Howard Dean says South will Rise for Dems, Again.

Here's the article link: http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/11025163.htm

Article itself:

Dean says Democrats 'not going to concede the South'EMILY WAGSTER PETTUSAssociated Press
JACKSON, Miss. - Praying for American troops and evoking biblical images of helping the needy, Howard Dean told Mississippi Democrats on Tuesday night that the national party won't give up on socially conservative states.
"We're not going to concede the South," the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee told an overflow crowd of more than 900 people in a dining room that was set up for 800 in the Clarion hotel near downtown Jackson.
"The South will rise again, and when it does, it will have a D after its name," Dean said to applause from the diverse crowd of blacks and whites.
Dean, a former Vermont governor, was an early front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination last year before his campaign faded after early primaries. He was elected DNC chairman last month and is on a "red, white and blue" tour of states with long records of voting Republican.
Last week, he was in Kansas, which has voted Republican in every presidential race since 1964. Mississippi has gone Republican in every presidential race since 1980, and Democratic presidential nominees rarely campaign in the state. Dean said he'll go to Tennessee soon.
"The way we're going to win elections in this country is not to become Republican lite. The way we're going to win elections in this country is to stand up for what we believe in," Dean said.
Speaking at the $75-a-plate Mississippi Democratic Party dinner, Dean criticized the national debt and said: "You cannot trust Republicans with your taxpayer dollars."
He prayed for American troops, saying even those who had criticized the war in Iraq should support soldiers and their families. He also said the Democratic Party should reach out to evangelical Christians and the party has room for people with divergent views on abortion.
"I want to reach out to people who are worried about values," Dean said. "We are going to embrace pro-life Democrats because pro-life Democrats care about kids after they're born, not just before they're born."
Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr., a Democrat who's seeking re-election, gave Dean a key to the capital city and told him: "You're already upsetting Republicans here in Mississippi. Keep up the good work."
Hours before Dean arrived in Mississippi, the state Republican Party issued a news release that spoofed his extended whoop after he conceded last year's Iowa caucuses.
"AIEEEHHHH!!! The incredible shrinking party. The Great Dean Exodus from the MS Democratic Party begins," said the GOP announcement that the Tippah County sheriff was switching from Democrat to Republican.
Tuesday night's gathering was an appreciation dinner for state Democratic elected officials. In the crowd were several state lawmakers, former Lt. Gov. Evelyn Gandy and former Govs. Ronnie Musgrove, Ray Mabus, Bill Allain and William Winter.
Before Dean's speech, throngs of people went to the head table to get his autograph or to pose for pictures with him.
Winter, who's known Dean for a decade, said the new DNC leader is "willing to speak hard truths" about the needs of the country.
"He brings a sense of organization, great enthusiasm and great ideas for the country," Winter said.
In Mississippi, Democrats hold more county elected positions and legislative seats than Republicans. But the governor, lieutenant governor and two U.S. senators are in the GOP. Gov. Haley Barbour is a former Republican National Committee chairman.
U.S. Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., said last week that Dean has taken a "far left" position on the war in Iraq and other issues.
"It doesn't help the Democrats in Mississippi to have the image he projected in the past year," said Lott, who was getting help from his own national party when former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani spoke at a campaign fund-raiser in Jackson.