The repubicans, otherwise known as the religious right, self-branded "God's party" while refusing to have compassion on the poor, on the elderly or children, has committed yet another great transgression: They wished evil upon a group of people they simply disagree with.
Two weeks ago, a religious leader gained notoriety by "praying" for a storm during the Democratic convention. By the latest news, apparently God is not pleased.
President Bush is unlikely to be attending the Republican National Convention as planned because of Hurricane Gustav, the White House said Sunday. "Due to the hurricane, the president is unlikely to travel to Minnesota on Monday," White House Spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
Republican Governors Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Charlie Crist of Florida, Haley Barbour of Mississippi and Rick Perry of Texas - all states which lie in the path of Gustav, currently a Category 4 hurricane - will all skip the GOP convention because of the storm.
McCain campaign manager Rick Davis plans to meet with Republican officials in charge of the party's convention planning in Minneapolis-St. Paul Sunday to review the latest news on Hurricane Gustav and discuss what their options might be. "I wouldn't call it a nightmare, but it is a very perplexing challenge," said a GOP official planning the event.
RNC officials are openly discussing scrapping the convention all together. Now I'm not saying that we're right and they're wrong, but perhaps, some of them will consider that of the seven deadly sins: pride and haughtiness are at the top of this list.
Perhaps I'm sermonizing because its Sunday morning. But in my opinion, the moral of the day: Don't wish that bad things happen to other people. It's not Christ-like.
Over the past week, Americans from across the country have uploaded videos onto YouTube and other sites asking the DNC's Rules & Bylaws Committee to uphold the principle of democracy and count every vote!
Below is a sampling of the videos submitted by Michiganders from across the state.
I wanted to share an email from a Michigander to Howard Dean in advance of this Saturday's Rules & Bylaws Committee meeting.
Dear Howard Dean,
I am a Michigan citizen who voted in our primary last January 15 and am very concerned that our votes won't count and that all our delegates won't be seated even though we did our duty by going to the polls. Our election was certified.
We supported you when you ran in 2004, we went to meet-ups, we sent money to your campaign, we were excited at the prospect of having you as our next president and we believed in you. Then the Iowa Caucus happened and your dream (and ours) was quickly shattered. Since the system of caucuses and primaries tripped you, you of all people should be yearning and wanting to change it. Had there been a different way to select a nominee you might have won. The USA and the world would have been much better for it!
Debbie Dingell and Carl Levin urged you several years ago to consider updating the arcane system of selecting a presidential nominee by holding a national primary day or regional primaries. I understand that you neglected to consider it nor to do anything about it and allowed the current showdown with Michigan and Florida to take place by not preventing it. By disenfranchising Michigan and Florida you will allow the faulty system to continue unchanged because other states won't have the courage to force a showdown as Michigan and Florida did, for fear they would be punished.
en. Hillary Clinton continues to stand up for the voters in Michigan and Florida as she campaigns in Florida this week. Florida, as you well know, has a dark history when it comes to votes not being counted and voters being disenfranchised, saying "I believe the Democratic Party must count these votes. They should count them exactly as they were cast. Democracy demands no less."
Hillary outlined her case for the inclusion of the Michigan and Florida delegations in the nominating process in a speech on May 21st in Boca Raton. As I have done on this blog and in other forums, Sen. Clinton echoed NAACP chairman Julian Bonds, made it clear that counting our votes is, fundamentally, a civil rights issue:
The union [the Founding Fathers] ultimately formed was far from perfect. It excluded many of our citizens; people like Congresswoman Brown, me, my daughter. But it was an ideal that set forth a goal that we have consistently worked for.
Fortunately... this nation was blessed by men and women who refused to accept their assigned place as second-class citizens. Men and women who saw America not as it was, but as it could and should be, and committed themselves to extending the frontiers of our democracy. The abolitionists and all who fought to end slavery and ensure freedom came with the full right of citizenship. The tenacious women and a few brave men who gathered at the Seneca Falls convention back in 1848 to demand the right to vote.
Below is the text of a letter I've sent to all the members of the DNC's Rules & Bylaws Committee, which will meet on May 31st in Washington, DC to revisit its decision of last October to strip Michigan and Florida of 100% of their delegates.
Dear Chairman Dean and Rules Committee Members,
The hallmark of our Democratic Party is our commitment to the principles of diversity, inclusion, and democracy. To date, over 34 million Democrats have taken the time to vote for the candidate of their choice, while others wait to cast their ballots in the coming weeks.
I am writing to encourage you and the members of the Rules & Bylaws Committee to act quickly to ensure that the people of Florida and Michigan are included in the process of selecting our Party's nominee. This is important to me because I believe that our Party must be united and moving forward, not re-hashing the intra-party disagreements of the past, as we prepare to take on John McCain in November.
Clinton campaign manager Maggie Williams has released the following statement, urging Sen. Barack Obama to join the Clinton campaign in calling for a party-run primary to ensure that Michigan voters are not disenfranchised.
Michigan will be a key battleground state in November. Disenfranchising Michigan voters today will, in the heat of a general election, provide Senator McCain with a powerful argument to use against the Democratic nominee. We cannot allow this to happen.
The people of Michigan must be counted and their voices finally heard. What the people of Michigan need now is just action, not just words.
The Clinton campaign is calling for a new primary, because as Marc Ambinder notes, the judge's ruling does not necessarily require one.
Judge Nancy Edmonds's ruling DOES NOT order a new primary. She writes that the "the court agrees the issue of severability is beyond the scope of the claims." In other words: the parties themselves ought to figure out whether they need new primaries or not.
Full statement from Maggie Williams below the fold.
Hillary Clinton, speaking before the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, where she expanded on her Hispanic Agenda -- Una Vida Mejor Para Todos -- spoke about her campaign's efforts to have the voices of voters in Michigan and Florida heard, calling the exclusion of the nearly 2.5 million Americans from the democratic process "wrong."
She outlined two options moving forward, which echo the "Dear David" letter written by Clinton Campaign Manager Maggie Williams to David Plouffe earlier in the morning.
In my view there are two options: Honor the results or hold new primary elections. I don’t see any other solutions that are fair and honor the commitment that two and a half million voters made in the Democratic primaries in those two states.
Regardless of the outcome, Sen. Clinton said we have a "basic obligation to make sure that every vote in America counts."
Sen. Clinton called on Sen. Obama and his campaign to join her to make sure that there ia "non-partisan solution" to the problem.
This comes on the heels of the Obama campaign expressing deep reservations about using the mail-in option in both Michigan and Florida (Florida's Congressional Democrats have issued a statement opposing a re-do of any kind). Despite Sen. Obama's position on mail-in votes in Florida and Michigan, he co-sponsored a bill last June that would establish a vote by mail grant program.
My thinking is that the Obama campaign is in favor of a limited-window caucus (as the Edwards campaign was when it derailed the inclusion of all candidates on the Michigan primary ballot). I haven't seen any studies of it, but would a vote-by-mail operation increase the number of senior citizens (a population that trends HRC) that participate? I would think that the limited-window would function to exclude working-class and blue-collar workers (who also trend to HRC, especially in rust belt states).
Here's a good video explaining the lead-up to Obama's choice to remove his name from the ballot.
Meanwhile, James Carville, a Democratic operative and Clinton supporter, said on CNN that he had been calling deep-pocket Democrats and pledged to come up with $15 million to help pay for primaries in Michigan and Florida. He challenged Obama supporter David Wilhelm, a former DNC chairman, to match it.
"I'll guarantee $15 million and have the Obama people put up $15 million," Carville said. "And let's go to the polls come June 7. I've got fund-raisers that are lined up ready to go. I think the Democratic Party is going to look absolutely absurd if they don't have primaries and let these people in Florida and Michigan vote."
We passed the point of "absolutely absurd" long ago, but the Ragin' Cajun does make a good point about fundraisers - and this has been over-looked by all the people wringing their hands over the cost of this.
Stop and think about how much money this would bring in. To the party, to the candidates, to the states. Record amounts are being raised all over the country for this presidential election. Do these cheap-ass Democrats actually think this is a money-losing proposition?
Really wish you guys would do this in private. And lower your voices. The neighbors are about ready to call the cops.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean urged Florida and Michigan party officials to come up with plans to repeat their presidential nominating contests so that their delegates can be counted.
"All they have to do is come before us with rules that fit into what they agreed to a year and a half ago, and then they'll be seated," Dean said during a round of interviews Thursday on network and cable TV news programs.
The two state parties will have to find the funds to pay for new contests without help from the national party, Dean said.
"We can't afford to do that. That's not our problem. We need our money to win the presidential race," he said.
Um, Howard? Love ya and all, but this IS about winning the presidential race, and it is your problem. It's everyone's problem. And I'll bet if you'd just check your records, some of "our money" that you speak of probably came from people in Michigan and Florida.
If we are going to do this, we need you guys to stop fueling the fire of this little feud you got going on. Remember there are voters caught in the middle. Show us some respect.
OK, that's twice. Apparently the Guv has had a change of heart following the results from last night's primaries. It's a bit surprising because she had used some pretty strong language arguing against the idea - but maybe the looming possibility of a convention fight is starting to weigh on everyone's mind.
In an interview today with Traverse City Business News Publisher Luke Haase, Michigan Governor Granholm pointed to possible negotiations and an eventual caucus to resolve Michigan's Democratic presidential delegates.
Granholm said a second Michigan primary would cost $10 million, a burden Michigan taxpayers should not bear.
"How do you pay for it and how would you do it in a way that both parties - Obama and Clinton - would accept the outcome? It would have to be negotiated with Democratic National Committee, which they would have every incentive to do, because right now in this delegate count there are two big holes - Michigan and Florida.
Granholm made it clear her first choice would be to find a way to seat the delegates from the January 15 Michigan primary, but acknowledged the fact that Barack Obama was not on the ballot creates a fairness issue.
"It could not be a primary because a primary is publicly paid for, and the taxpayers would not spend any more tax dollars on a primary. So if there's anything it would have to be a caucus, but we'd have to have a way to pay for it without taxpayer dollars."
Will the circus come to Michigan? I was being a bit flip when I suggested it a while back, not thinking about all the ramifications, but I still maintain that it's a good idea. Publicity for us, money for us, candidates talking about our issues, momentum for down-ticket races, the works.
What the heck, let's do it. Make the DNC cough up some money to help.
UPDATE : The Detroit News has a big story on this today, including reactions from all your favorite (or not-so favorite) Michigan Dems.
I believe that Jack Lessenberry is closer to the truth than most Michigan Democrats would like to admit. Michigan's Democratic establishment is playing hardball and using brute force to prevent a fair fight in Michigan.
I don't think Senator Levin planned it that way at the outset, or that Levin, Granholm, Dingell, and Brewer had a "secret meeting" to decide their strategy.
These are all savvy politicians. They know what they want, and they know how to get it. They know that this is the most important election in decades. They know this is the biggest opportunity for Democrats in decades.
They know just as well as any of us does what the difference is between a caucus and no caucus in Michigan, and seating the delegates as they stand or not seating the delegates at all.
They know which candidate they support too. They have done the math and picked their pony. What they've ultimately chosen is good for them, but that's no good for Michigan or the Democratic Party.
You tell me which candidate you support, and I betcha I can tell you what you think about a caucus in Michigan. You tell me what you think about a caucus in Michigan, and I'll tell you which candidate you support.
This ain't rocketscience.
I promise, I will not be boycotting Clinton if she wins the election by the Michigan Margin. I'm a Democrat, and another Republican president could be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
But you can bet the farm that other folks will boycott! This has the makings of a true disaster for the Democrats. If Florida 2000 haunts us to this day, how are we gonna feel if the Clinton operation pulls off this ham-fisted delegate rob in Michigan, and it makes the difference between President Democrat and President McCain? They always say, "Democrats always manage to rescue defeat from the jaws of victory" ...
The only near-fair solution is a showdown in Michigan and Florida. So long as the Democratic establishment in Michigan is not boxing with gloves on in this election, why should the voters, why should I?
We should be demanding a caucus, and we'll only be getting a caucus when Democratic activists say, "Either we caucus or heads are gonna roll!"
The following are key arguments that I believe support a Michigan Presidential Caucus.
ARGUMENTS:
(1) Michigan deserves to have clout in this election. So long as our delegates do not count, Michiganders do not have clout.
(2) Our 128 delegates could be decisive. The race for delegates is expected to be very close at the time of the convention, with both candidates near, but not at, a majority. Michigan could tip the balance.
(3) Michiganders deserve to see the primary candidates up close and hear the candidates debate the issues that matter in Michigan, like the health of the Great Lakes and the loss of manufacturing jobs. Michiganders will not have this opportunity if January's results stand.
(4) Michigan voters deserve to be able to choose between all of the candidates. Most of the candidates names were removed from Michigan's ballot, and "Uncommitted" won the "youth vote," the "black vote," and over 40% (200,000) of the overall votes.
(5) Michigan deserves to have our delegates seated at the Democratic National Convention. As it stands, the DNC will reject the delegates distributed at Michigan's January 15 Primary because Michigan advanced the date of our Primary in defiance of DNC rules. They will restore our delegation's voting credentials if and only if we hold a caucus.
(6) Whichever candidate wins the nomination, they must win Michigan to win the presidency. The opportunity to campaign in Michigan prior to the nominating convention would strengthen the nominee with Michigan voters.
