washingtonpost.com
Rivals Demand a Dean Apology
Candidate Attacked in Debate for Confederate Flag Remark
By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 5, 2003; Page A01
BOSTON, Nov. 4 -- Former Vermont governor Howard Dean was harshly rebuked by several of his Democratic rivals here Tuesday night for offending whites and blacks alike by recently saying he wanted "to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks."
In one of the most personal and heated attacks of the campaign, Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) and Al Sharpton called Dean's comments offensive and demanded an apology from the front-runner in the race for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination.
Dean, saying "I'm no bigot," refused to apologize and told his rivals the Democrats will never recapture the White House until they find a way to appeal to working-class white voters in the South. "I make no apologies for reaching out to poor whites," he said.
The fiery exchanges, which took place in the opening minutes of a candidate forum aimed at young voters and hosted by CNN and Rock the Vote, set the tone for the liveliest and most unconventional debate of the campaign. They were triggered by a pointed question from a young African American in the audience who said he was "extremely offended" by Dean's recent remark to an Iowa reporter that "I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks. We can't beat George Bush unless we appeal to a broad cross-section of Democrats."
Sharpton, who has been increasingly critical of Dean's record on other race matters, said, "If a southern person running . . . had said that, they'd have been run out of the race." Edwards, who has mostly refrained from attacking his rivals, turned to Dean, pointed his finger and said his statement was "condescending" to southern whites, too. "The last thing we need in the South is somebody like you coming down and telling us what we need to do," Edwards said.
In his defense, Dean invoked the words of Martin Luther King Jr., who he said talked of bringing together the children of slave owners and the children of slaves. Dean said that Republicans had used racial issues to appeal to working-class southerners for three decades and that it was time for Democrats to put a stop to it.
Sharpton, his voice rising, called the Confederate flag "America's swastika" and accused Dean of misquoting King. He said of Dean's flag comment: "I think it is insensitive and you ought to apologize for it. You are not a bigot, but you appear to be too arrogant to say I'm wrong."
Dean got the last word, calling the Confederate flag "a loathsome symbol," and said he had proved he is without bigotry by signing a bill authorizing civil unions as governor of Vermont.
Facing an audience of voters 30 and younger, eight of the nine Democratic presidential candidates tried their best to relate to the audience in Boston's Faneuil Hall and on television. Edwards and Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) showed up with open collars, while Dean and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.) wore ties and shirtsleeves. Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (Ohio) and retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark wore black turtlenecks and jackets. Each candidate supplied 30-second videos complete with rap or rock music.
During the 90-minute debate, the candidates were asked about everything from smoking pot to which rival they would most like to party with. Kerry, Edwards and Dean said they had smoked; Carol Moseley Braun was the only Democrat who refused to answer. Kucinich said he has not smoked pot but thinks it should be decriminalized.
As for partying partners, Sharpton said he would pick Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, who made news herself this week by telling a local paper here the debates are "silly."
Some of the questions might help make her case. Every candidate was asked a techie version of the famous boxers-or-briefs question posed to Bill Clinton in 1992: "PC or Macintosh?" Most chose the personal computer. And Kerry was asked if he would have pulled Red Sox starting pitcher Pedro Martinez in Game 7 of the American League championship, which Boston lost; he would have.
Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) skipped the debate. "Tonight, he's in Iowa, in a diner," said CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, the debate moderator.
Tuesday night's debate offered the candidates a unique forum to connect with a very specific, albeit historically apathetic, audience: young voters. In 2000, fewer than one in three eligible voters between 18 and 24 voted. A recent poll by Harvard University's Institute of Politics shows that younger voters support President Bush more broadly than older voters but remain largely open to persuasion.
With the nation narrowly divided between the two parties, many Democrats are counting on a large turnout from college-age voters to help oust Bush next year. The Harvard poll shows Lieberman and Dean leading among undergraduate students. Gephardt was near the bottom with 3 percent.
With the exception of the early attack on Dean, the candidates largely steered clear of the personal criticism that dominated recent debates. They also spent far less time rehashing their differences over the war in Iraq and funding for the military operations there. With the exception of Sharpton and Kucinich, none of the candidates advocated pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq now. Dean said the United States can't "cut and run." Instead, the candidates were pressed on issues that have not been dominant themes.
Clark said he supports lifting the trade embargo with Cuba, an unpopular position with many Cuban Americans in politically important Florida. "We're not going to reward Fidel Castro, but we are going to make sure that Cubans have a democracy and they have the same rights as everyone else on the planet," Clark said.
Clark and the others said they also would provide greater protections for gays in and out of the military, drawing applause from the audience. Clark said he has gay friends and believes the military needs to rethink the "don't ask, don't tell" policy for gays even if it makes some of his former comrades uncomfortable.
Dean said he did not know many gays when he was growing up or when he signed the nation's first civil unions law as governor of Vermont. "The single most important act in helping gays and lesbians get the same rights as everybody else is . . . people who are gay and lesbian standing up and being proud of who they are and saying so. That way Americans get to understand them as human beings."
Lieberman, asked to give advice on sexual abstinence, said the government needs to do more than tell kids to quit having sex. "If you are only teaching abstinence, you're only going to teach so many and affect so many lives," he said. "You have got to expand that to cover condoms and birth control."
The three issues dominating the campaign -- tax cuts, health care and Iraq -- took a back seat to other domestic concerns and a flurry of one-liners as the candidates looked to appeal to the younger, hipper crowd.
Dean, the target of several personal attacks in recent weeks, said, "I knew I was the front-runner because I keep picking buckshot out of my rear end."
Staff writer Dan Balz in Washington contributed to this report.
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