MUST READ: Blumenthal on South/Dems/Dean/Bush

Here, I'll just post the last grafs (because they really nail his point, and the hypocrisy) but the whole thing is worth a read. (BTW, I didn't KNOW this about Haley Barbour, ARGHHHH)
======
(snip)
Dean's remarks were awkward, but his challenge to the Republican party's basic character and the need for a strategy for defeating it will inevitably be revisited by whoever becomes the Democratic nominee, if that nominee cares about winning.

On the day before Dean's last apology, Haley Barbour, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee and the third-biggest lobbyist in Washington, was elected governor of Mississippi. He had campaigned at an event sponsored by the Council of Concerned Conservatives, an overtly racist group and successor organisation to the White Citizens' Council, which led opposition to civil rights in the 1960s. In his lapel, Barbour wore a pin of the Mississippi state flag, a matter of controversy because of its incorporation of the Confederate flag. On election night, even before he was announced as the winner, Barbour received a congratulatory telephone call from Bush. Look away, Dixieland.

As the great novelist William Faulkner, of Mississippi, wrote: "The past is not dead. In fact, it's not even past."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1080537,00.html

"(BTW, I didn't KNOW this about Haley Barbour, ARGHHHH)"

Because the "liberal media" was so successful at keeping it out of the news.

Presidential elections are all about issues that are important to the majority of voters. A candidate's stance on the Rebel flag is properly a very crucial factor in a political campaign.

What else could possibly be as important or newsworthy?

in an interview with the Des Moines paper, and his campaign SPUN a lie saying Dean was attempting to discuss race relations.

NOWHERE in the article is race discussed. Just Dean's stance on gun control.

Would the Dean campaign like to furnish a tape of that interview and prove that Dean was discussing race relations as he later claimed ON CAMERA? Or should we just wait for the Bush ads showing Dean's lie?

Can you stay out of just ONE dean thread for cryin out loud?!


Poison. Just poison.

until the general election and then let Rove disclose it?

that this issue has already gone in a different direction. It has become a race issue. Deal.

PLEASE use this Barbour/Bush example as a talking point! This is good stuff.

The Republicans are walking on a fine line if they are going to continue to criticize Dean on his statement, though they really don't need to bother since Democrats are doing a great job of jumping on him already.

I am really glad Dean said what he did. It opened up a can of worms, but the Democratic Party/liberals needs to deal with them, and they need to call the Republican Party on doing the exact same thing they accuse us of doing--pandering to a segment of the population. They pander to the racists in the south, and in a sense, the Democratic Party panders to the blacks in the south.

The Republicans assume the whites in the south are going to vote for them because they use those code phrases described in the article, and are known to turn their heads to racism, but at the same time doing little or nothing to implement policies aimed to better the everyday lives of the southern voter.

The Democrats assume blacks in the south and all over the country are going to vote for them because they speak out against racism and injustice, but in the same sense, while the party is very good at managing the economy which serves to improve the lives of almost everyone, they really do neglect a lot of the deeper issues that need to be addressed in the black, white and other minority communities throughout America.

Dean'is not the liar some want to believe he is. Quite the contrary. He speaks like an honest man. He has the humility to apologize to those he may have offended, but I still feel he is a bit perplexed as to why his statements offend people, because he knows what he meant. I've met people like this--they have a lot going on inside their head, and often forget that others don't have access to that information when they speak. He is more complicated than the average politician, and though he has some really great ideas, he needs to articulate them more succinctly. THAT is his achilles' heel. He leaves enough room in some of his statements for people to come in and twist his words, especially when he is tossing some novel idea into the political arena. He know's what he means, but not everyone has become familiar with the way this man thinks.

This was an excellent article. It points out the glaring hypocrisy of the Republican party and the left's failure to address the very important issue of The South, essentially having swept it under the carpet for decades. The Repubicans do the same with blacks (they've taken note of the booming hispanic population and are starting to target them as voters.). This is wrong in both cases. Democrats need to realize, as I have in the past week, that the southern issue is much more complex than we've believed.