MARION, Iowa — The Democratic Party awoke from its autumn slumber Saturday night in a small banquet hall amid the snowy fields of eastern Iowa.
The third annual Linn County Democratic Party Sustaining Dinner, at $25 a head, lured more than 300 loyalists and three of the party's six declared presidential candidates to the landscape that local artist Grant Wood made famous in "American Gothic."
Unofficially, the dinner served as a kickoff for the Iowa caucuses -- the first event on the 2004 presidential nominating calendar, now less than a year away. But the gathering may best be remembered for the unspoken message that rang through the candidates' rhetoric: Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri and Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts all demonstrated that they will not flinch from political combat the way so many Democrats did during the dispiriting fall midterm elections.
Democrats should "not worry about Rush Limbaugh and [not] worry about the president's popularity rating," Dean practically shouted, but "rather stand up for what we believe in as Democrats."
That included, by unanimous consent, universal health care, better schools, a multilateral approach to foreign policy, government backing of affirmative action, greater environmental protection, a reversal of President Bush's tax cuts and, this being Iowa, increased use of corn-based ethanol to wean the country from its reliance on foreign oil.
That was not an unusual Democratic laundry list, or nearly as "bold and distinctive" as Gephardt suggested. More noteworthy was the heaping scorn the candidates piled on as the evening's accompaniment to a buffet spread of salad, roast pork, green beans and baked potatoes.
Standing before a small blue curtain, flanked by an American flag and Iowa's state banner, the candidates derided Bush's economic policy as "dead wrong" and dubbed his policy toward North Korea "inept." His stand on affirmative action was deemed a "disgrace," and his homeland security policy branded a dangerous, disastrous failure.
The crowd ate it up.
"Fabulous," said David Loebsack, a political science professor at nearby Cornell College and one of the event organizers. "This is what we needed to hear, more taking George Bush head-on. I think everyone recognizes that wasn't done before November 2002, and Democrats suffered as a result."
