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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Donald Hitchcock's wrongful termination and discrimination lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee takes another turn today. Treasurer and openly gay Andrew Tobias sent out an open letter last week hoping that Hitchcock and the DNC can come to an understanding.

Image: Andrew Tobias sandwiched between designers Kenneth Cole and Charles Nolan, who also happens to be his boyfriend.

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Claire Lucas has grabbed more than her fair share of headlines in recent weeks.

The Democratic National Committee's gay board chair caught our attention when she refused to testify in the ongoing discrimination discovery hearings. Then Lucas popped up in a story about her potential perjury and backstage scheming against former DNC-staffer Donald Hitchcock.

In an effort to preserve his client's image, lawyer Barry Reingold sent our editor the following missive:

Ms. Lucas is a witness, not a defendant, in this matter. She has not been sued. The issues of this case, including Ms. Lucas's motion to quash the subpoena, are pending before the Superior Court of the District of Columbia by a Judge appointed by the President of the United States. Ms. Lucas has told and will continue to tell the truth to the Court. All of the issues in Hitchcock v. DNC will be litigated in this Court and decided by this fair and impartial tribunal.

We never said that Lucas was being sued, nor did we call her a "defendant". It appears to us that Reingold's attempting to distance his client from this ugly matter. And we can't blame him: she looks really, really bad, especially when she refers to Hitchcock as a "complete loser".

The DNC's gay discrimination case got stickier this week. Washington Blade reports that gay DNC's gay board chair Claire Lucas could potentially face perjury charges for lying about her place of residence.

Legal documents filed in D.C. Superior Court this week and obtained by the Blade allege that Claire Lucas, a longtime Democratic National Committee volunteer and National Stonewall Democrats board member, committed perjury when she filed an affidavit asserting that she does not live in Washington.

The affidavit, filed Jan. 4, was part of efforts to quash a subpoena ordering Lucas to sit for a deposition in a lawsuit that alleges the DNC discriminated against a former gay employee.
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D.C. property tax records contradict her assertion in the affidavit seeking to quash Hitchcock’s subpoena that she has been a California resident since 2005. Those records show she claimed the Homestead deduction for the tax years of 2005 through 2007, as well as in prior years, according to Hitchcock’s court filings.

The D.C. law creating the Homestead deduction requires, upon possible penalty of perjury, that homeowners affirm that they live in their home as a condition for obtaining the deduction

Just yesterday the DNC released a statement declaring the contemptuous Lucas a Californian.

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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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Donald Hitchcock's discrimination lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee takes a new turn today. A predetermined schedule ordered Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council board chair Claire Lucas to testify, but the investor refused to comply. Lawyers explained to Lucas that if she does not take the stand, she'll be found in contempt of court. The former National Stonewall Democrat director, however, continues to stand her ground. She is not being represented by DNC lawyers.

Testimony began yesterday with current homo honcho Brian Bond, who took over as executive director of the GLLC after Howard Dean and company sacked Hitchcock. Hitchcock alleges the firing came in retaliation for boyfriend Paul Yandura's criticism of the party. He also claims the DNC paid him less than his peers and has since blasted them for using gay people as an "ATM".

DNC CEO Reverend Leah Daughtry will testify on January 18.

Testimony began today in Donald Hitchcock's discrimination case against the Democratic National Committee.

Hitchcock alleges that Howard Dean and other leaders fired him in 2006 after his boyfriend, Paul Yandura, wrote an open letter criticizing the party's lackluster gay activism.

Hitchcock's replacement Brian Bond was scheduled to take the stand today. Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council board chair Claire Lucas will testify tomorrow.

Things are about to get sticky for the Democratic National Committee.

According to documents obtained by PageOneQ, a series of senior Democratic National Committee officials has been subpoenaed in an ongoing discrimination lawsuit by former LGBT outreach director Donald Hitchcock. Those ordered to provide sworn testimony include chairman Howard Dean, openly gay treasurer Andy Tobias, and Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council executive Director Brian Bond.

Hitchcock alleges that the DNC fired him after his boyfriend, political consultant Paul Yandura, wrote a scathing letter about the Democratic party's governing organization.

Hitchcock also alleges that the DNC paid him less than his peers and that Dean, Tobias and others attempted to smear his name. The DNC won't comment on the case, but Hitchcock says "I look forward shining light on the facts and discussing under oath the circumstances of my employment and unfair termination from the DNC."

See the discovery schedule, after the jump…

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

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