Editorial: To the convention!

Did you hear about the Little League team that decided to forfeit a game and then got credit in the championship for winning that same game?



No, you never heard about that because if someone tried to pull that stunt, there would be a huge outcry. See, in sports, they have rules.



The DNC? They have rules when they want. The rest of the time, they ignore them.



Nancy Pelois, Speaker of the House and apparently Ruler of the Universe in her own mind, made clear last week to The San Francisco Chronicle that, voters be damned, she was doing everything she could to make Barack Obama the nominee.



We're back to Michigan and Florida. For those late to the party, our position, check the archives, has always been that the delegates in Michigan and Florida must be seated. That was our position after the primaries were held but, most importantly, that was our position in 2007. Again, check the archives.



Wally, Gina and Krista are the most visible members of the community (Wally due to his site and Gina and Krista due to their weekly gina & krista round-robin). But they are from the only members who hail from the Sunshine State. In addition, community members live in Michigan as well. Why others ignored the situation (Amy Goodman, we mean filth like you), we were weighing in and doing so in 2007. We were pointing out that the two states were not the only ones jumping the gun. We were pointing out that you don't penalize voters. We were pointing out that after 2000, you do not disenfranchise Florida especially.



And the reality is that they may not be disenfranchised.



Yesterday, the DNC allowed another travesty to take place. From the Hillary Clinton campaign, here is Harold Ickes and Tina Flournoy statement:


Today’s results are a victory for the people of Florida who will have a voice in selecting our Party’s nominee and will see its delegates seated at our party’s convention. The decision by the Rules and Bylaws Committee honors the votes that were cast by the people of Florida and allocates the delegates accordingly. We strongly object to the Committee’s decision to undercut its own rules in seating Michigan’s delegates without reflecting the votes of the people of Michigan. The Committee awarded to Senator Obama not only the delegates won by Uncommitted, but four of the delegates won by Senator Clinton. This decision violates the bedrock principles of our democracy and our Party. We reserve the right to challenge this decision before the Credentials Committee and appeal for a fair allocation of Michigan’s delegates that actually reflect the votes as they were cast.



We disagree. (All of us, including C.I. and Elaine have know Harold Ickes for more years than they can count.)



That is not and has never been our position. In terms of Florida, the full delegates must be seated. In terms of Michigan the same. In terms of ignoring the voters will? We disagree.



The will of the voter is supreme. If it's not, then don't ever whine about Al Gore's 2000 campaign. In fact, no Democrat who agrees with the DNC decision can ever say, "Well Gore won!" The DNC is saying the voters don't matter, a ruling body (such as the Supreme Court) does.



We disagree.



The voters in Florida made their choice clear and we're back to that sticky situation of rules. If you break the rules, you're penalized with delegates. That's supposed to apply to states and to candidates. While we would never penalize the voters, it's not their fault what those ruling a state do, we have no problem penalizing candidates.



Both Hillary and Barack held private fundraisers in Florida. That was allowed. Those are two points LIAR John Nichols gets confused on. He thinks only Hillary did. And he thinks she broke a rule. She did not break any rule and Barack held fundraisers as well.



In fact at one, he went to the press after and encouraged them to ask him questions. One of the first questions was was he supposed to be talking to them? Hadn't the DNC said no press conferences? Barack huffed he was trying to do them a favor and stormed off. The oh-so generous Barack Obama.



The rules also forbid advertising but talk to any community member in Florida and ask them, "Did you see any advertising?" The reply will be, "Sure did! Couldn't turn on the TV without seeing Barack!" That's because he purchased commercials. He lied and said that there was no way to do the national purchase and not be on the air in Florida. There was a way and other candidates could follow it. Not Barack.



Press conference and commercials? No delegates to Barack.



Then there's the issue of Michigan and we're back where we started.



See LIARS like John Dickerson of Slate take to outlets like Washington Week and whine, "Barack wasn't even on the ballot in Michigan!"



No, he wasn't. He took his name off the ballot in an attempt to woo Iowa and New Hampshire who get very touchy about the schedule. (Tom Harkin screamed bloody murder at one Iowa townhall before the caucus about how Florida and Michigan must be punished.)



So Barack sits the game out. No great loss, he thinks, his internal polling does show him running third.



But somehow Barack ends up, via the DNC decision yesterday, with more delegates than Hillary who won the Michigan primary. The guy who wasn't even on the ballot got more votes than the winner of the primary.



You want to try explaining how that makes no sense because it doesn't and it never will.



LIARS like Nancy Pelosi want to play by the 'rules' but they keep changing them to suit Barack.



Here's reality, a candidate pulls his or her name off a ballot, they get nothing.



In a general election for any office, you can't take your name off the ballot and show up after the election demanding votes. That's not how the system works.



Barack took his name off the ballot in Michigan and the DNC is giving him MORE delegates than Hillary who won the primary by over 50% of the votes.



Don't talk to us about rules or process because the DNC demonstrated on Saturday that there are no rules but the ones they make up to steal this election from the people.



The Clinton campaign is appealing the Michigan ruling. They should.



But here's the thing, if Hillary doesn't drop out of the race, the 'ruling' yesterday is meaningless.



Pelosi herself revealed that to The San Francisco Chronicle. She explained how, in 1984, it was her job to tell states, such as New Hampshire, that had jumped the DNC calender and held their primaries early that their delegates would not be seated at the convention. As Pelosi, always one to step in it, recalled, their response was to laugh at her. (Well it is an honest, and frequent, response to Pelosi.) She didn't realize why until the convention. It came down to Walter Mondale and Gary Hart. Both were fighting the nomination to the convention. And what to do about the states that the DNC was saying wouldn't be seated? At the convention, the DNC doesn't have that say. The candidate or candidates do. Neither Mondale nor Hart, as Pelosi explained, wanted to risk alienating a state. All states were seated, no penalties.



Nancy Pelosi found that story amusing and probably didn't grasp what she was saying about this primary. (As usual, Nancy's response was to a question on another topic. The woman can never stay focused.) But she just outlined the only way Florida and Michigan delegates are seated in full, Hillary stays in the race.



There's no reason for her to quit. She's leading in the popular vote and today will only make that more so.



The media is counting super delegates in their tally to give Barack the needed number of delegates. Super delegates do not count before the convention and they're honestly not supposed to endorse (check the rules) any candidate in the midst of a primary. Super delegates can also change their mind at any time. All delegates can change their minds (super and pledged) on the convention floor. Ava and C.I. have been explaining that here since January. Regular readers know to trust them. But if you're a drive-by and still don't get it, listen to former Congress member Michael P. Forbes from his "Clinton must take the fight all the way to Denver" (Austin-American Statesman):



Sen. Hillary Clinton must take her campaign all the way to the Democratic Convention in August, and she must remain in the race until all of the convention ballots are counted.
It is those delegates voting at the Democratic Convention who shall determine the party's presidential standard bearer and no one else -- no combination of primary state votes, no cluster of superdelegates, no orchestrated group of party leaders nor any collection of Democratic talking heads.
Idle chatter to force Clinton to prematurely abandon her campaign is being driven by pundits, partisan bloggers, hopeful job applicants and other favor-seekers with an obsession to be on what may be viewed through a narrow political prism as the winning side.

[. . .]

Wins by Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois have largely divided up votes cast in the Democratic primaries over these many months. And there are 795 superdelegates whose presidential preference is not locked up until votes are cast at the nominating convention. Neither candidate can claim the requisite number of delegates to be the nominee. That happens in balloting when Democrats meet in Denver.


On Friday, Nancy Pelosi began issuing public threats to Hillary supporters that she was not going to allow this to go to the convention and that they better prepare for that and not plan anything. Did she mean violence? That's being floated by Barack's supporters.



Clinton's supporters are talking rules and law and order. On the latter, that might includea little Take Back The Night! and, Nancy, that was legal. And it would be peaceful. But you don't really want a bunch of women gathering at the convention to tell their truths, all their truths, do you? Don't issue threats you can't follow through on, Nancy, and don't play with matches around dynamite.



Though you think the world revolves around you, this isn't about you. It's not even about Hillary. It's about the process, basic fairness and about the Democratic Party grasping finally that sexism is not permissible and will not be tolerated.