Posted on 10/30/2003 1:57:19 PM PST by woofer
Dean, Gephardt staffs trade angry remarks
A Dean worker says he was called a derogatory name. Gephardt's staff says the accusation is a "dirty trick.'
By KEN FUSON
Dean, Gephardt staffs trade angry remarks> Register Staff Writer 10/30/2003
With their presidential candidates locked in a neck-and-neck race in Iowa, the campaign staffs for Democratic rivals Howard Dean and Dick Gephardt are hurling angry accusations at each other over an incident this week in Des Moines.
Dean staffers say an openly gay campaign worker was pushed by Gephardt's Iowa campaign manager and called a "faggot" by someone else on Gephardt's national staff. The confrontations allegedly occurred Tuesday afternoon, following Gephardt's speech on health care at an east-side senior center.
Gephardt's spokesman denied that anyone from the candidate's staff used that word.
Joe Trippi, Dean's national campaign manager, said the Gephardt worker should be fired.
"This behavior from a campaign staff member is beyond the pale," he wrote to Steve Murphy, Gephardt's national campaign manager.
In response, officials with the Gephardt campaign called the accusations "absolutely false" and said they represent a "dirty trick" by the Dean campaign. "I think they sent somebody intentionally to the event to create a news story like this one," said Erik Smith, Gephardt's national press secretary.
The dispute could have political ramifications in a tight campaign. Dean is noted for supporting a Vermont law that gave gay couples the same rights as married couples, and he enjoys support among gay-rights groups. Gephardt also supports civil unions and he takes credit for fighting against anti-gay legislation in Congress. Gephardt's daughter, Chrissy, is openly a lesbian. She campaigns for her father and is scheduled to appear at 7:30 p.m. today at Drake University's Olmsted Center. Tensions between the two staffs have escalated since recent polls have indicated that Dean, a former Vermont governor, and Gephardt, a Missouri congressman, are engaged in a tight race for first place in Iowa, three months before the caucuses.
Last weekend, the Iowa campaign managers for Dean and Gephardt agreed informally on a code of conduct for staff members who attend a rival's event. Campaigns often send people - called "trackers" - to monitor the opposition.
"We thought it was OK for our staff member to attend their event, and OK for them to attend ours," said Sarah Leonard, Dean's Iowa press secretary.
The agreement unraveled quickly at Tuesday's speech. Hunter Allen, 24, a Californian who had worked for the Dean campaign in Vermont, said he moved to Des Moines two weeks ago to work for Dean. He was assigned to follow Gephardt for the first time last Friday. Allen said in an interview that Gephardt campaign workers were cordial to him then and again on Saturday.
But he said the reception was hostile on Tuesday, when he was assigned to monitor Gephardt's speech on health-care issues. In the speech, Gephardt sharply attacked Dean's position on Medicare.
What happened next is disputed among the people involved. Reporters saw Allen standing and talking on his cellular phone, near the front of the senior citizen center, while Gephardt spoke. Allen said he received a call and tried to be "quiet and discreet," but that he was ushered into the foyer and rebuked by John Lapp, Gephardt's campaign manager in Iowa.
Allen said he apologized and was allowed to return.
Gephardt staffers told a different story. "When approached about his disruptive behavior, he became very belligerent," Smith said. "They had been sending people without incident for months. Clearly this was something else. This was a dirty trick."
After his speech, Gephardt held an impromptu press conference. Allen joined the media huddle, recording Gephardt's remarks.
Allen said Lapp "pulled me back and forcibly shoved me to the side. At that point, he cussed at me and told me I was interrupting his event."
Lapp said Allen was "disruptive and cursed at me."
After the news conference, Allen said, he was confronted again by Lapp and by another Gephardt staff member, whom he didn't know. "They were both getting in my face," he said. The other staff member "was particularly forceful and was pushing me out the door and grabbing my arm. Then he called me a faggot."
A reporter witnessed an angry, finger-pointing confrontation between the unidentified Gephardt worker and Allen outside the senior center, but did not hear what was said. No one else appeared to be within earshot at the time Allen claims the name-calling occurred. Lapp said he believes the accused staffer was a traveling aide on Gephardt's national staff. He declined to identify him.
Lapp issued this statement: "No one in our campaign did anything wrong here. The accusations are simply not true. There were 20 reporters in the room who saw the whole thing. This is a classic diversionary tactic because Governor Dean has no answers as to why he supported the Republican Medicare cuts in 1995. So he has stooped to this level of dirty tricks to try to change the subject, and it won't work."
Allen, who is gay, said he was shaken by the incident. "It's not something that I would ever expect to happen. It was a very uncomfortable situation to me, and it took me by surprise, because I would never expect that kind of behavior in a professional setting," he said. Allen said he wants an apology and he wants the Gephardt staff member to be fired. "I had no intention of disrupting that meeting, and they know that," he said. "I went to other meetings."
Dean's Iowa campaign staff released Allen's written report on the incident to The Des Moines Register, then arranged an interview with him.
Allen did not record the confrontations he described. Leonard said he had turned off the tape recorder. "They don't have any evidence," said Smith, Gephardt's spokesman. "The guy was there audio-recording the event. If this is true, why don't they have an audio-recording of it?"
Smith said Murphy, Gephardt's national campaign manager, conducted an internal investigation, interviewing campaign workers, and concluded the name-calling allegation was untrue.
"However, it's important to say that if anyone on this campaign used any kind of slur like that, they would be fired," Smith said.
He also declined to identify the staff member accused of confronting Allen. "These are McCarthyite tactics," he said. "I'm not going to offer up somebody's name for a totally unsubstantiated rumor," he said, adding that the Dean campaign"should be ashamed of itself."
Smith said the Dean campaign worker "was disruptive and belligerent and crossed the line from being an observer to a participant in the event. . . . This is all just one big political dirty trick."
Neither Dean nor Gephardt could be reached for comment late Wednesday. Leonard, Dean's spokeswoman, said Dean "has been told about the situation and he is concerned and he's very upset about it. He does not feel that that language is appropriate and should not be directed toward anyone."
Allen said he changed plans to monitor Gephardt in Iowa on Wednesday. "For my safety, our campaign director asked me not to do any tracking (Wednesday)," he said. "It's been a disconcerting situation."
As the elections get closer, the circus will produce more daily shows.
I would have jammed the phone up his butt.
Heheheh.
If their gonna have a pissing contest maybe they need the "Pissing Boy Statue w/fountain" for their campaign offices!
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