MIAMI BEACH, July 14 -- Three Democratic presidential contenders alienated the leadership of the nation's largest civil rights organization today by skipping the candidates forum at the annual NAACP convention, an event attended by 6,000 members from chapters nationwide.
NAACP President Kweisi Mfume described the absent candidates -- Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.) and Reps. Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.) and Dennis J. Kucinich (Ohio) -- as "persona non grata" whose "political capital is now the equivalent of Confederate dollars."
"When candidates choose to ignore the NAACP, they have no legitimacy when they go into our communities later asking for our votes," Mfume said.
The absences and the sharp response from Mfume dominated attention before and after the forum, prompting angry assessments from delegates concerned about the Democratic Party's commitment to their core issues: affirmative action, health care and education.
"It's a slap in the face," said Ava Sudduth, a delegate from San Francisco.
Spokesmen for the candidates said Gephardt had a previous family commitment and that Kucinich did not attend because he has vowed not to miss any votes. Lieberman's spokesman, Jano Cabrera, said the senator had private meetings in New York and a television interview.
"No one should question Senator Lieberman's commitment to racial equality and equal opportunity," Cabrera said. "His record, dating back to the 1960s when he marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., . . . is as strong as anyone's."
Most of the candidates avoided the topic of the absences, probably with good reason. Sens. John F. Kerry (Mass.) and John Edwards (N.C.) initially had not planned to participate in the forum, but changed their minds after Mfume criticized possible no-shows on Saturday. Sen. Bob Graham (Fla.) said he was reluctant to criticize candidates who miss forums because of scheduling conflicts. Former Vermont governor Howard Dean, asked about the controversy as he entered the Miami Beach Convention Center, said his missing rivals were being "disrespectful."
"The African American community is one of the most important parts of the Democratic Party," he said as he swept past a sign that read "Maple-powered Dean."
Whatever energy was sapped out of the room by the uproar, candidate Al Sharpton tried to restore with a rousing performance that prompted standing ovations at least seven times from a crowd that had been warned to hold its applause. Sharpton waved an ax handle over his head as he drew parallels between the Democratic Party of today and the segregationist former Georgia governor Lester Maddox, whose death last month was marked by obituaries that recalled his infamous practice of using an ax handle to chase blacks from his Atlanta restaurant.
"I'm running because there's still an ax handle mentality in some parts of the Democratic Party," Sharpton said.
The other candidates reserved their rhetorical firepower for President Bush, ridiculing his record on education, health care, affirmative action and the Iraq war.
Dean accused the president of playing the "race card" by using the "racially loaded word . . . 'quotas' " in attacking admissions policies at the University of Michigan. Kerry said Bush "played Jefferson Davis with the Confederate flag in South Carolina," referring to that state's 2000 primary when candidate Bush said it was a matter for the people of South Carolina to decide.
But the most stinging remarks were reserved for the controversy over whether Bush and his aides used misleading information about Saddam Hussein's efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction as part of the justification to attack Iraq.
"We struggle for the truth, they struggle with the truth -- that's the truth," said Edwards, who had entered the ballroom moments before flanked by supporters chanting, "The next president of the United States is in the house."
Graham, who has been one of the most vocal critics of the Iraq war among the candidates, said before the forum began that Bush would be impeached if the same standard were applied to his remarks about Iraq's alleged nuclear program as to then-President Bill Clinton after his affair with White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky. But Graham acknowledged that impeachment proceedings against Bush are "a fantasy" as long as Republicans control Congress.
The forum also featured the unusual spectacle of candidates competing to boast of their jail records. During a discussion about restoring the voting rights of felons who have served their time, Sharpton said he was the only candidate who had been in jail, saying he served a "redemptive" sentence. But Kerry interjected, saying that he too had been to jail. A spokesman later said Kerry spent a night in jail after a Vietnam War protest.
When the five candidates stood to go, there were still four empty seats with four unclaimed name cards. One was for Bush, who spoke to the NAACP when he was running for president but has not returned to its convention since taking office. The other three were for the names on everyone's lips: Lieberman, Gephardt and Kucinich.
