Howard Dean fires gay man in apparent retaliation against his partner

Can you say Valerie Plame?

The Democratic National Committee yesterday fired its gay liaision, my friend Donald Hitchcock, and immediately replaced him with someone else (thus showing the position wasn't phased out). What's odd about the firing, to put it lightly is that it comes within days of Donald's partner, Paul Yandura, publicly criticizing the DNC for not being pro-gay enough.

The DNC claims they aren't retaliating against the spouse for the other spouse's politics. From all apperances, that's exactly what they're doing.

Howard Dean would never fire a straight woman because her husband had criticized the DNC. But somehow when it's a gay couple, Dean has no problem giving the appearance of taking revenge on an employee who has done nothing wrong. Then again, the employee is gay, so you know, perhaps that makes him only three-fifths an employee in the eyes of the DNC.

You just don't fire someone days after their spouse criticizes you and expect people to believe anything but revenge is at play. It's petty. It's sick. And it's one more sign that Paul Yandura may in fact be right - the DNC appears to have a very serious gay problem.

It's Valerie Plame all over again. But this time, when it's Democrats taking revenge on the spouse, somehow we're to accept this kind of vicious crass politics as "fair game"?

Howard Dean owes all an explanation, unless he wants to see all hell break loose between now and the election.