Uncle Howard* continues to crack me up.  If ever there was a poster child for the lack of clear agenda and consistent principles, it’s him.

The little faux pass he just made is a perfect example, and even as it shows him to be trying to pander to the fundamentalists while also maintaining the ever important support of the gay alliance, it also showed how the DNC platform was deliberately made ambiguous so as to make them accessible to both sided depending on interpretation.

The Democrats, particularly DNC Chair Dean, appear to want to appeal to all sides on the issue, something that identifies him as an experienced politician but leaves him appearing to lack integrity, and in this case, leadership.

Dean slams gay marriage on ‘700 Club’

Democratic Party Chair Howard Dean has contradicted his party’s platform and infuriated gay rights advocates by saying the party’s platform states "marriage is between a man and a woman."

"The Democratic Party platform from 2004 says marriage is between a man and a woman," Dean said May 10 during a "700 Club" program hosted by conservative Christian leader Pat Robertson on his Christian Broadcasting Network.

That statement contradicts the Democratic National Committee’s official stance, adopted in 2004. The ‘04 party platform indicates that marriage is an issue that should be left to the states to resolve, taking no position on whether or not states should marry same-sex couples.

"We support full inclusion of gay and lesbian families in the life of our nation and seek equal responsibilities, benefits, and protections for these families," the platform says.

And there we see it.  Their platform is cleverly ambiguous.  Inclusion and equality are possible without opening the door to a challenge of traditional definitions of marriage.

Of course he was quick to issue a correction:

"I misstated the Democratic Party’s platform, which does not say that marriage should be limited to a man and a woman, but says the party is committed to full inclusion of gay and lesbian families in the life of our nation and leaves the issue to the states to decide," Dean is quoted as saying in the statement.

"The Democratic Party remains committed to equal protection under the law for all Americans. How we achieve that goal continues to be the subject of a contentious debate, but our party continues to oppose constitutional amendments that seek to short circuit the debate on how to achieve equality for all Americans."

So was Uncle Howard just making an oops, or was this calculated?  That may depend on who you ask.  One Republican Gay rights group lost no time in making issue of it:

Howard Dean puts his foot in his mouth so often that he should open a pedicure wing in the DNC during his tenure," Log Cabin Republicans President Patrick Guerriero said Wednesday. "Howard Dean’s positions on LGBT issues have changed more often than the weather in New England, where he’s from."

Guerriero applauded the Task Force for taking a principled stand, and said Dean’s frequent flubs on gay issues are doing gays more harm than good.

"It’s not good for the movement as a whole," Guerriero said, "and he should be held accountable for these types of actions."

While a similar Democratic group was unhappy, it characterized it as a misstatement:

 Jo Wyrick, interim executive director of National Stonewall Democrats, a gay partisan group, also said that Dean was not accurately representing the Democratic Party’s views on marriage.

"Democrats do not believe that the federal government should forcefully dictate family policy for individual states, as championed by congressional Republicans and the Bush administration," she said in a statement issued May 10. "Therefore, we strongly point out that Governor Dean incorrectly spoke when stating that the 2004 Democratic Party platform defines marriage as between a man and a woman."

Not accurately representing?  This is Clintonianism at its best really.  It was a clear and by all accounts deliberate misrepresentation.

Gay organizations were quick to criticize Dean, saying this is just the latest in a series of missteps by the former Vermont governor on gay issues.

"The Human Rights Campaign refused to accept that Dean’s remarks were an accidental misrepresentation of the party’s position and issued a strongly worded statement on Thursday, May 11, condemning the remarks.

"Governor Dean’s comments weren’t a mere slip of the tongue but a glaring reminder of the governor’s lack of leadership on this issue," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese.

"As we face a Senate vote in June that threatens to put discrimination in our Constitution, Governor Dean should not only have known better but he should have used the opportunity to speak out about the lack of values involved in the current constitutional debate," Solmonese said, referring to the upcoming vote on the "Marriage Protection Amendment," which would ban states from marrying gay couples.

Solmonese said the DNC’s clarification was "a step in the right direction," but that Dean has failed to convey a "commitment to equality."

There was also a fairly harsh slap in the face:

Within hours of the program’s broadcast, the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force denounced Dean’s misrepresentation.

"Disturbingly, this is not the first time he has misrepresented this important and affirming plank [of the Democratic Party platform], and he has been asked before to correct the record and to cease making these misleading statements," said Matt Foreman, executive director of the Task Force.

Foreman said in response to Dean’s "pandering and insulting interview" with the Christian Broadcasting Network, the Task Force would return a $5,000 donation it received from the DNC.

"We do so with great sadness, knowing that the Democratic Party has long been a champion of our rights," he said. "We urge [Dean] to take the money we are returning today and spend it to defeat these attacks on LGBT people and our families."

Let me get this straight, they returned money the Democrats gave them?  Isn’t that backwards?   Are the Democrats buying votes instead of the normal practice of having people buy theirs?

That may be the most ironic part of this.

So what exactly is Uncle Howard’s* record on GLBT issues?

"Governor Dean’s record on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues since becoming DNC chair has been sorely and sadly lacking," Foreman said. "The Democratic Party chair should stand by and fight for the party’s own platform and values."

On May 2, Dean fired the Democratic Party’s gay outreach adviser Donald Hitchcock. The firing came less than a week after Hitchcock’s domestic partner, Paul Yandura, a longtime party activist, accused Dean of failing to take adequate steps to defend gay rights.

Last year, Dean upset some gay Democratic activists by eliminating the DNC constituency desk system, including the GLBT outreach desk. He said he replaced the desk system with a new system of integrating constituency outreach work throughout all DNC offices and programs.Dean said the new system would be an improvement over the previous system, and that the party would expand its gay outreach efforts.But some gay Democrats were further angered in February, when the DNC released its "Annual Report to the Grassroots," which omitted any mention of gays or the party’s gay outreach efforts. Activists pointed to a similar grassroots report issued a year earlier by Dean’s predecessor, Terry McAuliffe, which included a detailed account of the party’s gay outreach program.DNC officials insisted then that the six-page grassroots report issued by Dean was intended to be a brief, preliminary account of Dean’s plan to rebuild the party by strengthening its field operation in all 50 states.Then, six weeks ago, gay rights leaders met with eight prominent Democratic senators to air their complaints about the party’s "tortuous" positions on marriage and other issues.

Dean’s trouble with gay Democrats comes after gays were credited with playing a crucial early role in the former Vermont governor’s 2004 presidential run, raising large sums and generating word-of-mouth support based on Dean’s role signing into law his state’s landmark civil unions law in 2000.

While all this is upsetting it is unlikely to completely errode the normally broad support Gay Rights Advocates have for the Democrats:

"I think that Governor Dean has a strong vision for how to move the party forward, and I truly believe that he has a plan to motivate our community to support Democrats," he said. "However, it will be to the benefit of the party for the DNC to proactively present their vision in a public way."

Marble said Stonewall Democrats and other gay organizations, remain ready to partner with the DNC.

"I think it’s really important for the DNC to seize this opportunity," he said, "and not let it slip by."

So the damage may be cosmetic, more then intrinsic.

But maybe it will be a good wake up call for the Gays and some of the other groups aligned with the Democrats, a reminder that when all is said and done, they are votes and dollars not people, and they are the means (votes) to an end (power), at least to some of the leaders in the party.

Which is pretty much politics as usual isn’t it?

For more on Uncle Howard*:  Sister Toldjah, Just One Minute

*Howard Dean is like that slightly crazy and usually embarrassing old uncle at a family reunion. You know, he’s the one who you never quite know what he is doing to say or do, and it’s sure to be a train wreck, but dang it he is family so you cant leave him at home.  So you try to keep him occupied in the corner until it’s time to go home…some days you cringe, some days you breathe a sigh of relief.