The "Register for Change" Bus started rolling today in Crawford, Texas. It's a 50-state voter registration drive. DNC Chair Howard Dean just spoke at a rally in front of the Austin Convention Center where Netroots Nation is underway. Dean made it clear -- again -- that Democrats are running aggressive campaigns in all the states. Here's the bus:
From talking to my friends from Austin and the Texans I've been meeting at the conference, it's pretty clear that there is a campaign underway in Texas. Yes, Texas. And, Mississippi. And, Georgia. And, Alaska. And, North Dakota. This really is a 50-state strategy. It's pretty exciting.
"The DNC and the Obama Campaign are unified and working together to elect Barack Obama as the next president of the United States. Our presumptive nominee has pledged not to take donations from Washington lobbyists and from today going forward the DNC makes that pledge as well," said Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. "Senator Obama has promised to change the way things are done in Washington and this step is a sure sign of his commitment. The American people's priorities will set the agenda in an Obama Administration, not the special interests."
Given the actual size of the protests yesterday, there has been an inordinate amount of attention paid to the protesters by the traditional media.
Buried in the NY Times article today, after vivid descriptions of the antics of some attendees, was this line:
Mr. Wexler received the brunt of the anger from a few dozen supporters of Mrs. Clinton who were seated on the ballroom floor.
That's right. The media is basing its hyperventilating over a small number of people -- who were joined by maybe a couple hundred outside. Remember, protest organizers were promising something huge yesterday -- as many as 10,000 were expected. This was D-Day according to the protesters. They ran full page ads promoting the rally. They had websites. They had support from EMILY's List among others. But, despite all the planning and hype, there was a very small crowd. I know, I was there. I saw for myself. (There are a couple pictures in this post from yesterday's liveblog.)
To give some perspective, yesterday, when I got to the meeting, I shot a quick video of the room. It shows just how small the meeting room was and how limited the seating was for attendees. All the hollering and screaming and heckling came from those few people -- and some of them are clearly not representative of the Clinton supporters I know.
The media loves the drama. And, I understand there are strong feelings at play here. But, most Democrats are over it -- or will be soon enough. It's time to stop stirring the pot and rubbing salt in the wounds. Democrats don't want another Bush term.
Clinton supporter Mame Reilly offered a motion to seat the Michigan delegation in full, by a margin of 69 for Clinton to 59 for Obama. The delegates will get 1/2 vote meaning Clinton will net 34.5 and Obama will gain 29.5. Clinton supporter Don Fowler supports the motion, too.
Harold Ickes is opposing the motion. It's "inexplicable." He's back on "fair reflection." (Watch this video from earlier today. Senator Levin handed Ickes his head when he said ""You want a fair resolution of a flawed process.") Ickes has taken to cursing to get his point across. Classy. Ickes doesn't want Obama to get any delegates. Big surprise. He said this isn't a good way to start down the path of party unity. Oooh...Hillary reserves her right to take this to the credentials committee. Great. Threats. Classy. Just like the whole Clinton campaign. Ickes is supposed to be the greatest delegate counter and strategist EVER. Um, not so much after all. The Clinton team is on a scorched earth path, after all.
That set off another round of chanting from the small contingent of Clinton supporters. And, it was a very small crowd considering all the hype. The hecklers were told they are dishonoring their candidate, which they should know.
Good point: This motion is supported by the Michigan Democrats. Clinton and her posse are smarter than them, of course.
The motion passed: 19 - 8. Remember, this motion was proposed by a Clinton supporter -- and the Clinton campaign opposed it. Some people really do want to do the right thing, to move on, to find unity. Harold Ickes, who speaks for Hillary Clinton, is heading down a different path.
First, here's some background on the members of the Rules and By-Laws Committee.
On Florida, there are going to be two motions. The first motion, offered by Clinton supporter Alice Huffman, was to give Florida its full vote and seat the delegation in full. It's pretty clear this motion won't pass. This motion failed by a vote of 15 - 12.
There are a couple people in the crowd chanting "Denver, Denver."
UPDATE 6:42 p.m.: The second motion, offered by Ralph Dawson, follows the proposal presented by DNC Member Jon Ausman: 1) all pledged delegates are restored but can only cast 1/2 vote; 2) all pledged delegates shall be allocated along this ratio: Clinton will receive 52.5, Edwards 6.5, and Obama 33.5. Unpledged delegates can cast 1/2 vote. Clinton supporter Alice Huffman supports this motion and stresses unity.
Alice shut down the hecklers. And, even, Harold Ickes is on board with this one.
And, having been at the Marriott for most of the day, there really weren't that many protesters there. It was a very small crowd considering all the hype.
This motion passed by a margin of 27 - 0. It's unanimous.
Okay, I walked a couple blocks down Connecticut Avenue from the Marriott and am watching now from home.
The Rules Committee is back after a long lunch where hopefully some deals were cut.
According to Chuck Todd, who always seems to know these things, all of Florida's delegation will be seated, but they'll only get 1/2 votes. In Michigan, the split will be 69/59, but the delegation again gets 1/2 vote. Obama will get the two add-on superdelegates. Todd thinks the Clinton campaign will net around 20 delegates +/-2.
Todd's not sure if Florida and Michigan superdelegates will get full or half votes.
Under this scenario, the total delegates needed for the nomination would be either 2118 or 2131, depending on the determination of the superdelegate votes.
Herman said they are limiting debate to 10 minutes per motion, which is a good sign.
12:24 p.m. Starting the presentations from Michigan...after a review of how this situation evolved to where it is. (I'll start a new thread for Michigan in a bit.)
12:15 p.m. Wexler is good. Very smart. Clinton's delegate guru, Harold Ickes, who is also a member of the Rules Committee, tried to trip up Wexler. That didn't work. Big time. After getting slammed, Ickes asked a second question that no one understood. It was actually a very funny exchange. Gave some insight into why the Clinton delegate process didn't work out so well. Wexler is very, very good.
11:50 a.m. Following a presentation on behalf of the Clinton campaign by Florida State Senator Arthenia Joyner, Rep. Robert Wexler is speaking to the committee on behalf of the Obama campaign. He wants to address the frustration of Florida voters so Democrats can win in November. And, he was pretty clear: Don't blame this mess on Obama. (Also, pretty clear the room is packed with Obama supporters -- and I think I heard hisses when Donna Brazile spoke. Huh?) Wexler, on behalf of the Obama campaign, supports the position of the Florida DNC member, Jon Ausman, who wants half the delegation seated. That means everyone supports that view. Wexler wants the superdelegates to get half a vote each, too. Weird...people really are hissing in this room. Is this junior high?
11:21 a.m. Senator Bill Nelson is up to defend Florida. Apparently, we're all supposed to ignore this video of one of Florida's Democratic State Senator Geller openly mocking the DNC and its rules. (Nelson called it "a movie" -- I think that was his word.) Also, check out this post from Josh Marshall today, linking to this analysis of Florida voter turnout which, according to Josh:
makes a very strong statistical case that as many as one million voters in Florida and probably more than a half million voters in Michigan did not vote who otherwise would have if they had not believed that the results would not be counted.
I do wish that Florida's Democrats would put as much time and energy into building the party down there as they are putting into this mess. They're doing a lot of complaining about how the Republicans control the state legislature. Here's an idea: work as hard to get more legislators seated in Tallahassee as you're all working to get your delegates seated in Denver.
10:37 a.m. The legalese part of the process is underway. The appeal from Florida is being presented by a Florida DNC member. He seems most interested in getting full votes for Florida's superdelegates. For a little excitement, I just got a text message from the Weather Channel that "A Tornado Watch has been issued for Washington DC."
10:22 a.m. The co-chairs of the Committee, Herman and Roosevelt, gave the history of how we got to where we are. This wasn't some arbitrary decision to punish Michigan and Florida. There is a long procedural history to this controversy -- with strict adherence to the rules (and no one does rules like the Democrats). It wasn't like Florida and Michigan weren't warned. Roosevelt explained in detail all the interactions with Florida to try to ameliorate the situation.
9:55 a.m. Howard Dean: It's been "extraordinary" that all 50 states have participated. It's true. Lest we forget, Howard Dean started the 50 state strategy, to some mocking from the smarty pants crowd. Dean's giving a good overview of how much stronger the party is at this point. He's right. "The American people are ready for change." And, love this line: "Texas is ready to turn blue." Dean provided some great perspective and told an anecdote about Al Gore. When Dean was bitter after losing, Gore said to him, "This is not about you, this is about your country."
9:48 a.m. Rules Committee co-chair Alexis Herman (former Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton) called the meeting to order and the co-chair, Jim Roosevelt, called the roll. Starting a little late, or course. Two members aren't present but gave proxies to others. So it begins.
So, I'm here -- as are most of the political media. And, fortunately, some friends from the blogosphere including Jane Hamsher and Marcy Wheeler. I'm sitting in the press balcony overlooking the floor. I'll have pics and, hopefully, some video as the day unfolds. This could be a very boring process -- somewhere between a congressional hearing and a Supreme Court argument. I'll do my best to keep it interesting for as long as I can.
Walking up to the Marriott, I kept waiting to encounter the huge protest. After all, the protest organizers were predicting a crowd of 10,000 (including the McCain and Huckabee crew), but it's much, much, much smaller than - couple hundred, maybe. (And, maybe the other 9,700 protesters have arrived since I came inside the hotel.)
Clinton delegate Allida Black was just on MSNBC. Brown was introduced as a Clinton supporter who is organizing protests at this weekend's DNC Rules committee meeeting. When asked what she'd do if she and her group aren't satisfied with the results of Saturday's DNC meeting, Brown said:
Well, I can't speak for the campaign. All I can speak for is myself as a Clinton delegate and as a founding member of Women PAC. We want every vote counted and we will continue to organize. We will continue to speak out and we will continue to pressure the party to stand up to its principles. And that's why we have a convention. It should go to the floor.
So, if they don't get their way, they're apparently willing to destroy the party. How principled. 48 states followed the rules, two didn't. As for principled, Ms. Black should meet Senator Geller, for whom she is fighting, yet who mocked following the party's rules.
Unlike the House and Senate campaign committees, the DNC trails the Republican National Committee in fundraising. At the end of March, the DNC had $5.3 million on hand compared to $31 million in the bank for the RNC.
With such a meager cash on hand total, it's hard to imagine the DNC keeping up a sustained paid advertising campaign [against McCain] for very long.
What that means -- barring a quicker-than-expected resolution to the ongoing Clinton-Obama scrap -- is that an outside organization must step into the void.
The obvious candidate is Progressive Media USA, the group now controlled by Republican turned Democrat David Brock. While Brock touted a $40 million budget for the group, its first foray -- an ad that ran on MSNBC and CNN last week -- cost just $7,000, according to a Democratic media buyer.
The dearth of money coming into the DNC and the lack of real dollars being spent on outside groups' attempts to define McCain present a serious problem for Democrats if the race between Obama and Clinton goes all the way to June 3 or beyond.
Not only do Democrats run the risk of allowing McCain several more months to define himself, they also could watch as disaffected donors, who favor either Clinton or Obama, walk away from funding the DNC and other outside groups if their preferred candidate doesn't wind up as the nominee.
Well, this is the way the DNC wanted it, I thought? The primary could go on forever, for all they care. How's that working out for you?
Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean gave the keynote speech tonight about the influence of the netroots, and the restoration of democracy that George Bush has undermined, federal election reform (Bill HR811), the effect of the YouTube debate, and Iraq. Here's a snippet of Dean (I shot this from my table) comparing this Congress to the do-nothing Republican-controlled Congress.
Dean announced a new initiative by the Democratic Party to go out to every county in the country (down to the precinct level) and identify voting problems in advance of the 2008 election, looking at how vote counting and administration is handled, and whether an adequate number of voting machines is available for voters in those precincts.
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Hillary Clinton to skip breakout session
Breaking news out of the convention -- Hillary Clinton will appear at the Presidential Leadership Forum on Saturday night, but it was announced by YK organizers after Dean's speech that Clinton will not appear in a breakout session (that includes taking questions from attendees). All of the rest of the candidates will attend the forum and breakout sessions (except Joe Biden, who couldn't make YK). In her place will be senior advisor Ann Lewis. That announcement brought a lot of boos in the room from attendees, who had to pick in advance which presidential breakout session they were going to attend. The Hillary attendees are now understandably unhappy because it's not possible to trade in access wristbands for different presidential breakout session at this point because the other top tier candidate sessions are already full, I believe.
There's a lot of banter about it in this DKos diary.
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As A.J. mentioned earlier, Air America's Sam Seder moderated tonight's dinner. Seder wants to interview some of the bloggers here, and I've been tapped for a slot. (I do it tomorrow, but I think it will air Sunday).
A few days ago I posted a statement from Donald Hitchcock, the former gay outreach director at the Democratic National Committee, announcing that he was suing the DNC. This is the DNC's response:
I'm Joe Sandler, general counsel of the DNC. Although we truly appreciate John's invitation to the DNC to post a public response to Donald's statement, now that Donald has chosen to bring this matter into court, for legal reasons the DNC is unable to respond to the substance of Donald's points outside the legal process. The DNC strongly believes that Donald's charges have no merit and the DNC is committed to defending its position vigorously in court. The DNC is certainly proud of the great work that has been accomplished and continues to be done under the leadership of Brian Bond, current director of the DNC's Gay & Lesbian Leadership Council. We regret that we cannot say much more publicly and do thank John for his offer. Also we ask that readers of this and other blogs and publications to keep in mind that since the DNC is not able to speak publicly about the case, everything you'll see may well be one-sided. I hope you understand why and ask that you take that into account.
As a lifelong, loyal Democrat I am filing this complaint against the DNC because the road to social justice sometimes demands that our political family and friends be held accountable when they do not act for the common good.
Respecting the Democrats' opportunity to regain the majority in both Houses of Congress, I remained silent throughout the last year about my illegal termination and subsequent ongoing defamation from the DNC. Prior to filing this lawsuit I tried several times to settle this matter in a reasonable and professional manner, but the DNC refused and continues to attempt to discredit me and my political opinions.
Prior to my position at the DNC, I worked for 10 years advocating for equality for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community. When I was recruited by the DNC to serve as the Director of its Gay and Lesbian leadership Council, I was told that my professional and activist background would be helpful to achieving Governor Dean's goals. Once I joined the DNC, however, senior staff made it clear that they had no interest in LGBT equality. Instead, Democratic LGBT constituents and employees are treated as second-class citizens, whom the DNC tries to ignore unless fundraising is involved –reducing the community to a little more than an ATM. As a DNC employee, I tried to push the organization to treat the LGBT community with greater respect. The DNC ultimately terminated me after my long-term partner criticized the Democrats' lack of a strategy to combat anti-gay ballot measures - a critique made without my input and which the DNC recently admitted was accurate.
It is clear that the DNC fundraisers have no intention of ceasing their personal attacks against me. Their goal is to keep LGBT money flowing to the DNC, no matter what. For some, if truth is not convenient they find it expendable for the cause. They have spent time researching my political and charitable contributions and even claimed publicly that I was not a loyal Democrat since I did not donate a part of my salary back to the party. Social justice is not for sale, nor should it have to be bought.
The LGBT press has rightly criticized the DNC for its failure to recognize and promote basic human rights for the community. Rather than respond to legitimate questions about DNC policy and strategy impacting the LGBT community, the DNC has retaliated against publications and former employees by attacking the messengers personally. The DNC now has fewer openly gay and lesbian members than before the 2004 election. This is not progress.
I expect my party to embody the Democratic values of fairness and honesty. It is important that the DNC be able to acknowledge its failings and live up to its promise to protect the human rights of the LGBT community as we move forward. To help attain this goal, I cannot remain silent on matters of policy and substance.
Last week, I published a letter to the editor of the Washington Blade written by Donald Hitchcock, the former Director of the Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council of the Democratic National Committee. Donald expressed a number of concerns about the DNC vis-a-vis the gay community. The DNC's treasurer, Andy Tobias, asked me if he could publish a response, in his personal capacity. Here it is:
Like John, I know Paul and Donald personally -- have even done their laundry when they stayed with me -- and wish them well.
But there's a lot in Donald's letter that's off the mark and, unintentionally, counterproductive.
Donald says "Gov. Dean barely addressed the LGBT caucus with only 5 minutes worth of comments, and no questions from the floor."
The Governor's comments to the DNC LGBT caucus were well received by a packed room. And when questions were invited from the caucus, none of the caucus members chose to ask one. (One audience member did raise his hand but, as it turned out, only wanted to offer thanks rather than ask a question.) If Donald or Paul have questions not answered below, I'd be glad to try to answer them.
Donald says, ". . . my reasons for standing up to Gov. Dean's reluctance to treating our community with dignity and respect, an action for which I was fired. I claim that firing as a badge of honor."
Donald is of course entitled to his view, but having spent a lot of time observing the Governor ever since he signed -- and then spent months stumping his state in a bulletproof vest promoting -- the nation's first civil unions bill, I have seen him consistently demonstrate nothing but a respect for and commitment to our community.
As for his "badge of honor," Donald frequently attacks the DNC, assuming it will not attack him back -- and he's right. But as someone who likes Donald and who shares his commitment to our community, I can nonetheless say that I do not share his sense of outrage over the way he was treated.
Am I sorry it didn't work out? Very.
Do I agree with his view of why it didn't work out? No.
"After Gov. Dean became Chair of the DNC, two LGBT political positions were abolished, and two finance positions were added, for a total now of four positions in Finance and zero in Political."
After Governor Dean became chair, ALL the constituency desks were "abolished" in favor of a different organization the Governor and his staff thought would be more effective. You can argue that the old system was better -- or not -- but you can't argue that our community was singled out. The African-American desk was "abolished," the "Hispanic desk" was abolished -- ALL the desks were "abolished."
Instead, you have now at the DNC the head of the Northeast political desk who happens to be gay, and the head of the DNC training program -- who, pivotally, interacts with hundreds of our field organizers every year -- who happens to be gay (and lets them know it!). And, yes, you have several finance staffers who happen to be gay (raising money IS a big part of what the DNC does), including Brian Bond, who has a sterling resume within our community, and who spends a lot of his time interacting with other LGBT leaders who I think would vouch for his good efforts.
Indeed, from a practical point of view, Brian brings our community clout that Donald -- through no fault of his own -- could not. That's because, as it happens, Brian gave the DNC's chief operating officer his very first job in politics. That is the kind of relationship and level of trust within the DNC that Donald can't be faulted for not having had -- but that is good news for our community.
Donald and Paul have both criticized the level of financial support the DNC put into fighting the anti-marriage amendments.
After eight years as DNC treasurer, I have pretty much given up on getting Paul's or Donald's support, much as I admire their passion and good intentions.
Indeed, Paul has called upon major LGBT donors to *withhold* financial support from the national Democratic Party committees.
He and I obviously disagree that this is the best way to advance the goal of LGBT equality, which we both share.
The DNC has worked hard ever since I've been soliciting funds to elect candidates who in almost every instance were FAR better on LGBT issues than their opponents.
(Of the 107 Senators and Congressfolk with perfect 100% ratings from HRC in this pa
