Howard Dean’s acceptance speech upon assuming the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), February 12, 2005:
“We are definitely going to do religious outreach.”
Howard Dean’s speech in San Francisco, June 6, 2005:
“It’s [the Republican Party] pretty much a white, Christian party.”
Catholic League president William Donohue’s response is as follows:
“Dean’s comment in San Francisco was the kind of snide remark that we would expect from someone who regards white Christians as the enemy—not from someone who is the titular leader of the Democratic Party. Precisely how Dean expects to do religious outreach when he writes off the majority of the nation is not known, but it is a sure bet that if his counterpart in the Republican Party were to refer to the Democrats as the party of blacks and secularists, he’d be canned.
“This is not the first time Dean, or the DNC, has insulted Christians, especially Catholics. When Dean sought the nomination for president in the Democratic Party, he drew support from the nation’s largest anti-Catholic group, Catholics for a Free Choice. The DNC, under Terry McAuliffe, offended Catholics for years by keeping a link on its website to this bigoted organization; it was dropped after we led a lengthy protest against the DNC. Furthermore, the Catholic League was responsible for having the Kerry campaign silence its religious outreach advisor, and for pressuring the DNC’s religious outreach director to resign (both were way out of the mainstream).
“Catholics are about evenly split between the two parties, but that could change. Why either party would allow its leader to offend people of faith is beyond belief.”
