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The DNC Meeting

May 31, 2008

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The Democratic National Committee’s rules and bylaws committee is meeting right now to sort out the Florida-Michigan primary vote squabble that Senator Clinton caused when she backtracked on her earlier agreements about whether those votes should count. Joe Sudbay is liveblogging at AMERICAblog. So far, he says, the 10,000 righteously furious Clinton supporters who are to protest the meeting have not shown up. There are only a couple hundred protesters, he says. Maybe the other 9,700 are still at breakfast and will show up later.

Until something happens, see M.S. Bellows, “The Trap: Clinton’s ‘Briarpatch’ Strategy For The DNC Rules Committee Meeting.” Very basically — and I suspect this is true — Clinton is making demands she knows good and well won’t be met just so she can keep the controversy alive all the way to the convention.

Barack Obama and Howard Dean are about to walk into Harold Ickes’ trap tomorrow, and they aren’t likely to even realize their mistake until Hillary Clinton cries “foul!” next week and announces that “justice” and “voters’ rights” are forcing her to carry her campaign all the way to the Democratic Convention next August.

One of the commenters imagined ~~Senator~~President Obama’s inauguration — Senator Clinton will rush the stage and try to snatch away the Bible.

Update: MSNBC also counted about 200 protesters. These included a couple of Obama supporters with a sign that says “Change the Rules Until I Win.”

Spotlight

4 Comments

biggerbox • May 31, 2008 @10:58 am

Speaking as a voter in a state that moved its primary forward only far enough that it wouldn’t violate any rules, I’m slightly peeved about giving Florida and Michigan any votes. One might argue that it kind of devalues my rule-abiding vote to have those rule-breakers get to have a say in picking my nominee. If the Democrats of those states had wanted to help choose the party nominee, the way to do that was abundantly clear. They made their choice.

I also think that, if I’d lived there, and known the primary didn’t count, I wouldn’t have voted. So the “results” of those primaries are essentially hogwash, a sampling of the stubborn or stupid, not a representation of what the general Democratic electorate wanted, either at that time or now. Using them as a guide for deciding proportions of representatives at the convention is, well, just silly.

For Hillary to be suggesting otherwise, much less casting it as some historic civil rights struggle, suggests that she is willing to propagandize me for her own gain, which isn’t something I want in a President.

My semi-solomonic ‘modest proposal’: Enact Clinton’s plan for how the delegate are seated, with one twist: she gets all the delegates and votes she has proposed for Obama, and he gets all the ones she’s claimed for herself.
felicity • May 31, 2008 @11:30 am

I just heard that the original bill introduced to up Florida’s Primary date was introduced by a Democrat. ( Interesting since disgruntled Floridians are blaming this whole thing on the state’s Republican leadership.) Not to mention that Ickes was one of the loudest proponents of upping the Primary date and now is the loudest voice protesting the result.

Can we assume that Hillary would have no problem being an illegitimate President? Mr. Bush didn’t. Actually they have very similar personalities. Zeus help us!
apikoros • May 31, 2008 @2:20 pm

MSNBC also counted about 200 protesters

Well, I demand a recount! I’m betting if MSNBC will look out the door right now, they won’t see but two or three. As of ~2PM here in DC, the thunderstorms are open for business! I’m betting that when the meeting adjourns, the only outpouring that attendees will see is of rain, possible with a sprinkling of hail.
Doug Hughes • May 31, 2008 @4:10 pm

From CNN, quoting a lawyer for Clinton:

“In a letter addressed to the co-chairs of the rules committee, Clinton lawyer Lyn Utrecht said Friday the panel is compelled to seat both delegations from Florida and Michigan fully and not award Obama any delegates from Michigan.

“It is a bedrock principle of our party that every vote must be counted, and thereby every elected delegate should be seated,” Utrecht wrote.
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This supports Barbara’s suggestion that Clinton is making totally unreasonable demands in a hope she can take the fight to the convention when she is not granted the nomination by her creative interpretation of the rules. My prediction is that she will get run over by a superdelegate train after the last primary. She does not have a clue how much ill will she’s created, but I think she will get the message long about Wednesday.