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.
While we're waiting for the Rules Committee to reconvene -- and they're already almost an hour late, here's a little color from today's meeting. Almost all of the Clinton spin crew was on hand at the Marriott -- including Lanny Davis.
As I mentioned in the post below, leading Florida Democrats held a press conference in the lobby outside of the meeting room to talk about a possible compromise. It was a pretty big deal -- and that's big news if there's a deal. While the Florida Democrats were talking, Lanny Davis was standing at the edge of the crowd heckling.
Clinton campaign surrogate Lanny Davis stood outside the circle and interrupted, raising his voice in protest that the Clinton campaign had agreed to anything less than a 100% seating of the delegates at 100% of their strength.
Nelson noted that he was speaking "on behalf of the voters of Florida," not on behalf of the Clinton campaign.
"They're misrepresenting our stance," Davis said repeatedly.
I was there and captured some video of Davis in action:
After the Florida portion of the meeting was finished, I watched an impromptu press conference in the lobby of the Marriott that included Jon Ausman, Senator Nelson, former Senator Graham, Rep. Wexler and a couple other Florida Democrats. The theme was one of unity. Ausman said he could accept Rep. Wexler's proposal for seating the Florida superdelegates with 1/2 vote each. Generally, the theme was one of unity. The speakers gave the sense that they feel there will be a resolution from the Rules Committee today that will make satisfy most of them. Avi Zenilman has a similar report.
2:54 p.m. Time for lunch. Finally. After lunch, the committee will reconvene at 4:15 pm and start debate.
2:16 p.m. Clinton is represented by former Michigan Governor Jim Blanchard, recently designated one of the top "hired guns" in Washington by The Hill. His first big scoop is that "in private," Hillary says she'll campaign her heart out for Obama if he gets the nomination. Clinton's campaign wants the delegates seated with 73 for her and 55 uncommitted. Note, the 55 aren't for Obama, they're uncommitted. Clinton's campaign isn't giving anything to Obama. Yeah, that's fair. (And at 2:53 p.m., Harold Ickes is shut down again.)
1:50 p.m. Former Congressman David Bonior, who chaired the campaign of John Edwards, is now speaking on behalf of the Obama campaign. Reminds everyone, once again, in Hillary Clinton's words, the primary would not count. Yes, he quoted Hillary Clinton on this. But, that quote might not count now. Obama campaign wants to split the delegates from Michigan evenly. (People are hissing again...seriously, that is so weak. Weak. And, pathetic.) Michigan had a flawed primary, only fair solution is to split delegates evenly.
1:44 p.m. Clearly, Harold Ickes does not want Obama to get any of the uncommitted delegates. He kept talking about "fair resolution." In fact, last week, Ickes has stated, in his role as Clinton spokesperson, that he did not want Obama to get any delegates. Levin smacked him down: "You want a fair resolution of a flawed process."
1:08 p.m. Senator Carl Levin: "The Democratic party needs unity." The MI Dems have found unity, asking the committee to preserve it. Claims unity from the candidates, too, for full seating of MI delegation. Levin asked the committee to not override the unity. The question is allocation, of course. Levin thinks Obama wants a 50/50 split, but that Clinton would allow 73 for her, 55 for Obama. (Not sure that's true). Michigan knows it was a flawed primary. Levin and his working group want at 69/59 allocation.
12:50 p.m. First witness is State Party Chair Mark Brewer who made the case for seating. Allocation issues are the big problem with Michigan...Brewer provided a lot of evidence for allocation.
Florida Senator Bill Nelson gave an impassioned defense of Florida today. He invoked a couple of Floridians to support his position, including Megan Foster. Here's the that section of his remarks:
BILL NELSON: Now, I want to give you some examples. Megan Foster, a mother of five from Tampa, frustrated by the incompetence and failures of the Bush administration, organized her own campaign. She rallied friends and family to get out the vote for her candidate. Her energy and enthusiasm was infectious and helped inspire many others to become politically involved and help get out people to vote all over the state; and then Megan was elected a delegate.
However, Megan just wrote a post on DailyKos to make clear she doesn't share the view of Senator Nelson. In fact, she did not help get out the vote in Florida. She channeled her energies in other states where she knew the votes would count:
Senator Nelson just used my name to argue a position that I do not support. Anyone who knows me or has read my diaries, knows that as a Florida grassroots organizer, I understood that Florida broke the rules. I played by the rules. I organized Tampa Bay area Obama supporters to help elect Senator Obama as our next president by fundraising, online networking and rapid response as well as phonebanking to and canvassing in other states. In fact the week before the January 29th primary, I was otherwise occupied getting out the vote in South Carolina. I also traveled to North Carolina and phonebanked to Texas, Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, etc.
I ran for pledged Obama delegatge in Florida CD 9 to make sure that IF Florida's delegation is seated, Senator Obama would be represented by a loyal supporter in my district.
Those who played by the rules are the ones who are actually being punished. That's disturbing.
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.)
