It Isn’t Over
Kevin Drum thinks that suddenly no one cares about the rules. He’s probably not aware of the three on-going civil trials, and other fun that is going to weaken the Democrats for years.
McClatchy shows some of the anger boiling over: Obscenity-laden e-mail shows Florida delegate fight lingers
But just two weeks after Democrats thought they mostly had put the debacle over Florida’s delegates behind them, party faithful are bickering over who will get to attend the national convention in Denver in August.
The back-and-forth largely was behind the scenes, until party activist Jon Ausman sent a blast e-mail late Thursday featuring obscenity-laced excerpts of e-mails he’d received from Kirk Wagar, Barack Obama’s finance chairman for Florida. Wagar’s e-mails rip Ausman and the state’s top Democrat, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, who had backed Hillary Clinton but supported Obama after he became the presumptive nominee.
The highlights of Wagar’s e-mail: “You [Ausman] f—ed us. We are dealing with it. You need to accept the fact that you f—ed us.”
And of Nelson: “I am getting very sick of Nelson making a bad situation worse.”
Wagar promptly responded with an e-mail apologizing for the profanity but suggesting Ausman had used “out of context snippets” from “ongoing and sometimes heated arguments” the two had. He also said he had not maligned Nelson. He said Friday that he had “made a mistake” but hoped those who know him “know my passion is for the right thing and not self-interest.”
At issue is the Obama campaign’s desire to name some of its loyalists as delegates, replacing others who are committed to Obama but were picked by state party insiders.
Actually they were “picked” in accordance with the rules of the Democratic Party of Florida at conventions/caucuses held after the primary. The people selected are long-time party members and activists, so Ausman wanted to make damn sure that everyone knew who to blame when the screaming started.
McClatchy has a later story, Feelings still raw among Clinton backers in Florida, that only covers part of what’s happening. The more complete original version is in the Miami Herald:
National polls show Obama about four points ahead of McCain but have him trailing in Florida and Michigan, the two battleground states he boycotted because their primaries broke party rules. Obama is scheduled to be in Miami on Saturday to address the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
The DNC’s decision two weeks ago to relax its sanctions on Florida didn’t end the party infighting. The Obama campaign rankled one prominent party leader, Jon Ausman, by insisting on replacing some of the delegates. Seven people lost their convention seats Saturday to accommodate some key Obama supporters, including former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, state Rep. Ronald Brise of North Miami, and Broward County Commissioner Stacy Ritter.
So now you have seven Obama supporters ticked off at the Obama campaign for stealing their tickets, rather than ticked off at the Florida party.
Hipparchia thinks the time has come for a New Party, because the Democrats have certainly done their best to destroy their local franchise in Florida.
Of historical interest, at this point in the 1988 campaign, having become the presumptive nominee on June 7, Governor Michael Dukakis led Vice President George H.W. Bush by 10% in national polling and everyone was confident of a win.
4 comments
Definitely way past time for a new party! But good luck with that. 😉
I read an article about Obama a week ago that was interesting. It even mentions our old *friend* (no longer in the land of the sane) Larry, and not positively. I guess his consulting business is going well in Washington.
Will Obama’s Anti-Rumor Plan Work?
Funny how that happens when you hop on the rumormonger treadmill, instead of actually using facts. I guess Larry & co have decided to go back to being Repugs.
Of course, being ex-CIA doesn’t give him much room for excuse.
I think Larry was “played” by his sources, and if something doesn’t turn up, he should expose them as liars, rather than “protecting” them. Everyone needs to know who the liars are.
Getting played is bad luck – refusing to admit it is stupid.
It’s quite possible he was played by his sources. But it seems to be happening a lot during the past year. I would have thought that by now someone of his intelligence and background would have figured that out by now. He seems very much a willing participant in the GOP style deception I see becoming a part of the left side of the political spectrum. Perhaps he and others that are becoming the LGF, Powerline, etc of the left blogsphere have decided to use *if you can’t beat them fairly, join them* argument. Hillary lost in big part because of this kind of campaign and the *help* people like Larry ‘s blog gave her campaign.
On the plus side, it may have a positive consequence they didn’t plan for. Obama seems to be pissed and has some balls. 🙂 After a wobbly start, he seems to have learned some valuable lessons rather quickly. Which is more than I can say for Hillary and her extreme *boots and all* supporters. 🙂 Obama didn’t defeat Hillary, Hillary and her *friends* defeated Hillary. Life really is a bitch. LOL
I have no idea why Larry (and so many others) is playing the game he’s playing, or what his goal is, I only know that using the Rove playbook only helps the GOP.
Obama has the right idea. I hope he is able to make it work. 🙂 Larry and others would best use their energy ensuring that Obama has the best chance possible of winning the Presidency. Of course, there is always the possibility they don’t want a black Prez either. 😉 Who knows? 🙂 Whatever Larry’s reasons for trying to weaken Obama’s chances, sour grapes and hissy fits are the last thing America needs right now. I would have thought that by this time, people would much prefer a bit of sanity and some common sense to prevail. I love the way these hypocrites try to make Obama out to be *divisive* when the facts prove that they are the ones causing the devisions. 🙂
“Stupid is as stupid does!” 😉 LOL
I know it’s hard for others to understand, but Clinton is and was an outsider, and Obama was the insider in this match-up. He had the machine support, while she had individual support. She when for the big early win and it didn’t work, so she had to slog it out.
Her original campaign staff didn’t do a good job figuring out what Obama was doing, so they lost delegates in states where they won the most votes.
If you look at the Iowa results, Edwards came in second, but got the fewest delegates, because it is based on where the votes were as much as how many there were.
Based on the performance of the current Democratic Congress, I don’t the Presidency is going to make a lot of difference – we are screwed.