Inside Politics

Dean on the loose

Oh, dear. Howard Dean is being, well, Howard Dean.

The habitually expressive Democratic National Committee chairman is not retracting a questionable remark he made before a group of black Democrats in New York last week.

“You think the Republican National Committee could get this many people of color in a single room? Only if they had the hotel staff in here,” he told his audience Feb. 11 — a comment that drew mixed reviews, indeed.

Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele, who is black, categorized the remark as “racially insensitive and intolerable,” and called for an apology.

Dream on.

Speaking at a Baltimore fund-raiser yesterday for Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Maryland Democrat and former head of the Congressional Black Caucus, Mr. Dean got feisty all over again.

“You don’t apologize when people call you names. You fight back,” he told a 60-member audience that included none other than Mr. Steele.

But Mr. Dean was decidedly unrepentant, according to an account from WBAL, a Baltimore radio station.

“You know why they talk?” he demanded, referring to annoyed Republicans.

“Because they have nothing to say about education and health care,” Mr. Dean concluded.

Swift boats, Part 2

Meanwhile, Jim Dean was named chairman of Democracy for America (DFA) on Wednesday. The Vermont-based political action committee was founded by brother Howard Dean a year ago as a base camp for his grass-roots presidential campaign.

Jim has his plate full already.

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