Former Gov. Howard Dean, now chairman of the Democratic National Committee, appears to be in some deep do-do with the gay-lesbian community if the outtakes from a deposition of Dean that appeared today in The Sleuth, a prominent Washington Post blog.
Dean and the DNC are being sued by Donald Hitchcock, who was the DNC's gay/lesbian outreach director until he was fired in 2006 with Dean's approval. Hitchcock claims he was shown the door because he gay and because his partner had griped publicly that the DNC hadn't done enough to oppose anti-gay ballot initiatives around the country. BTW, it appears many in the DC gay/lesbian community take issue with Hitchcock's criticism of the DNC.
In any case, a couple of weeks back Dean was deposed in connection with the case. It wasn't a pleasant experience for our sometimes short-tempered former guv.
To check out the full report in The Sleuth, click
HERE, but to give you a sample of what I'm talking about, here's some back-and-forth between Dean and Hitchcock's attorney, Lynne Bernabei, after Bernabei needled Dean about why he didn't hold a public ceremony after signing Vermont's civil union bill into law in 2000.
Dean: "You don't get to put words in my mouth If you want the truth and whole truth and nothing but the truth...You have to let me answer your question."
Bernabei: "You can say anything you want. You are a politician, Mr. Dean."
Dean: "You are not behaving in a manner which is professionally competent or qualifying. You are an embarrassment to this profession, counselor."
Bernabei: "Well, it is not your profession. Thank you."
Dean: "It is my daughter's profession. I am going to show her this tape so she never behaves like this."
Yeaaaaah!
-- Sam Hemingway