums kept coming and the little boy would barge into other people's staff meetings. You see, he wasn't an employee with a job to do. He was DONALD — the precious little child.
Behavior like that wouldn't be tolerated for a day with any other employer. Dean's biggest wrong was that he pampered this infant for far too long.
KONRAD = DNC shill. H'Mo = bad taste in politics and in men.
Bill,
The DNC can't just come out for gay rights. We have leprosy and are the untouchables. When we die, they just step over us, like on the streets of Calcutta.
Charley, I find your comment tasteless.
As a South Asian-American, I resent your casual use of "the exotic" to try to make a point, and find your reference misinformed and tacky.
And as an openly gay DNC employee, I can assure you that my GLBT co-workers and I have always been treated as family and part of the team.
Desi Dem,
Sometimes people in the party let us gays fall to the wayside so that they can keep their jobs.
great posting on DNC and Donna Brazille at CitizenCrain.com.
http://citizenchris.typepad.co.....appoi.html
The deposition given last month by Democratic Party chair Howard Dean shed some ugly light on longtime operative Donna Brazile, who headed up Al Gore's 2000 election and is a regular political analyst on CNN.
Dean admitted it was Brazile who objected most strenuously to a proposal put forward by gay Democrats to add GLBT delegates to affirmative action guidelines states follow when selecting those who attend the party's national convention:
Dean said some “influential individuals†within the DNC Black Caucus, such as Donna Brazile, opposed the plan because it was seen as “an affront to the civil rights movement.â€
Brazile, who chairs the DNC’s Voting Rights Institute, declined to comment for this article.
Well what I want to no is why the Democratic Party Embraces Black Homphobic Churches and Pastors for there Votes and Condem The Republicans for doing the same thing with White Evangelical Christians and there Pastors and why is it Ok? Hate and Homophobia is wrong no matter which race uses it and should not be tolerated but it seems as if its Ok and acceptable in the Democratic Party or am I wrong?