House Republican leaders will, I am told, try to deny Democrats an issue and will back reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act.

The big “if” is whether Republicans will go along with the Democratic wording or if they will offer their own version of what the extension of the landmark legislation should say.

On Sunday, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean — aiming his remark at GOP counterpart Ken Mehlman while trying to build an African-American constituency — said Republicans should not bother visiting black churches if they are not going to support renewal of provisions due to expire in 2007.

“I do not want to hear any more about Ken Mehlman going to African-American churches,” Dean said. Republicans “ought not to get even 2 percent” of the African-American vote “in 2008 if we don’t have a Voting Rights Act. ... I want the Voting Rights Act reauthorized, and I want the Republicans to lead on it,” Dean said.

Dean, who has been criticized by members of his own party for incendiary language in recent days, made the comments after taking part in a panel on the Voting Rights Act that kicked off the 34th annual Rainbow/PUSH conference in Chicago.

Extending the act is on the priority agenda for Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) and his father, who founded Rainbow/PUSH.

The theme of the Rainbow/PUSH gathering, which wraps up today, is “A More Perfect Union,” taken from the title of a book co-written by Rep. Jackson and Frank Watkins, his communications director.

The devil, as always, is in the details. The GOP source I talked to had no more to offer about content or timing.

“They are going to have a scheme that will weaken it, just like they did in 1982,” Watkins told me. In the end, the Voting Rights Act was strengthened in 1982, just as it has been after it was renewed in 1970 and 1975.

Hastert outreach. Mehlman is one of many Republicans working on minority outreach.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), during a pen-and-pad session with Hispanic publishers last week, used some tough language against Democrats while talking about the battle over Miguel Estrada’s judicial nomination before he dropped out.

In the House and “especially” the Senate, Hastert said, Democrats, “in a very deliberate way, have tried to stop people of Hispanic origin or other ethnic origins from getting a place in this administration. They don’t want to see Republicans of Hispanic origins or of ethnic origins, Republicans, take a place in a leadership position.

He added, “That is what we have to fight against. Because they believe that the only minority that is there is somebody who a minority that happens to be a Democrat. That is not what this country is made of.”

Hastert was asked to react to Dean’s statement, made a few weeks ago, that Republicans are “pretty much a white, Christian party.”

The Speaker replied, “Let me just say, I am not going to get in a screaming match with former Governor Dean.”

The 2008 beat. Two potential 2008 presidential rivals, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), huddled yesterday morning in his Capitol office. They are teaming up on health-technology legislation.

Sweet is the Washington bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it