Howard Dean playing the race card - badly

Howard Dean (you all remember the scream) is now the chairman of the Democratic National Committee.  Today, he called the Republican Party the "white" party reasoning that "if you look at folks of color, even women, they're more successful in the Democratic party than they are in the white, uh, excuse me, in the Republican party."  (Listen here.)

Dean's play of the race card seems off base to me.  Apparently he is not aware that Colin Powell is not white . . . Condoleezza Rice is not white . . . Clarence Thomas is not white.  All three seem more successful than any minority Democrat since Thurgood Marshall.  

Marshall, of course, was the last African-American Democrat to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court where Thomas now serves.  Thomas, a Republican, was appointed by another member of the "white" party, George H.W. Bush.  Democrat Bill Clinton, by the way, appointed two of the nine current justices and, last I checked, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer are both white.

Powell and Rice, arguably, are more "successful" than any other African-Americans in history.  As Secretary of State, Powell was and Rice now is fourth in line to the presidency.  Since there has never been a minority President, Vice President, Speaker of the House, or President pro tempore of the Senate, and never before a black Secretary of State, these two Republicans rose higher than any minority Democrat ever did.  And one of them is "even" a woman.

I also find it a bit ironic in this context that the white man directly ahead of Condoleezza Rice in the order of presidential succession is Senator Robert Byrd is a former Ku Klux Klan member, recruiter, and "Exalted Cyclops."  But Byrd doesn't belong to the "white" party . . . he's a Democrat.

Powell, Rice, and Thomas are not the only minority Republicans who have achieved great success.  They are simply three great examples to refute Howard Dean's latest stupid comments.