Dean Misquoted

I don’t usually bother to refute nonsense found on right wing blogs, but will make an exception here after seeing it included at Daou Report. Ankle Biting Pundits posts a claim that Dean “called Republicans bigots.”

I went to check their link, wading through several pages where Philly.com tried to get me to sign up for tons of unwanted email offers. Ultimately I got to the actual story. Guess what. No use of the word “bigot.”

Here’s what they really report about what Dean said. Can’t find anything incorrect there:

Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean told the National Council of La Raza in Philadelphia today that he expected the Republicans to “scapegoat” immigrants in the 2006 election.

In a speech to the annual convention of hispanic leaders, Dean said the GOP tried to generate fears about blacks through the quota issue in the 2002 election and about gays through the marriage issue last year.

“In 2006, it’s going to be immigrants,” he said. “You wait and see.”

Republican chairman Kenneth Mehlman, in his own address to the group, did not respond to Dean’s comments directly. He later told reporters that the allegation was “laughable” and said that President Bush had put together what Mehlman called “the most diverse administration in history.”