In one of the sharper exchanges of the whole campaign season, the Rev. Al Sharpton confronted Dr. Dean with what Mr. Sharpton described as the lack of minority officials in senior positions in Dr. Dean's administration as governor.
"Do you have a senior member of your cabinet that was black or brown?" Mr. Sharpton demanded, after Dr. Dean had earlier suggested that hiring more minorities was a key to racial understanding in America.
"We had a senior member of my staff on my fifth floor," Dr. Dean responded elliptically, in an apparent reference to the executive offices in Vermont.
"No, your cabinet!" Mr. Sharpton said. Dr. Dean responded quietly: "No, we did not."
"Then you need to let me talk to you about race in this country," Mr. Sharpton said.
Dr. Dean responded, moments later, "I will take a back seat to no one in my commitment to civil rights in America."
At another point, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina lectured Dr. Dean on Southern sensibilities. Dr. Dean had just apologized again for saying last fall that he wanted to be "the candidate for guys with Confederate flags" in their pickup trucks. He declared that the flag "is a painful symbol to African-Americans."
Mr. Edwards countered that the flag was offensive "to all Americans."
The debate revealed no major new differences among the candidates, and for the most part allowed them to use their last joint televised appearance to restate the themes most of them have been sounding in the state for more than a year. But the strains of relentless campaigning were evident in their hoarse voices, sagging faces and short tempers.
Carol Moseley Braun, unfailingly cool and cordial in past debates, seemed roused by the bickering over race. Ms. Braun pivoted off Mr. Sharpton's exchange with Dr. Dean to ask why Mr. Gephardt, as House Democratic leader, had not pressed harder to protect affirmative action programs. And she demanded to know how Mr. Edwards could vote regularly with President Bush in Congress, yet attack Dr. Dean so readily.
"You voted for the Patriot Act," she said. "You voted to deploy the missile defense system. And yet you stand up here and call Howard a hypocrite. This is not right."
Ms. Braun was just as blunt with Mr. Sharpton, with whom she has long had a tense relationship, suggesting that he was stirring racial divisions before a national television audience.
"It's time for us to talk about what are you going to do to bring people together because people cannot afford a racial screaming match," she said. "We have to come together. We have to come together as one nation to get past these problems."
Mr. Edwards disputed the details of Ms. Braun's charge, saying, "Well, Carol, that was a great speech, but what you just said is not right." And Mr. Sharpton defended his decision to assail Dr. Dean's record on civil rights, declaring: "I want him to be accountable, since he brought up race. That's not racial hysteria. That is accountability."
The combined black and Hispanic population of Iowa in the 2000 census was roughly 5 percent of the state's total populace, meaning that from the candidates' viewpoint, parts of this debate were aimed as much at voters in South Carolina, which votes on Feb. 3, as at caucus-goers here.
The Iowa Black and Brown Forum, founded to represent the interests of blacks and Latinos, has been a feature of the Iowa caucuses for 20 years, and Sunday's encounter was its fifth presidential debate since 1984. This year's caucuses coincide with Martin Luther King's Birthday, and the debate was intended to address issues of particular concern to minorities.
| Continue Todd S. Purdum and Adam Nagourney's New York Times article "In Final Debate Before Caucuses, Democrats Tangle on Race Issues"
Update: The Washington Post has FDCH Media's "Complete Transcript: Iowa Brown and Black Presidential Forum"
posted in articles on January 12, 2004 1:33 AM | t (0)
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