NEWS: Dean Greeted Warmly by Arab Americans
Group Appears to Back Democrats
By David S. Broder
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 19, 2003; Page A05
DEARBORN, Mich., Oct. 18 -- An assemblage of politically active Arab Americans gave former Vermont governor Howard Dean repeated ovations Saturday at the windup of a two-day meeting that marked a clear shift of allegiance from President Bush to his Democratic rivals.
Dean got by far the warmest response of any of the seven presidential hopefuls who addressed the 300 people attending the national leadership conference of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a Washington-based advocacy group. But every Democratic speaker was applauded for criticizing the administration's policies in the Middle East and especially for the anti-terrorism tactics of Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, condemned by participants in a morning panel as targeting immigrants from Muslim countries and routinely violating their civil liberties.
The political tilt of the nominally nonpartisan gathering became so evident that James J. Zogby, the president of the AAI and himself a member of the Democratic National Committee's executive committee, told the activists attending from around the country that he had heard "some complain that there is an imbalance in the program." He said that is inevitable when nine people are running on the Democratic side and only one on the Republican.
But George D. Salem, chairman of the AAI board and an active Republican, acknowledged in his remarks that "there is a war going on" within the GOP and the administration, and that Arab Americans "and other moderates" have an uphill struggle with conservatives who support the anti-terrorism USA Patriot Act and align the U.S. government with the policies of the Israeli government.
The apparent shift of sentiment in the Arab American community could be of political significance. Polling by John Zogby, brother of the AAI president, indicated that in 2000, Bush enjoyed an 8-percentage -point lead over Al Gore among these voters. Numbering 500,000 to 1 million, they are concentrated in such battleground states as Michigan, Ohio and New Jersey. Bush has been in Dearborn, the largest community of Arab Americans, twice in the past 20 months, but opposition to his policies has continued to grow.
Dean followed a half-dozen of his rivals who spoke in person or by satellite Friday and lost no time in reminding the audience that unlike most of them, he had opposed the war in Iraq from the outset. He said that subsequent events have undercut the claims Bush made to support the war, adding that as president, "I would never send your sons and daughters . . . to a foreign land to fight without first telling the truth to the American people."
He described himself as optimistic about the chances of a peace agreement in the Middle East, based on U.S. support for separate Israeli and Palestinian states, despite the current fighting and diplomatic stalemate. He said that of all Arab peoples, the Palestinians "have the best opportunity to create democracy," and said he had met Palestinian leaders who are committed to that goal.
"But only an American president can bring peace," Dean said, joining others' complaint that Bush had let many opportunities for personal leadership slip. He was cheered when he repeated his earlier promise that if elected, he would send former President Bill Clinton as his personal envoy to the Middle East.
The cheers and ovations grew more frequent when he turned to condemning the Bush administration's anti-terrorism tactics within the United States, saying that its treatment of immigrants and roundups of Muslims amounted to "ethnic profiling" and violated constitutional guarantees -- reinforcing claims made by a battery of lawyers, scholars and community service agency workers during the morning panel.
"Because John Ashcroft touts the Patriot Act around the country does not mean John Ashcroft is a patriot," Dean said to rising cheers. "That American flag over there belongs to every American -- not only to John Ashcroft, Rush Limbaugh, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson."
In response to an audience question about the security fence under construction to separate Israel and Israeli settlements from Palestinian territory, Dean struggled. "The Israelis have a right to defend themselves," he said, "but this is a very sad story," blocking even casual contact between the two peoples. "The course of the wall," extending into disputed territory, "is a concern," he said, "as I have told the Israeli leadership. But this is a short-term tactic for defense against terror. The wall cannot be permanent."
That response was met by a moment of silence and then scattered applause. On Friday, when Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) offered a somewhat similar defense of Israeli policy, there were boos and shouts of opposition.
Throughout the meeting, Democratic speakers fared much better than the few Republicans who accepted invitations to appear. Former Republican National Committee chairman Marc Racicot, now chairman of Bush's reelection campaign, ran into stony silence Friday, while Democratic National Committee Chairman Terence A. McAuliffe was lustily cheered at the evening banquet, where Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.) delivered his standard stump speech to applause.
John Khamis of San Jose, Calif., a Republican activist, said the combination of Bush's Middle East policy and Ashcroft's use of the Patriot Act means that "the attractive parts of the Republican agenda, our economic policies, are falling on deaf ears."
Asked if he thought Bush could regain support among Arab Americans before next year's election, Khamis said, "I don't know. It's going to take a real effort, and the odds are against him. I've had 30-year Republicans tell me they are re-registering as independents." |
