Over at Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall just called out the Hillary Clinton campaign on the hypocrisy of its Florida/Michigan posturing:
Sen. Clinton ... is embarking on a gambit that is uncertain in its result and simply breathtaking in its cynicism.
Coming from Marshall -- who has been unstinting in investigating the Bush administration's excesses, while remaining evenhanded about the Democratic candidates -- this has got to sting.
In his typical "on the one hand/on the other hand" manner, Marshall grants to Clinton supporters that there are subjective and debatable points to be made about how things have played out this election season. But on the matter of the Florida and Michigan delegations, he is unsparing:
I know many ... believe there is a deep moral and political issue at stake in the need to seat these delegations. I don't see it the same way. But I'm not here to say they're wrong and I'm right. It's a subjective question and I respect that many people think this. What I'm quite confident about is that Sen. Clinton and her top advisors don't see it that way.
Why do I think that? For a number of reasons. One of her most senior advisors, Harold Ickes, was on the DNC committee that voted to sanction Florida and Michigan by not including their delegates. Her campaign completely signed off on sanctions after that. And there are actually numerous quotes from the Senator herself saying those primaries didn't and wouldn't count. Michigan and Florida were sanctioned because they ignored the rules the DNC had set down for running this year's nomination process.
The evidence is simply overwhelming that Sen. Clinton didn't think this was a problem at all -- until it became a vehicle to provide a rationale for her continued campaign.
Ouch. Considering that Marshall, who's setting himself up to be the eventual new Dean of Washington pundits, is the source, that's a devastating conclusion.
It's a conclusion that has been circulating in the blogosphere for quite some time; right now, at the top of the Rec list is a great diary from JLFinch going through the details, blow by blow, of how Clinton dug this hole for herself
Now Marshall has synthesized and legitimized the argument for his more hesitant and less well-versed peers in the media establishment. Without realizing it, Clinton is further burying her reputation with this latest push to justify her continued candidacy.
UPDATE:Here is the money quote referred to in the comments from Jonathan Chait at TNR, whose piece preceded Marshall's and takes a nearly identical stance:
She decided to campaign to change the rules only after it became her interest to do so. This gambit by Clinton is simply an attempt to steal the nomination. It's obviously not going to work, because Democratic superdelegates don't want to commit suicide. But this episode is very revealing about Clinton's character. I try not to make moralistic characterological judgments about politicians, because all politicians compromise their ideals in the pursuit of power. There are no angels in this business. Clinton's gambit, however, truly is breathtaking.