Dean in Alabama: DNC Chairman Compares Efforts to Control Illegal Immigration to Lynching

From the AP today:

Portraying Democrats as the people of real moral values, Howard Dean addressed Martin Luther King Jr.'s civil rights organization on Tuesday amid complaints his party has taken black voters for granted too long.

In a swipe at Republicans who campaign on a conservative agenda that includes opposition to abortion and gay marriage, Dean told the Southern Christian Leadership Conference that Democrats believe in moral values like feeding hungry children and providing health insurance to everyone...

Dean, recalling Republican efforts to get anti-gay marriage measures on state ballots last year, said he expects GOP leaders to use the time before the 2008 election to push anti-immigration proposals that could help invigorate conservative voters.

"The Southern Christian Leadership Conference knows very well about vigilante justice, and we don't want to go back to those days," Dean said.

In his reference to "vigilante justice," is unclear whether Dr. Dean was implicating private efforts like the Minuteman Project or whether he was speaking more broadly to include proposals that the various levels of government establish better control over America's borders, either by enforcement of existing law or the enactment of new laws.

Either way, prudent, peaceful, and lawful measures to control illegal immigration are a far cry from the violent and unlawful vigilante justice against U.S. citizens that occurred far too often during the past century. I'd like to see the full transcript of Dr. Dean's comments, so there is no doubt as to their proper context, but early indications are that the doc has had a recurrence of "foot-in-mouth" disease.