Clinton supporter vs TX caucus: Followup: It's a Virus

I think it's more about a virus than a conspiracy. I don't think we'll be kicked out of the convention, but it's hard to be sure.

The most interesting part of the Credentials Committee meeting was the presence of a major Clinton supporter (their delegation chairperson, I believe), who was absolutely furious at her fellow Clinton supporter for filing the silly challenge to our delegation. In committee, she delivered an icily accurate refutal of the complaint. In the hallway, she let fly with words to the effect of "What an idiot! Doesn't she realize she's trying to start World War III?"

This is as a followup to Wednesday's diary
http://www.dailykos.com/...

in which I reported that

a Clinton supporter is trying to have my vote and all the Obama votes overturned....

In a rambling letter beginning
Re:  Challenge to whole Obama delegation from Pct. 355.  
, this Clinton supporter makes a number of false claims about how the caucus took place:
...
As a result, I and my fellow Obama delegates have to waste Thursday evening going to a g*d d*mn hearing hosted by a Dem Party committee

I went to the committee meeting and learned:

1. Obama supporters swarm like fire ants when you f*ck with their voting rights,

2. HRC supporters are raising many challenges to the caucuses,

3. The challenges are vacuous and their supporters look like fools,

4. If this committee is the Democratic Party, I want a different Party

and inferred

5. It's a virus, not a conspiracy

1. Obama supporters swarm like fire ants when you f*ck with their voting rights
There must have been ten people there from our precinct alone, all chomping at the bit to refute all the false claims. We ended up allowing one person to speak for all of us. He did a great job, though I for one felt a little cheated out of my right to yell and holler.
The precinct just north of ours had a challenge too, and the rebuttal was presented by a long-time Republican who had turned out for Obama and was surprised on election night to find himself nominated to run the caucus (probably because he wore suit and tie). He spoke at length, eloquently, obviously furious yet disciplining himself to address specific points in the debate. At the caucus he had basically been assigned to learn all the party rules in under three minutes and manage the sign-in for five hundred people, and had brought off that job pretty well - - only to hear a couple weeks later of a challenge claiming massive irregularity, failure to check ID, and so on.
Also present was a gentleman who quietly let me know he was a lawyer with the Obama campaign. Not being from the precinct, he could not testify to the committee, but he was able to quietly coach the attendees and suggest to us points we might want to raise.
The fact that he appeared at all speaks volumes about quality organization in the campaign.

2. HRC supporters are raising many challenges to the caucuses
See above. Two broad challenges in one county; maybe others that were discussed after I left the meeting. Extrapolate to all the other counties -- or at least the ones that supported Obama -- and you see this could be huge.

3. The challenges are vacuous and their supporters look like fools
The challenger for the precinct north of ours didn't even bother to show up. Ours did, much to her detriment, as her testimony was rambling and incoherent. She offered some vague sense of weakness and wounded feelings, but never really finished her sentences. She seemed to be upset that she didn't understand things, or that something in her life was just terribly unfair.  She was accompanied by a guy who rambled on about how he felt "disenfranchised" (apparently because he didn't know how to caucus). The committee chair asked him

You have used the word disenfranchised several times. Did anybody ever try to stop you, or anybody with you, from voting?

To which he had to answer no.

4. If this committee is the Democratic Party, I want a different Party
There were at least a dozen committee members, half of whom just sat there like dead fish the whole time. In a move of exquisite rudeness, the co-chair showed up 40 minutes late. The meeting could not start without her. We in the audience had already wrecked our dinner hour to attend, and now we spent 40 minutes waiting for her and thus got home to our families that much later.
The committee did not give the slightest indication of action and precious little indication of comprehension. Their speakers love to wallow in legalisms and formalized speech, and they kept reminding us that they could not give any rulings, and they would present recommendations on another day.  Couldn't one of them say something like "yeah, we see that this challenge is a big steaming pile of manure" or anything? Or even "screw you, we don't care about the evidence, we're going to kick you out of the convention anyway". No, we have to drive out to the convention early Saturday to find out whether we're actually needed out there.
As a body appointed to bring satisfaction and resolution to party members, they did not reach their goal. Is this what is at the core of the party? After you peel away all the wrappings and make it to the decision center? Dead fish?

5. It's a virus, not a conspiracy
I don't think the HRC campaign is orchestrating a coordinated attack on the Texas vote. The idiot who brought the challenge was, well, just too much of an idiot. You can't fake that level of idiocy. And you can't be a slick fifth columnist if your mental capacity is that pathetic. Also, the HRC delegation chair would not have been in such a state of fury if the official message inside the campaign was to stonewall and sabotage all the way.

I do think there is a sort of virus out there, that HRC supporters have amongst them the idea that they should be stonewalling and sabotaging. My best guess is the challenger went home, upset that she had lost the vote, and then - - operating on her own - - picked up some blog chatter, did a bunch of research on caucus rules, and felt a burst of pride when she found a technicality that she thought would make her the Campaign Hero.  She probably felt like a political suicide bomber.

Local Voter Acts Alone, Destroys Obama In One Precinct!

they would write on the epitaph over her splattered remains.

How much can you blame HRC for the virus? Does she inflame it by nods and winks and dog whistles? Does she support it by pre-announcing a credentials fight at the national convention? I don't know if you can answer that. Even if you answer, I don't know if it makes a difference. What will you tell her to do - - stop winking?