Tag Archives: Democratic Party

9:21 AM: I am now here in the ballroom at the Rules and Bylaws Committee. This required being in line online at 10AM on the dot on Tuesday to grab one of the about 200 tickets available. To get here, I had to wake up at 8AM, something I would not recommend on a weekend. I got here by about 8:55 off of the Metro. I found another Democratic Obama supporter from Michigan and we walked to the hotel. Then, there were the protestors out front.

Insert pictures

I was actually disappointed because I wanted to see more. There were probably about 500 to 1000 total protestors in front of the hotel, none of whom were for Obama who I saw. The Clinton supporters were about 70-80 percent female, most of whom seemed to be baby boomers. They were impressively organized. There were shirts which had been made. There was a group of black women all chanting wearing some of those shirts that you can see above. The biggest one you heard was “Count the Votes”. That was basically all it was as that just kept getting repeated. I counted about eight police cars and twenty policeman just in my approach to the hotel.

I walked in the hotel and I realized that my camera had died. I was excited for taking lots of pictures, but it’s rather difficult to do when you haven’t used it for many months. It took three levels of security to get into the auditorium. First, my paper and ID were checked to go up the staircase to get to the second level. Sitting right by that guard was a line of people who looked like they had been sitting there since before 6AM, trying to get an overflow seat. The guard was directing people towards the Omni Hotel, where the meeting was apparently being beamed in through satellite.

A word about the hotel itself. It is nice. Like, really nice. The valet parking lanes out front has a lot of BMWs. There are a lot of people who paid a lot of money to stay here, who don’t really care about the Democratic Rules and Bylaws Committee. They are definitely not the happiest about this crush of people trying to get in and the multitude of protestors outside. There is a Starbucks out in front of the long driveway in front of the hotel, where I heard that some hotel guests peeked their heads out and turned ashen at what they saw.

I got up the stairs and went to another room where I handed in my pass and showed my license once again. On the list, in the C-G last name line at least, I was one of four people from Michigan. My guess is that we are sorely underrepresented. I walked into the hall at about 9:05. It was already mostly full. The good seats were basically gone. I am now sitting on the floor. It should be comfortable in like 3 hours.

9:40-Meeting is gaveled to order. OMG Howard Dean. The RBC is organized at tables set up in a rectangle. Dean is at the tip of the rectangle facing the crowd. The crowd is about 60% Obama supporters I would say. It makes sense, given the heavy Obama lean in the DC area. There are a good amount of Clinton supporters wearing their T-Shirts.

9:44-Officially started. Sign language interpreter coming. Chair giving a speech about how great it is that there are so many people here. Some self-depreciating remarks about how nobody normally cares about the RBC.

9:45: Attendence-This guys playing to the cameras. Apparently, it’s on CNN, C-SPAN, and is broadcast around the world. Fun microphone issues. Names I recognize: Donna Brazile, Mark Brewer, Harold Ickes, For some reason, everybody decided to show up.

9:50: Pledge of Alleigance-I’m confused. I thought we all hated America, but now we don’t any more after saying that?

9:50-Howard Dean-Rah-rah speech about how great our candidates were. Can not pronounce the word “fought”. It came out as “faughrt”. Thanks Obama and Clinton for building the party. 35 Million people have come out to support Democrats? Wow. Applause line for 3 special election victories. Women are up to 60% of the Democratic electorate and young vote has tripled/quadrupled in some states. 7 combined primary vote counts in Ohio counties exceeded Kerry’s’ vote count there. Wants us to work for down-ballot races too.

9:58-Dean tells a story about how he was angry at the Democratic Party. Gore talked to him and said “It’s not about you, it’s about your country.” Gore is awesome. Brings up sexist comments from the media (Chris Matthews) and the Hillary supporters clap and bring up racist comments and the Obama supporters clap. Obama’s are louder. He then talked about us uniting again. The angry Hillary woman in front of me did not clap. Dean talks about respecting the wills of the voters who voted in FL and MI and those who did not vote, the campaigns, and the 48 other states who did not break the rules. My verdict: Half votes for delegates. Angry Hillary Woman was not happy about that.

10:03: Legs already asleep. Plus I am underdressed. I am probably the single youngest person in the hall and might be the only person wearing shorts. There’s a lot of suits, including a guy in a seersucker. It’s delightfully absurd looking. Sorry, I’m just not really into that.

10:07-Intro by Alexis Herman who talked about how they formed the nominating calendar, including the need for geographic, ethnic, and economic diversity in the pre-states. This was back in March 2006 where they went through much debate; 12 states came forward including MI. Decided on NV and SC into that pre-window. Idea of committee revisiting its discretion to impose the sanction. She’s a stickler. Chose to impose penalty because

a. There was a vigorous process that decided things and there were many states who wanted to violate the timing, so the body had to send a very strong signal to prevent additional states from moving forward to contribute to additional front loading

b. Laws indicated that when there are no delegates at stake, candidates were free to campaign in the states.

This will definitely be important later.

First Florida.

1016: The FDP blamed the state legislature and the Republican governor. Committee imposed a 100 percent sanction. It was thought that other states would violate the 2/5 window and the committee had to be harsh. Said that Florida should do its own event later. Talks a lot about precedent and the other states. That was a really fair description. I didn’t know a lot of that stuff.

1021: Two main claims
1. DNC charter says superdelegate status cannot be taken away
2. State party’s violation can only result in 50% total reduction

1024: DNC member Jon Osmond is the main speaker. He would be played in a movie by Phillip Seymour Hoffman, minus about twenty pounds. His point is that all bodies are subordinate to and must be consistent to the charter, with the idea that the word “shall” implies a burden that implies that there is no way for the committee to take it away. He’s good. I am highly persuaded right now. On the other hand, I’m sure the committee will bring up some umbrella authority which will smack him down.

1044: The first questioner smacks him down. Wow. He asks about whether or not they can take away superdelegate votes, while still seating them as delegates. The answer is not good.

1046: The next guy, Fowler, just brings up the legislative history and how superdelegates were supposed to have the same role as a pledged delegate.

1055: He pulled out some cool charts and graphs to show results of the primary and what potential penalties could net for Hillary. I’m hungry and it’s time for a break. Breakfast would have been a great idea.

11AM: Senator Bill Nelson is talking right now. He supports counting everything and ensuring full delegation. Talks about disenfranchising in 2000 and applies that to here.

1115: Nelson got angry. He really feels like they got forced to have this date and was really not happy about going through this entire process. It’s weird to see a US Senator get angry like that.

1122: Hillary campaign speaker is a black, female, State Senator from the Tampa area. She gave a shout-out to all the people here from Florida. I applaud any time an elected official gives a shout out

1126: “Florida is a microcosm of this nation’s diversity. We are black, brown, red, yellow, and white”

1140: She did a pretty good job. It was a rather emotional speech, with 4 anecdotes of people voting. It gets annoying when people clap after any time an explicitly partisan or favorable statement or question is made. It goes on for a while and disrupts the flow. Its main pupose seems to be for supporters of the candidates to feel good about themselves. Given that most of the applause lines have come for Hillary supporters, that’s who most of my annoyance is directed towards, although some Obama supporters are being a bit annoying about it as well.

1143: Donna Brazile got massive applause. People here watch a lot of CNN. Her question is a bit weird. She talks about diversity and including all interests to reflect the diversity of Florida. It seems to be a question about the DNC affirmative action procedures for the delegation. I’m sure that there’s a massive back story behind this, but it’s just a bit weird to see something like this as a question right here.

1146: I’m eating in the room when we’re not supposed to be. I feel like I should have at least half of my watching privileges revoked.

1149: This is the first Obama speaker and it’s Congressman Robert Wexler from Broward and Palm Beach, a renowned fan of coke and strippers, at least according to Colbert. The cheer from the crowd says that it’s definitely an Obama crowd. I truly am not sure where he’s going to go with this.

1150: Never mind. He’s going straight for a compromise position.

1153: The word pledge is said for the first time. This is a rather important point.

1157: Obama campaign supports the Ausman petition with cutting the delegation in half. Wexler said Obama should be commended for that. I heard a hiss for the first time coming from somebody in anger. I was impressed because I didn’t think that anybody did that since 1900.

1205: Wexler was right but wrong. More Republicans than Democrats came out in Florida. However, it was not the only state. Arizona, Utah, Alaska, Michigan and Alabama all had the same thing. Two of them were home states for Republican candidates and the other two were lightly contested for Democrats in heavily Republican states. And then there’s Michigan and Florida. Hmm.

1210: Important point here brought up. The Obama campaign, it sounds like, wants to vet the Florida delegates which it did not do before.

1217: Wexler got testy as well.

1225: It’s time for Michigan. Things are unsurprisingly running a bit late, so they’re postponing lunch. People are pissed. I’m still eating pretzels. I see Mark Brewer who is a member of the RBC and I think John Conyers. I’m sort of disappointed I don’t see Debbie Dingell yet, although I assume that she will show up.

1230: Brewer’s talking. I love that gravelly voice. Levin, John Conyers, Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, Blanchard, Bonior, and Debbie Dingell are all here. That’s basically all of the major people from the state. Brewer proposes seating all delegates 69-59, compared to the 73-55 for Uncommitted.

1233: Brewer is saying that we already got punished enough. He does have a point about how we were bypassed.

1236: How the primary was not fair and why 69-59 is better

1238: Obama got 30/36 uncommitted delegates at the conventions. That’s the first time that I’ve heard that one put forward. I knew the MDP had the numbers, but it was not particularly public.

1239: Why Clinton does not deserve 55-a. Exit polls put her at 45 that day
b. Write in votes were thrown away-30k uncounted write in votes statewide. Vast majority were probably for Obama.
Proposal adjusts delegate allocation and corrects it to true state of voter preference

1243: I just realized that it’s like the State of the Union. Half the audience agrees and claps for one sentence and the other half cheers for the next sentence. I think that’s the best analogy.

1245: An RBC member is annoying me. She’s pretending like Uncommitted means a truly uncommitted delegate, treating them like superdelegates. They were basically all Obama people.

1250: Alice in Wonderland has been brought up twice, once to describe the election that took place and one to describe the proposed reallocation. It’s deliciously absurd.

1254: I like that Ickes is on this committee. He brings a nakedly Clinton perspective, yet it is highly necessary. He brings up highly important points like the candidates removing themselves from the ballot.

102: Carl Levin: Brings up the Group of 4 who is trying to solve everything from MI: Kilpatrick, Levin, D. Dingell, and Ron Gettelfinger of the UAW. Goes for the unity theme. I am impressed that the MDP Executive Committee came up with a compromise like this.

107: Levin has already said “unity” 17 times.

109: Levin is going after Iowa and New Hampshire. It was one of the few substantive points that got a lot of clapping from both sides. He is really going after New Hampshire and after the DNC for not enforcing the rules about New Hampshire jumping ahead of South Carolina and Nevada.

113: He’s still going off on New Hampshire

116: Still going. Something tells me that if Carl Levin ran for president, he would not win the New Hampshire primary.

125: Pretzels are done. Am lusting after my sandwich.

135: Harold Ickes is pissed. The Clinton camp, as represnted by Ickes is fighting back hard on these. He hates the idea of officially apportioning Uncommitted to Obama and of proportioning some delegates from Clinton to Obama. This is probably some of the angriest rhetoric that I’ve heard. He’s specifically talking about how the committee does not have the jurisdiction to hear reapportionment of delegates. It’s the first time the Credentials Committee has been put forward. Things got quiet and a little scary for a second there, because that implies another two and a half months of primary.

140: Levin responds with a smackdown saying “You’re calling for full recognition of a flawed primary” to thunderous applause. I love Carl Levin. My god is he awesome. Plus he just used variations on unity/unify five times in three sentences.

144: Bonior for the Obama campaign. He just spent 5 minutes rehashing what we already knew.

1:51-Bonior proposes an even split to a shower of boos and cheers. I understand what he’s saying, but I doubt that they’re going to buy this even split. My predictions right now:

MI and FL will get full superdelegates and ½ delegations based on the results from original primaries. Uncommitted with stay uncommitted, technically, although Obama supporters will make up the vast majority of that delegation. Which is actually pretty much what I thought it would be the whole time.

154: More hissing.

210: Another really important line here, same as in Florida. The Obama campaign wants to be part of discussions that have been involved for Michigan. This means that they want to be able to vet every delegate and choose the people who they want representing them in DC

215: Blanchard is now here to talk for Clinton. He’s keeping it really simple. I strongly dislike him right now.

220: At this point, there is really nothing new to say. People are already convinced one way or the other. Right now, there is just a general lust for Lunch.

224: I see lots of different passes here. They gave Guest ones to all the people who signed up online. There’s also RBC, Staff, and Press badges. I think a staff one would be fun. An RBC one would be even better.

244: Blanchard’s still talking. I just got annoyed at myself because I just got pissed. Jim Blanchard just said “Nobody told anybody that their vote wouldn’t count”. That is complete and utter bullshit. I had to answer the question of “Why should we vote for uncommitted if Obama’s not on the ballot and it won’t count?” There’s also a really obvious reason why turnout was so low compared to the Republicans. I keep going back to this, but look at this map:

Look at Michigan and Florida. Look at how much they stand out.