On behalf of State Senator Marcia Moody (NH) who requested I post this letter and also her first hand experience at the DNC Rules and Regulations Committee Meeting:
I understand a great deal of what the Hillary supporters are going through. As was stated on one of the web sites, they need a chance to grieve. When Howard Dean lost the nomination to John Kerry, I cried buckets. I grieved for months. I was angry and frustrated. I hated Kerry for what he had done to Howard Dean and couldn’t imagine that I could ever bring myself to vote for that man. My frustration was fueled by a certain knowledge of just how the political establishment and the media worked hand-in-hand to defeat Howard Dean because he promised, for one thing, to break up the corporate stranglehold on the media, and he believed in and practiced true grassroots politics by involving us all for the very first time in campaign history as active participants in his campaign. He allowed us to make decisions and he allowed us a voice. We were empowered. And John Kerry stole that from us.
What gradually brought me around in my thinking and assuaged some of my bitterness, was Howard Dean himself. First of all, he turned right around and threw his support to the nominee and urged us all to do the same. He told us that he understood how we felt and appreciated so very much our loyalty. He said to take a couple of weeks and think about what has happened. He understood that we were grieving. Then he reminded us of what our choice really was….another four years of the Bush administration, or John Kerry and putting a Democrat back in the White House. He emphasized that the differences between him and John Kerry paled by the differences between John Kerry and George Bush. He created Democracy for America within a month of his dropping out of his campaign. This organization supported socially and fiscally responsible candidates running for office all over the country. He raised money for them. He gave speeches for them and he went everywhere in support of John Kerry. He got on TV and explained some of Kerry’s convoluted statements because Howard was and is a man of the people and could still reach out to us as no one else could because he understood our pain.
He joined Kerry in some of Kerry’s personal appearances and the two of them spoke about the urgency of electing a Democrat to the White House. Now……you Hillary supporters, please, really think about this. I know how you are hurting. I know your pain. I know your anger. I also know you don’t have the leisure of months to heal as I did. Your time is much shorter. Theoretically you have only until the convention at the end of August. That is almost 3 months. Think of what is good for the country, not about your immediate emotional reaction. When Howard Dean lost in Wisconsin as early as February in 2004, he too was frustrated and angry at what had been done to him. He called Al Gore because only Al Gore could truly understand the depths of agony that Dean was experiencing. Dean asked, “Why should I remain a Democrat after all that they did to me?” “Why should I remain loyal to a Party that helped defeat me?” Al Gore told him, “Because it is not about you Howard, it is about our country”. Howard understood immediately and that is why he poured his heart and soul into helping the Kerry campaign.
You too have a choice of doing what is good for your country, or sitting on your bitterness and letting it fester. Grieve, but come to an intellectual decision not a purely emotional one. Your candidate, Hillary Clinton has pledged to help get Barack Obama elected. Will you dishonor her, and the Party by leaping over to vote for another four years of Bush by voting for John McCain? Take a very good look at what he really stands for.
He is against a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions. He would like to overturn Roe v. Wade. All of you sisters who are old enough to know how bad things were for women who needed abortions before that Supreme Court decision, think of your daughters and your granddaughters and what lies ahead for them under a McCain administration.
He wants to appoint even more ultra conservative judges to the Supreme Court. This would be an ultimate disaster for the country. We would have even more wire tapping, more torture, more invasion of privacy and more violations of our fundamental Constitutional rights. Do you really want this?
He has stated, even though he was himself tortured, that he supports Bush’s waterboarding and torture policy. He is willing to ignore the Geneva Convention.
He wants to stay in Iraq as long as it takes to win even if it is 100 years. We all know that the Federal Government along with Haliburton and Blackwater are building permanent structures and wants a permanent presence of US troops there. How many more young American lives must we sacrifice for the price of greed and political power? How much longer can we taxpayers afford to keep spending a billion dollars a week to support the war in Iraq when our domestic programs are being slashed?
He challenges Obama to go to Iraq and see the progress the surge has made. Obama challenges him to go to Appalachia, Mississippi, South Carolina and the inner cities and see how Americans at home are suffering. McCain has lied about the number of troops in Iraq since the so-called surge drawdown. There are far more than he claims. Over 4,000 lives have been needlessly sacrificed for a sham war. How many more must we lose in an illegal “occupation”?
McCain has made no moves whatsoever to establish and restore the art of diplomacy. He ridicules the idea and calls it “soft” on our enemies. Even Nixon used diplomacy and went himself to China and Russia in 1972.
McCain’s economic policies are the same disaster as those of Bush. He refuses to recognize that it is the American working family that bears the brunt of Bush’s failed economic policy. He refuses to recognize that unemployment is at a record 22 year high. That unemployment insurance claims have spiked. That between January and June of 2008 nearly 1.5 million workers will exhaust their unemployment insurance benefits. That inflation has hit a 17 year high.
He goes along with bailing out the mortgage lending industry and not the poor home owner who was falsely led to believe that he could afford to buy a home far above his ability to pay for it. He doesn’t believe in helping the little guy who has been victimized.
What has he done to support the troops? Has he introduced legislation to increase their benefits? No. Has he introduced legislation to give them more time off between tours of duty? No. Has he introduced legislation to give veterans more and better medical aid upon their return to the states when they are in dire need of it? No. But, Democrats have introduced such legislation.
McCain supports unwarranted wiretapping. Fine, we need to keep our country safe. But, is there any reason on earth why we need to usurp our Constitutional rights and tap our phones, our e-mails invade our fundamental right to privacy without first obtaining a warrant?
McCain has no intention of instituting a Health Care Policy that would finally give us universal health care that every other industrialized nation in the world has. Remember he voted against extending health care to children.
One last statement about John McCain from Ivo Daalder of the Brookings Institute. “He’s a true neocon. He does believe , in a way that George W. Bush never really did, in the use of power, military power above all, to change the world in America’s image. If you thought George Bush was bad when it comes to the use of military force, wait till you see John McCain…He believes this. His advisers believe this. He’s surrounded himself with people who believe it. And I’ll take him at his word”.
So Hillary supporters, I beg of you think about the consequences for our entire country before you act. I ask you to keep this letter. Read it again after the August Convention in Denver. Read it again in September. Read it again in October. Then think carefully on an intellectual and rational basis and in November, do what is right and support your Party and vote for the Democratic nominee. I did in 2004, and I have no regrets at having done so because I voted for my country.
Now, having said all that, let me go to another topic…that of the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee Meeting that took place on 31 May 2008. There are so many of you who were not able to assimilate the actions of the Committee and what preceded the eventual ruling. The rules, of the Rules and Bylaws Committee, were established back in the 80s. Each political party, the Democrats and the Republicans has the power to set a Primary Calendar listing the order in which the respective states may hold their Primary or their Caucus. Some of you dispute the system of a Caucus, but it is a legal system of voting recognized in both the United States and Canada. Who knows, it may also be used in other countries. Now, let me give you a little history.
Back preceding the 2004 election Terry McAuliffe established the Primary Calendar for that year. At that time Carl Levin wanted to jump the Primary Calendar and move Michigan into the January time frame. Terry McAuliffe told him absolutely not. He said, “Carl, it would create utter chaos. If you do, I guarantee you that Michigan will lose their delegates. I have the power to do it. If you don’t believe me, try me”. I am paraphrasing, but check out McAuliffe’s own book either on page 324 or 325. Levin backed off, but McAuliffe moved up Michigan, Wisconsin and South Carolina to early February to front load the calendar to give the candidate with the most money the advantage. At that time it was presumed to be John Kerry.
Something to remember that is very fundamental: A Chairman of the DNC cannot override the Rules and Bylaws Committee’s decisions, or that of any other committee within the organization. Only the Chairman of a specific Committee has the power to enforce the rules decided upon by that Committee. The Chairman of the DNC is only Chairman on one Committee and that is the Executive Committee. After the Carl Levin debacle, Terry McAuliffe promised to diminish the long standing tradition of Iowa and New Hampshire being the first Caucus and the first Primary in the nation.
A very simple and a very fair way would have been to establish a calendar that would have made all the other states hold their Primaries and Caucuses in April or later. That way, it wouldn’t be front loading the calendar and it would give the candidates running, time to regroup and to raise more money to stay in the race. Additionally, it would have allowed the ten states with the highest number of delegates to band together and hold their voting in April with the collective power of sufficient number of delegates to determine who the nominee would be. That would make whatever happened in Iowa and New Hampshire moot….totally irrelevant.
But no, Terry McAuliffe, knowing what his plans for himself were in the coming months, determined to keep the calendar front loaded to give advantage once more to the candidate with the most money thus insuring a petty bickering and a mad scramble of the states “to be first”. So before leaving the DNC as Chair, he charged the Rules and Bylaws Committee with bringing in two more states into the January time frame, trying to diminish the importance of Iowa and New Hampshire that way. He as Chairman had that prerogative , but, only the Committee had the power of selecting which two states that would be. Twelve states applied including Michigan.
When Howard Dean was elected Chairman in February of 2005, he found out what McAuliffe had done. What Governor Dean was able to do was to further charge the Committee. He said there were 4 principles to keep in mind when determining their selection.
They must respect the tradition of Iowa and New Hampshire and keep them as the first Caucus state and the first Primary state.
They had to retain the ability of the states selected to practice “Retail Politics”. This means that the candidates must be able to get around the entire state easily and to talk face-to-face with the voters asking the questions, instead of huge media events with pre-selected questions by so-called professionals.
They had to select states that had regional representation. Iowa represented the Mid-west, New Hampshire represented the Northeast. Therefore, the two states chosen had to be representative of the West and the South.
The last requirement was that the states had to have ethnic representation.
The Rules and Bylaws Committee met and reviewed all the applications. They eventually selected Nevada and South Carolina. Each state met the criteria. Each was small enough for the candidates to meet the voters face-to-face and keep the tradition of Retail Politics. Each state had regional representation, Nevada the West and South Carolina the South. Lastly each state met the ethnic requirement. Nevada had a very large Hispanic population and South Carolina had a huge Afro-American population.
In August 2006 in Chicago, the whole Committee voted to accept these two states including members of the Committee from Florida and Michigan. They voted for Nevada and South Carolina and knew that their own states were not among those selected. Their states were given a full hearing just like the other 10 states that had applied. Since total agreement was reached by the Committee the announcement was made and the Primary Calendar was established.
Then along towards the end of the year, Carl Levin once again started whining that Michigan wasn’t first. He threatened to jump the calendar and also stirred up Florida. The two states informed the Committee of their intentions to violate the Primary Calendar. They were warned that if they did so they would lose their delegates. The Committee told them that they could have the date of 5 February, the first Tuesday in February. All of a sudden all the other states jumped on the band wagon and started moving up their Primaries. In order to prevent absolute chaos, other states including some of the biggest, such as California. many moved their Primary date to 5 February and early February dates, front loading the calendar even more.
The DNC had to take drastic measures because a whole bunch of additional states threatened to violate the January Calendar. So the Committee issued a statement that said that any state that jumps into the January Calendar would forfeit 100% of their delegates.
The rules already stated that any state violating the January Calendar would automatically lose 50% of their delegates. To prevent whole-sale violations, they announced the 100% loss of delegates. Finally the Rules and Bylaws Committee met once again on 1st December 2007 just before the Calendar was to go into effect. A hearing was held and Michigan and Florida were able to present their arguments. The Committee found there wasn’t sufficient additional evidence to warrant their moving into the January time frame and once again offered them 5 February. Both turned down the offer and declared that they would hold their Primaries on 15 January and 29 January.
Then the Committee voted and sanctioned both Michigan and Florida and took away 100% of their delegates. Since these two states moved into the January time frame with Michigan ahead of New Hampshire and Florida on the same day as South Carolina, Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina requested permission to move their Caucus and Primary dates. The Committee heard their arguments. Iowa was then permitted to move to 3 January retaining its position as the first Caucus in the nation and ahead of New Hampshire, the first Primary. New Hampshire requested permission to move to 8 January ahead of Michigan and after Iowa. South Carolina requested permission to move to 23 January ahead of Florida. Nevada elected to remain the same. So the original order was two Caucus states and then two Primary states. The new order was Caucus then Primary and then the second Caucus and the second Primary. Because these moves were to distance themselves from the two rogue states and because the requests were still within the January time frame and did not violate the intent of the Rules Committee, Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina WERE GIVEN PERMISSION TO DO SO. Those states DID NOT violate the rules.
Fast forward to 31 May 2008. Now all but Puerto Rico, Montana and South Dakota had voted. What was so unprecedented was the fact that this was the first time EVER that all 50 states and territories had a chance to vote in a Presidential Primary. In past years, the nominee was chosen long before the majority of the states had a chance to vote in their respective Primaries and Caucuses. .
The voters were told in both Michigan and Florida that their votes wouldn’t count. Barack Obama, took his name off the Michigan ballot to comply with the decision to sanction Michigan and not allow the votes to be counted. Hillary Clinton left her name on. So when those who came out to vote cast their ballots knew…. they had a choice of voting for Hillary Clinton or not. According to Michigan law. “no write-in ballots would be counted”. The fact that such a large percentage of people chose to vote “undecided” was a clear indication that the person they wanted to vote for was not on the ballot and if they wrote in the name of their candidate, their ballot would be discarded. All the candidates pledged not to campaign in either state and signed a letter of intent to that effect. Remember, that if they had wanted to vote for Hillary, they could have, since her name was on the ballot. This was in spite of her having AGREED to the Rules and Bylaws Committee’s sanction of Michigan and knowing that the vote wouldn’t count.
Florida was a different case entirely. There, the State Legislature, controlled by the Republicans passed a bill moving the Primary into the January time slot and the Republican Governor signed it. What you don’t know is that the Republican Party also sanctioned Florida for moving up from its established calendar and also took away 50% of their delegate votes.
These two rogue states once more appealed to the Rules Committee which met on 31 May. The entire history of the process was reviewed at that time. The most the Committee was allowed to do by their own laws was: to restore half the delegates to each state, to restore the full delegation but with only one half vote each, or to continue with the full 100% sanction. The decision was made to restore the full delegations with one half vote each. Further decisions on how to split the vote were made based on the presentations made by representatives from each state. The decision to award Obama the majority of the undecided votes and distributing the total votes by a percent was part of the proposal by Michigan.
Remember, each state party’s representatives presented their oral arguments and each state had a representative sitting on the committee. It was Michigan’s own Party’s argument presented by their very own Carl Levin who started the whole mess in the first place. If you want to vent your anger, do so at Levin and the State Party. Technically the Rules and Bylaws Committee was under no obligation to restore any of the delegates. What seems to be consistently overlooked in the argument is the fact that 48 states abided by the rules. Should they be punished for doing what is right? The Ausmond Challenge was accepted on behalf of Florida with a unanimous vote.
If blame is to be levied, then blame the State Parties in both Michigan and Florida for violating the rules in the first place. They had their chance in 2006 to present their arguments. They voted then and there to allow only Nevada and South Carolina to join Iowa and New Hampshire in the January Calendar. YOU DO NOT CHANGE THE RULES MIDWAY THROUGH THE YEAR just because all of a sudden you decided you don’t like what you voted for in the first place. Wouldn’t that be nice….then we could have gotten rid of George W. Bush a long time ago.
The voters in these two states have NOT been disenfranchised. This is not comparable to the Florida vote in 2000 where the Supreme Court, not the voters elected a President. Florida, Michigan and the other 48 states will ALL be voting for the President of the United States. What transpired was just a Primary election that in every other year only had a campaign that lasted through the end of March. You can still vote for the President and I urge you once again, think carefully and do what is best for the country. You do not want to have 4 more years of a Bush administration or worse.
One last comment as a tribute to my own Senator from New Hampshire who sat on the Committee, Senator Martha Fuller-Clark. At that meeting on 31 May, she endured unbelievable verbal abuse from the extremely biased audience. After the adjournment of the Committee, she was surrounded by angry Hillary supporters and submitted to extreme verbal attacks and at one time nearly physical. She was castigated for holding up two hands for each vote. People were not paying attention when the Chairman called the roll. Martha clearly stated that she held the proxy vote for the Committee member from Iowa who could not attend. Therefore, she was entitled to her own vote and that for the member from Iowa.
The meeting didn’t adjourn until 7:00 PM. But, Senator Fuller-Clark stayed until the wee hours of the morning trying to explain all the rules and procedures to an obnoxious and unruly crowd. She was not obligated to do so. But she extended a courtesy to them that they did not. In return, give to her. Another last word, during the whole day from 9:00 AM until 7:00 PM the crowd was loud, obnoxious, disrespectful and vicious constantly interrupting the Committee members who were trying to speak. The Chairman, who was a Hillary supporter, tried to reason with the crowd and said, “You dishonor your candidate by your behavior”. Their response…they booed.
State Representative Marcia Moody (NH)