Rivals flog defiant Dean with the Confederate flag

BOSTON — Howard Dean's presidential rivals finally found a flag to rally around.

The Confederate flag.

A heated debate-night exchange over the former Vermont governor's rhetorical courtship of Southern voters gave hope to his fellow Democratic candidates as they seek to drive a wedge between Dean and key party constituencies such as blacks, elderly voters and gun control advocates.

It also opened a window into Dean's personality — defiant and defensive.

"I think they did some damage tonight," Art English, political science professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, said Tuesday. "They put the thought into people's minds that Dean perhaps is somehow catering to an element that is racist, perhaps, and not necessarily reaching out to Southern voters per se."

At issue was an interview last week in which Dean said he wanted to be "the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks." Defending his moderate gun control policies, the former Vermont governor said, "We can't beat George Bush unless we appeal to a broad cross-section of Democrats."

Asked by a 25-year-old supermarket buyer to explain his statement, Dean said white voters need to realize they're helping to promote GOP policies that don't help them. "When white people and black people and brown people vote together in this country, that's the only time that we make social progress."

Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina and Al Sharpton of New York jumped on Dean's answer, demanding that he apologize. Dean didn't budge.

Democratic activists said afterward that this was the first debate in which Dean's rivals laid a hand on him.

Butch Hollowell, former general counsel of the NAACP who now chairs the Democratic Party in Michigan, praised Dean for energizing young voters but said the former governor still has questions to answer for black voters. "He's got to make sure that people feel comfortable with him. It's a fair question. I think there's just some more that's required there. I just think that people have a right to a little more detail," Hollowell said.

"Governor Dean was trying to reach out to disenfranchised voters in the South, but he needs to be more careful," said Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico. "I don't think this is serious, but it has put a little bit of a dent in his front-runner status."

Richardson, one of the leading Hispanic politicians in the country, said Dean was staggered by the criticism.