Democrats drub no-show Dean
By Brian DeBose
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Three candidates for the Democratic nomination for president debated yesterday in the District, agreeing that the city should be granted statehood, and that front-runner Howard Dean should have shown up.
The Rev. Al Sharpton at the end of the debate aimed a question at the no-show: "You have been supported by all of these Democrats here today who have put their credibility on the line; so why would you disrespect that support by not showing up?"
He then plopped down into Mr. Dean's empty seat and mocked the candidate's angry-look and finger-wagging style.
Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio, former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois and Mr. Sharpton criticized and mocked Mr. Dean several times for his absence. The first and last questions during the debate were directed at Mr. Dean's empty chair in Jack Morton Auditorium at George Washington University.
"I wish Mister Dean was here to support the city the way we have, and discuss these important issues," Mr. Kucinich said.
The three candidates agreed on nearly every topic, from health care and education to the war in Iraq to statehood.
But Mrs. Moseley Braun set herself apart from the others when she said she would sign a bill to end the District's gun ban and that she would oppose a commuter tax on residents of Maryland and Virginia who work in the District.
"I have always supported reasonable gun control," she said, "but I think under the Constitution people have the right and should be able to have guns."
She said the city's attempt to impose a commuter tax was a mistake.
"I speak from experience on this, and it is a job killer. It didn't work in Chicago; it dried up jobs, and D.C. needs jobs," Mrs. Moseley Braun said.
Mr. Sharpton said he would support the tax to heal the city's structural deficit. A recent report by the General Accounting Office showed that even with a balanced budget and perfect management the city would hemorrhage about $1 billion annually.
Mr. Kucinich, who several times said he lives and works in the District, had to ask the panel what the commuter tax would do, before saying he would support it.
Mrs. Moseley Braun said she favored a system in which the federal government calculates the money the city loses on its large tracts of federal land and pays a type of rent to the city.
The three candidates who attended the debate and Mr. Dean are the only candidates with national recognition to appear on the ballot in the District's nonbinding primary Tuesday.
Five of the nine major presidential candidates — Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and John Edwards of North Carolina, plus Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri and Wesley Clark — asked to be left off the District ballot. They said they did not want a conflict with the Democratic National Committee over New Hampshire holding the nation's first binding primary. The D.C. balloting won't count.
None of the five participated in yesterday's event sponsored by Mayor Anthony A. Williams, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District's nonvoting representative in Congress, and the local chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Urban League.
There was a jovial air at the event, as perennial one-name mayoral candidate Faith made an appearance and blew her bugle, though only once. And supporters of presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche, who is on the ballot but was not invited, disrupted the proceedings to protest his exclusion.
But most of the issues were serious and focused on the city.
None of the candidates supported the plan pending in Congress to offer vouchers to send public school students to private schools.
Quality public education is the cornerstone of the American dream, she said, "and what vouchers do is siphon off money from the public school system."
Mr. Sharpton called the voucher system yet another attempt by the Bush White House to privatize what should be a public institution. Mr. Kucinich touted his voting record in Congress against the plan, which is supported by Mr. Williams and members of the D.C. Council.
The most prominent issue was statehood for the District, which all three candidates supported.
"I would issue an executive order calling for statehood, and challenge the Congress to stop me," Mr. Sharpton said.
Mr. Kucinich, at a rally after the debate at Mimi's Bistro in Northwest, said he planned to introduce a bill in the next session of Congress to give D.C. two senators and a voting representative in the House. |
