Howard Dean has taken a lot of flak for saying that the GOP is primarily a “white, Christian party.” Politicos from both sides of the aisle have lambasted him for this statement. On the Democratic side, those who use their faith as a political tool chimed in against Dean, stating that he had no real basis for his argument. Even Ken Mehlman, chair of the Repubilcan National Committee, claimed that his Jewish religion was proof-positive of the non-Christian nature of his party.

Well, leave it to the liberal/progressive blogosphere to come to the rescue. Annatopia at MyDD posted this wonderful “field research” piece on a (more-or-less) typical Texas theocon voter. Click the link to see some interesting – and disturbing – pictures of a Chevy Suburban adorned with a litany of bumper stickers bearing slogans like “GOP: God’s Offical Party” and “Diapers Are Disposable – Babies Aren’t,” as well as the obligatory “W’04” and born-again fish plastic medallion. This may not stand for every Republican (or Republican voter) in Texas, but apparently this is isn’t a rare sight in the Lone Star state.

Additionally, AMERICAblog has some great statistics about the makeup of Republican political leadership at the state and national levels. Now while not all of these Republicans are theocons – there are a good number of thinking, sensible, moderate GOP elected officials – it still lends quite a bit of validity to Dean’s statement.

Given that a very small percentage of national Republicans are minorities, and that most come from areas where conservative Christianity is the dominant religion, it’s hard to see fault in Dean’s statement. If anything, he’s keeping the Democrats in the public eye outside of the typical election cycle, something that few of his predecessors have been able to accomplish.