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Dean Defends Record on Race in Debate
Mon Jan 12, 4:17 AM ET
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer
DES MOINES, Iowa - Howard Dean (news - web sites), a former governor of mostly white Vermont, was put on the defensive on his record on race in the last debate before Democratic presidential campaign voting kicks off in a week.
Civil rights activist Al Sharpton forced Dean to acknowledge Sunday that no blacks or Hispanics served in his cabinet during 12 years as governor.
"While I respect the fact you brought race into this campaign, you ought to talk freely and openly about whether you went out of the box to try to do something about race in your home state and have experience with working with blacks and browns at peer level, not as just friends you might have had in college," Sharpton said.
Dean responded, "I will take a back seat to no one in my commitment to civil rights in the United States of America."
The exchange came during the Iowa Brown and Black Presidential Forum, a two-hour debate focusing on issues important to blacks and Hispanics. It was the third debate in Iowa in eight days.
Recent polling shows Dean and Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt (news - web sites) in a close race in the state, with Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) of Massachusetts and Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina trailing. The outcome will begin the winnowing process in the race for the nomination. Dean hopes for a victory to validate his claim as campaign front-runner. Gephardt's aides say he must win. Kerry and Edwards hope for strong finishes to sustain their campaigns in New Hampshire, whose primary follows Iowa by eight days.
"We're past all this preliminary stuff. It's time to choose a president," Edwards said.
Dean revealed some clues to his plan to redistribute the burden for paying taxes away from the middle class. He said he examining a way to increase corporate taxes and perhaps cut payroll — or Social Security (news - web sites) — taxes.
He said his first priority would be to balance the budget, which will require repealing all of President Bush (news - web sites)'s tax cuts. Gephardt challenged him about whether he could cut payroll taxes without harming Social Security.
"I think cutting payroll taxes is not a bad idea," Dean said. "It's certainly something we're going to look at. Under no circumstances will we take the money to cut payroll taxes out of the Social Security trust fund. That would be absurd."
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (news - web sites) of Ohio jumped into the fray against Dean, criticizing the front-runner for saying he could balance the budget without cutting Pentagon (news - web sites) spending. Kerry said Dean was trying to have it both ways on the Iraq (news - web sites) war, speaking out as an opponent but having spoke in support of congressional legislation in fall 2002 that would have given Bush the authority to use force in Iraq, so long as he notified Congress in advance.
State senator Ken Cheuvront of Arizona said he's tired of the Dean attacks. A member of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, Cheuvront said after the debate that he has decided to endorse Dean because of all the criticism. "It's starting to look petty," he said. "He's the only viable candidate who can win, who has the money to beat Bush."
Democratic strategist Donna Brazile said Dean's record is fair play for rivals who are mad about his rise, but she thinks Sharpton's attacks caught him off guard.
"But I also think that was a low blow to attack him on his Cabinet, the people he chose to put around him versus his policies," she said.
Racial politics have not been prominent in the snow-white confines of Iowa and New Hampshire. But the primary contest moves to more diverse states beginning on Feb. 3, including South Carolina, where nearly half the voters are expected to be minorities and Sharpton is looking to make a mark on the race.
Dean initially denied Sharpton's accusation that he didn't have one Hispanic or black holding a senior policy position as governor, saying he had "a senior member of my staff on my fifth floor."
Sharpton said he was asking about the Cabinet, which has a small number of members.
"No, we did not," conceded Dean, whose state has a population that is nearly 98 percent white.
Former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun chastised Sharpton for instigating a "racial screaming match." Sharpton responded that he just wants Dean to be held accountable for his record.
Moments later, Dean noted that he has the endorsements of more members of the Congressional Black Caucus (news - web sites) and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus than any other presidential hopeful.
But Sharpton ridiculed that, saying, "I think you only need co-signers if your credit is bad."
For much of the evening, it seemed that a candidate's place in the polls dictated how often and sharply he or she was attacked.
"I was beginning to hope someone would attack me," said Sen. Joe Lieberman (news - web sites). No one did. The Connecticut senator is not competing in the caucuses, and lags in the New Hampshire polling.
<B>Flipping through the channels last night, I caught the piece of the debate where Sharpton attacked Dean on his record of minorities in his cabinet. It raised an interesting question. Basically Sharpton called Dean out on the fact that he did not have any minorities in his cabinet in any of the 12 years he was in office. Sharpton furthered his point by saying that governors across the country import talent to help run the state and the composition of the state's population shouldn't have any thing to do with the lack of minority representation in the cabinet.
I'm not really sure about my feelings on this attack. On one hand I am thoroughly impressed with it from a strategic/political point of view. Sharpton caught Dean flat footed and it was apparent in the look on his face at the end of the exchange.
On the other, I'm not sure I buy into the whole racial composition of a cabinet argument. Certainly someone doesn't have to be black or brown to represent the causes of minorities. This type of thinking could be detrimental as the "best" candidate may be disregarded in order to make the cabinet meet some diversity standard. But then I think about the groups/functions that Dean must have attended during his tenure as governor and I wonder, in 12 years did he not come across some outstanding advisor of color that would have been a great addition to the cabinet? There are many politicians who make a point of creating a diverse cabinet and it seems a little odd that it wasn't any sort of priority in the Dean administration, especially since an argument could be made that, VT being predominantly white, minorities need to be represented at high levels in the government.
I don't know that I care about this issue at all, and at this point it doesn't alter my perception of Dean, but I'll be interested to hear how his camp spins this. Perhaps some insights from the other members here will help me clarify the issue.