August 14-20, 2003

political notebook

The Great White Hope Versus the Great White Dope?

by Mary F. Patel

The Howard Dean fringe festival took off on time Monday afternoon in front of Independence Hall despite the fact that the Democratic presidential hopeful was over an hour late. Billed as a rally, it was actually a be-in for white liberals. Local Dean grassroots campaign operatives scheduled the gathering to take place prior to the former Vermont governor’s appearance at a Democratic presidential candidates’ forum. Dean was one of seven wannabes set to hold forth at the National Constitution Center later that evening.

About 3,500 people came out to see Dean, mostly baby boomers, 20-somethings and a large gay and lesbian contingent.

Liberty City Lesbian and Gay Democratic Club sent out e-mails all over the East Coast promoting the event for Dean, the Internet-savvy, wired candidate. He has been reaching out to voters, particularly in the lesbian,

gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, through a national e-mail campaign. Dean is popular with that community because as governor of Vermont, he signed the first legislation that recognized civil unions between same-sex couples.

"Get Clean 4 Dean" signs were displayed, although the target of that message was unclear. It could have been addressing the unwashed or the drug-addicted.

Dean's late arrival was due to a flight delay and others had to entertain the masses.

One thing was certain: These people hate President George Bush. There was an awful lot of Bush-whacking going on.

The first major speaker was Henry Nicholas, the president of the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees and the international vice president of AFSCME. (Despite the extremely liberal crowd, Nicholas was one of the few minorities at the rally.)

"It is the duty of the people to change the government," said Nicholas. He promised to register Democratic voters and get them to the polls, a strategy that will also serve his friend, Mayor John Street.

The Dean festival was the perfect backdrop for Street to make a campaign appearance as well as a pitch for Dean. Street, in full campaign mode, rolled into the Dean event briefly and got some extra exposure in front of the Dean supporters, a demographic he's not certain will vote for him in November. Street lamented that the city is not getting the federal funding for public schools that it needs to survive and blamed Bush. According to Street, many of the city's problems can be traced to the White House.

Still no sign of Dean yet, so Councilman Angel Ortiz, an early Dean-nik who is organizing Latinos for Dean, stepped up to the plate and compared Dean to Moses in that Dean would lead the people to the Promised Land.

"The nation is sick," said Ortiz. "It is sick of George Bush."

Dean was now on I-95, so Nicholas took time to speak about the travesty of the Iraq war.

"My son just came back from Iraq," said Nicholas. "I begged him not to go and I offered to hide him in my attic. But he went anyway and he just got back July 3. He said he is not going back."

More boos for Bush. Dean finally arrived.

"Here's how the liberal Birkenstock governor from Vermont gets elected," said Dean after the cheering stopped. He expects a grassroots campaign and noted that the average amount of a Dean contribution is just $88.

"We're going to have jobs and a balanced budget in this country again," said Dean.

"If you're going to trust your hard-earned money to the federal government, you better elect a Democrat because the Republicans just can't handle money!"

Dean lashed out at Bush and the Iraq war.

"I supported the president when he sent troops to Afghanistan because that was protecting our people," said Dean. "I supported the president, former President George Bush, in the first Gulf War. But this war, this president told us that Iraq was buying uranium from Africa. Turned out not to be true. The president told us there was a deal between Iraq and al-Qaeda. Turned out not to be true. The vice president told us that Iraq had nuclear weapons. Not true! The secretary of defense told us he knew where those weapons of mass destruction were. Turned out to be not true!

"As president of the United States, I will send troops anywhere in the world to defend America, but I will never send troops abroad anywhere to die without telling the American people the truth about why they have to go."

Though Dean spent a lot of time bashing Bush, he did not get into much detail about his own platform. But then again, it was a rally and not an issues-oriented event.

Dean did say his focus was jobs, education and health care. Dean is also a medical doctor and is pushing for national health care. He did not expand on how this would be achieved or where the money would come from.

Dean supporters followed their candidate across the mall to the Constitution Center, where the Sheet Metal Workers' International Association sponsored a forum of all the Democratic presidential contenders. Attending were Rev. Al Sharpton, former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Sen. John Kerry and U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt.