That circular firing squad

When are Democrats going to learn some basic party loyalty? I refer, of course, to the current Dean bashing going on. Here's what happened: Howard Dean said the Republican Party is the party of white Christians. Then other prominent Democrats publically denounced him for saying that -- including Joe Lieberman, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama. Aside from the fact that what Dean said is true, it's just plain stupid for us to attack our own. Here's a comment I found on Daily Kos with which I utterly agree:

Even if you disagree with Howard's statements, you do NOT go on TV and speak against him!!! Come on, you don't do this! The repubs would NEVER do this, NEVER. Call Dean, speak privately to him, but Biden has given Hannity and all of the other talking heads ammunition. Put on Hannity - he keeps talking about how even Biden and PELOSI don't support Dean and how he may have to resign.

I swear, if the dems don't learn to stick together, we are never going to defeat these determined, malevolent people in the White House - our only way is to hold a united front.

Of course, the Republican Party is not exactly known for diversity. Here's part of an article I found on AMERICAblog:

Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2004 Fenton Communications

BEHIND TODAY'S FACADE OF DIVERSITY LIES A NEARLY ALL-WHITE REPUBLICAN PARTY

One Percent of Republican Legislators in the States And Washington are African-American or Hispanic

Newspaper Ads Point to Retro Republican Reality

The uninformed viewer watching TV coverage of this week's Republican national convention in New York might come away thinking that the President's party is built upon a solid commitment to inclusion of racial minorities. Once again, as it does every four years, the Republican Party is trying to portray itself as a 'big tent,' with room for every American.

But a new book about America's political divisions notes that the 99 percent of all Republican legislators across the country and in Congress are white. The national Republican Party, whose base is in the South, the Plains and the Mountain states, looks to white men as its power base and source of leadership. Even when Republican states have significant minority populations, the elected Republican representatives rarely are drawn from those communities.

The Great Divide: Retro vs. Metro America, a new look at political divisions in America by educator-entrepreneur Dr. John Sperling, calls those states 'Retro America,' and notes: 'Its whiteness and maleness are mirrored in the Republican Party.'

So Howard Dean told the truth.

The Dean bashing has also created a distraction away from the real news: the Downing Street memo and that fact that Bush's approval rates are at an all time low. I wish I could get those self-serving, disloyal Democrats together in one room and scream at them, "What were you thinking???"