Terry McAuliffe had a much different standard for DNC rules back in 2003

Rules are rules, unless the rules need to be broken or changed for Hillary Clinton to win. That seems to be the flip flopping message of Clinton's campaign chair, Terry McAuliffe.

McAuliffe in 2003 as DNC Chair:

Move your primary too early, Terry McAuliffe warned, and Michigan will lose half its delegates to the 2004 Democratic convention.

"The closest they'll get to Boston will be watching it on television," McAuliffe vowed. "I will not let you break this entire nominating process for one state. The rules are the rules."

Michigan Democrats backed down. McAuliffe's hard-line stance prevented a free-for-all among competing states that year, and it set the tone for future mutinies.

Quite the hard ass back in 2003. Not so much this year.

McAuliffe in March of 2008 as Clinton's Campaign Chair:

CBSNews.com: And also this week, the governors of Florida and Michigan came out and seemed open to a revote in those states for their delegations to count at the Democratic convention. What is the position of your campaign on a possible revote?

Terry McAuliffe: Well, what we have said is that these folks have already voted. I mean, people talk about a revote. But there is no appetite in Florida or Michigan by the state legislatures. I mean, there's no money. Who is going to pay the tens of millions of dollars to do this?

I've been informed that the Florida legislature, under no circumstances, would pay to have the Democrats redo it. So I agree with what has been said. The governors of both states have kept saying that the state parties in these two states need to work with the national party and come to some resolution of this matter. We just can't leave 2.3 million voters, 1.75 million in Florida, and over 600,000 in Michigan, who went in and voted. They've already voted. And we just need to count the votes.

Not such a stickler for the rules this year. Nope. Doesn't matter if Michigan and Florida broke the rules this year. Nope. Doesn't matter if Hillary was the only candidate on the ballot in Michigan this year. Nope. Whatever it takes.

Hat tip to reader JL.