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DNC Chairman Howard Dean's comments, as reported in this San Francisco Chronicle story, that Republicans are:

"A pretty monolithic party. They all behave the same. They all look the
same. It's pretty much a white Christian party.”

Have generated tons of interests. While the comments of longtime Democrat and Def Jam founder Russell Simmons, as reported in this New York Daily News story, that:

"When it comes to reaching out to poor people and minorities, I think there's no
enthusiasm on Howard [Dean]'s part, while [RNC Chairman] Ken [Mehlman] shows a real willingness to listen."

Have been largely ignored.

The fact that African Americans are finally getting the Democrats and the Republicans to pay attention to us, and finally move from giving our issues lip service to taking action, is a great development.

What Blacks are doing is no different than what the "religious right" has done for years. We are tired of the rhetoric and the clitonian masquerades (that is acting like you care) when you don’t give a heck that the Democratic Party has been doing on black folk for years.

Dean's comment that:

"We're more welcoming to different folks, because that's the type of people we
are. But that's not enough. We do have to deliver on things: jobs and housing
and business opportunities."

Shows he is listening. But that has to translate into action. Why hasn't Dean (and to larger extent the democratic party leadership) moved to support well-qualified African American candidates running for office who find themselves challenged by lesser-qualified white candidates? Kweisi Mfume shouldn't have a primary challenger in his Maryland Senate campaign; Michael Coleman shouldn't have a primary challenger in his Ohio Gubernatorial campaign and Charles Sanders shouldn't have a primary challenger in his Ohio 2nd Congressional District campaign. But these highly qualified African American candidates all find themselves challenged in primary battles by white Democrats. Why? And they (Democratic Party leaders) wonder why we(African Americans) are leaving the Democratic Party in droves.