Now, if we can only get Dean to stop crushing kittens to death with his bare hands…

(CNSNews.com) – The black leadership network Project 21 accused former Democratic National Committee Chairman and presidential candidate Howard Dean of  “playing the race card” over remarks Dean made at a breakfast event hosted by the Christian Science Monitor on Wednesday in Washington, D.C.

Dean said the Tea Party was the “last gasp” of a 55-year-old generation and that most people involved in the Tea Party movement are “almost entirely over 55 and white.”

“This is the last gasp of the generation that has trouble with diversity, and the new generation doesn’t,” Dean said. “As I am fond of telling college audiences, you all have friends of different races, different religions and different sexual orientations and you all date each other.

“That’s not how I grew up and not how the Tea Party grew up,” Dean said. “The Tea Party is almost entirely over 55 and white.”

However, Dennen Borelli, a fellow at Project 21, said, “I’m black and nowhere near 55 and a strong supporter of the less government, less taxes and spending and increased freedom that the tea parties embody.”

Project 21’s statement issued Friday called Dean’s analysis of the Tea Party’s role in the recent mid-term elections and the upcoming presidential race in 2012 a “simplistic interpretation,” which opens “the new year on a hateful note by playing the race card against ‘tea party’ supporters of limited government.”