Sunday, June 01, 2008

DNC Rules Committee Compromises on Florida & Michigan: Clinton People Go Delusional

Like a political geek, I watched most of the 6 hours of the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee on Saturday. Tell me to get a life, okay? But, really, I found the inner workings of the Party fascinating, and I think they did a great job with a messy situation.

Afterwards, I received an email from the Hillary Clinton campaign and went to their site to read their statement. I encountered one of the most shocking and despicable stream of invectives, as I read the blog comments on Senator Clinton's website. Never have I seen so many venomous, hateful, destructive angry emails. These Clinton supporters were practically spitting their words out. What was sad was that the majority are claiming they will vote Republican this year if Hillary is not the nominee. Or they say they will write her name in. Sad. I tried posting a comment to ask for people to calm down and to think reasonably. Of course, the Clinton webmaster would not post my comments, only the rabid ones denouncing the Democratic Party, the DNC and everyone else BUT Senator Clinton.

I find it hard to believe that anyone who would vote for Hillary in the first place would travel ideologically to an anti-choice, war-prone Republican who would seat 9 Scalia's on the Supreme Court if it were his choice. They would vote for a candidate who has NO national Health Care plan. Really. Does this make sense to anyone? I try very hard to see the logic. I'm hoping it's just that they're so disappointed their candidate won't have enough delegates, that they have to turn their anger on Obama.

But why not channel that anger at the Michigan and Florida legislatures? They're the ones who broke the rules and subjected their voters to the DNC punishment. I guess it's true that Democrats are just as susceptible to passing the blame as Republicans.

And furthermore, where is Senator Clinton in all this? Doesn't she have some calming and reasoning words to communicate to her constituents? You have to come to the conclusion that she wants the anger and vitriol.

I had to email one of my favorite people, Donna Brazile, an undeclared Superdelegate on the Rules & Bylaws Committee, who ran Al Gore's 2000 campaign and who is a major Democratic Party adviser. You see her often on CNN, and she is always right on with her comments and political observations. I emailed to congratulate her on a job well done, because I noticed that someone on the Hillary blog had posted the email addresses of all the Rules & Bylaw committee members and I was sure they got so much hate mail, it would sicken you. I congratulated her and the rest of the committee on a job well done under really impossible circumstances. I told her that I knew she was going to be getting a lot of venomous emails. She replied, "If only you knew the hateful, scornful and vile emails. It's sad."

Sad. Yes, it is. Once more the Democratic Party insists on shooting itself in the foot. If I had had any inkling of support or sympathy left for Senator Clinton, including acknowledging the possibility that she's been treated in a sexist way, well, it's gone now. Her judgment is showing.