On Thursday night, DC elected 2 add on unpledged delegates. Almost all of the speakers made reference to the candidate they were supporting, except the two Clinton supporters, and one of them won.
Clinton’s name never came up in Thomas’ brief remarks before the vote; he instead chose to talk up his own qualifications and big-picture issues. "The issue is what are we going to do when we get to Denver that best represents the District of Columbia," he said. (Rumors had swirled that Thomas planned to switch to Obama, but Thomas knocked those down after the vote: "I haven’t changed," he says. "I’m consistent.")
I hate candidate diaries. I don't write them and rarely visit them. In fact, it is pissing me off to no end to even have to use my 1 diary today to talk about this. I should be writing about American Axle or Colombian Free Trade or a hundred other topics. Instead, here I am writing about the sleazy tactics of a candidate's supporter and how he shouldn't get a free pass for this behavior.
So, if you are an Obama supporter or a Clinton Supporter, it doesn't matter, no one should lie to get a seat and then expect to not be held accountable. This is our party, not the party of just elected officials who use their connections and name recognition to get what they want. It's time to hold them accountable to their words and in Tommy's case, his lie of omission.
First off, let's talk DC.
We're saddled with a huge amount of non-representative Super Delegates due to the DNC. This means we have more Clinton Delegates than we do Obama delegates.
The District went for Obama with over 70% of the vote. Ward 5 went with 83% to Obama. To have a sitting councilmember for that Ward so blatantly lie to be a delegate and to so clearly not represent the wishes of his ward is deplorable and down right slimy.
Mr. Thomas spoke like the polished politician he is and has been raised to be through his years of political action as the son of the Ward 5 councilman, a chair of the Young Dems and his service as an at-large member of the DC Democratic State Committee. But what was clearly missing in his speech was who he supported and has been working for. All other candidates noted their support for a particular candidate.
I highly recommend a read of the City paper article and also a look at the comments, like these:
Mike Panetta Says:
Apr. 4, 2008, at 9:32 am
From what I hear Harry is actually supporting Obama now, but I haven’t seen anything public. You may want to follow up with his office and get something quotable on that.
Mike Panetta Says:
Apr. 6, 2008, at 6:26 pm
Your quote from Harry is correct from Thursday, my comment is based upon a conversation I had with one of his staffers two days before (on Tuesday) that he had "heard from his constituents" and was now supporting Obama. It’s mixed signals and that’s causing some confusion.
And, from Dailykos diarist Jakester
jakester Says: Apr. 6, 2008, at 7:41 pm
Well, as Hillary likes to say, it’s not too late for any delegate, super or otherwise, to change his or her mind! Hopefully that happens with Mr. Thomas...
Over the years of sending people to the convention, the DC Dem State Committee continues to send councilmembers who barely if ever attend DC Dem meetings. We continue to send these councilmembers despite the fact that they rarely support the committee with funds and recently refused to fund a scholarship contest on DC voting rights to be held on May 3rd at our District Convention.
It seems as if our councilmembers have made a habit of being absent from the party except every 4 years when they want something from us. This time around, Tommy wanted something from us and was willing to omit the truth about his candidacy just to get it.
If you'd like Mr. Thomas to be more representative of his constituency, and more than that, let him know that a lie of omission to take this seat is just as bad as an out right lie, no matter who you are. Every member of the committee had a right to know who you stood with and have campaigned for in the past several months. This kind of lie is simply wrong. Wrong, WRONG, W R O N G!!!
Please feel free to let him know how you feel about all of this. You can contact him here:
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