The South has been a huge political headache for the Democratic Party for the better part of the last half century. In the last 10 presidential elections, for example, the South has been pretty solidly behind the Republican presidential nominee.

So you would think the Democrats, with their 50-state strategy instituted by national chairman Howard Dean, would be a little more accommodating to the Southern delegates to the party's presidential convention in Denver in August.

You would think. But you would be wrong, at least as far as food is concerned.

As part of the effort to make the 2008 national convention the greenest ever, the Democrats' catering guidelines include one that strikes at the heart of Southern cuisine: No fried food.

No fried chicken. No fried catfish. No fried green tomatoes. No fried okra. No fried anything.

The Democratic guidelines say every meal should be nutritious and include "at least three of the following colors: red, green, yellow, purple/blue and white."

"It's the new patriotism," says Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, the driving force behind the greening of the Democratic convention.

But having lost all but three of the last 10 presidential elections — and almost disappearing from the South as a presidential party — you would think the Democrats would have bigger fish to fr ... uh, make that — bake.