WASHINGTON – The Democratic National Committee yesterday refused to distance itself from Rep. Charles Rangel’s comparison of President Bush to an infamous Southern segregationist, Theophilus “Bull” Connor, remarks the Republican National Committee identified as “hate speech” and urged the DNC to repudiate.

Speaking at a town hall meeting of the Congressional Black Caucus last week, Mr. Rangel – a Democrat who has represented Harlem for 35 years – lambasted the president’s response to Hurricane Katrina, faulting him in particular for insensitivity toward blacks devastated by the storm. “George Bush is our Bull Connor,” the congressman said to an appreciative audience, referring to the Birmingham, Ala., police commissioner who in 1963 turned fire hoses and attack dogs on blacks demonstrating in favor of equal rights.

Earlier this week, the RNC called on Democratic leaders to disclaim the statement, a request that met with an outpouring of support for Mr. Rangel from some leading Democrats in New York. The DNC, for its part, declined to issue an explicit denunciation or endorsement, instead offering blanket criticisms of the president.

Yesterday, the chairman of the RNC, Ken Mehlman, intensified the RNC’s demands for repudiation. In a statement, he said: “When he visits New York today, Chairman Dean should repudiate the ugly race baiting by Congressman Rangel and other Democrats.”

The DNC chairman, Howard Dean, appeared yesterday at a campaign stop on the Upper West Side with the Democrats’ mayoral nominee, Fernando Ferrer, who has supported Mr. Rangel’s remarks.

Asked at the campaign appearance by The New York Sun to respond to Mr. Rangel’s statement and the RNC’s requests, Dr. Dean said: “I think the chairman of the RNC ought to be embarrassed for what his party has done to America the last five years. … It ought to be Mehlman that’s apologizing to the people of New York City.” Dr. Dean made no reference to Mr. Rangel’s statements.

His remarks provoked outrage from Republicans. An RNC spokeswoman, Tracey Schmitt, said: “By refusing to condemn such despicable attacks, Howard Dean made it clear that he is the leader of a party that resorts to race baiting in a cheap effort to score political points.”

“Democrats,” Ms. Schmitt added, “might be disappointed to learn that their party leader considers hate speech an acceptable alternative to an agenda.”

Representatives of the DNC, however, said yesterday that Mr. Rangel’s Bush-as-Connor conceit spoke for America’s blacks.

When asked for clarification about whether Dr. Dean’s response was intended as an endorsement of Mr. Rangel’s metaphor, a spokeswoman for the DNC, Amaya Smith, said in a statement: “The real issue here is this is how people in the African American community feel, and that is what we should be talking about.”