Before you swamp me with complaints, hear me out, OK?

I know that this probably won't be popular here at dKos, but I have an idea for a great way to emphasize unity in the days after Senator Clinton drops out of the race (which I believe is certain to occur before much of June is in the books).

My proposal is this: we, as a community, should create an ActBlue page for helping to retire Senator Clinton's debts.

I am aware that not many folks savor such a prospect, especially if their whole-hearted donation to Senator Obama is going to Hillary without their permission.

And that's exactly why Senator Obama would not do it that way. He knows better, so give him the benefit of the doubt.

In an outstanding response to John McCain's demagogic stupidity on the "Hamas endorses Obama" non-issue, Obama masterfully plants the seed of doubt regarding John McCain's competence to be president:

link

"This is offensive, and I think it's disappointing," Obama told Blitzer, when asked his thoughts about McCain’s comments that the terrorist organization Hamas wants Obama to be president. "Because John McCain always says ‘I am not going to run that kind of politics,’ and to engage in that kind of smear is unfortunate, particularly because my policy toward Hamas has been no different than his.

This is too funny.

As predictable as an eastern sunrise, Rush Limbaugh once again demonstrates that he is out of his mind. Now that Operation Chaos has failed to screw Barack Obama out of the nomination, he now thinks superdelegates (and, I suppose, his dittoheads in KY and WV) should pick Obama.

Methinks he is struggling to maintain his Oxy-riddled faux-relevance.

Rush Limbaugh, between crowing about the success and attention of his "Operation Chaos," switched sides in the Democratic primary this morning.

"I now urge the Democratic superdelegates to go publicly make your mind up for Obama," he said.

Earlier, he said, "I'm now tempted to tell superdelegates to pick Obama because I now believe he would be the weakest nominee."

Limbaugh had been urging his listeners to support Hillary as the only chance for Republican victory in November, and to extend the Democratic primary. Exit polls and anecdotes suggest that many did.

It's no longer speculation, but official: Hillary's quest for the nomination and the destruction of all who oppose her will not be limited in any way by grace or party unity:

Hillary Clinton's campaign today acknowledged plans to try to win seating of the disputed Michigan and Florida delegations to the Democratic National Convention at a meeting of the party's Rules and Bylaws Committee on May 31.

In a statement issued in response to a story on The Huffington Post ("Clinton Camp Considering Nuclear Option," see below), the campaign declared:

"There is no secret plan.... The Clinton campaign has been vocal in stating that the votes of 2.5 million people must be respected. Hardly a day goes by when a Clinton official doesn't publicly declare that the votes of Michigan and Florida count and that the delegations from those states should be seated."

Looks like HRC's grousing about the add-on Laurie Weakhee pissed off the state party chair:

Superdelegate Brian Colon, the Democratic Party Chairman in swing-state New Mexico, backs Obama.

Endorsements like his are particularly meaningful, because local party leaders see the nominee in part as the top of a ballot in which they'll be fighting races at state and local levels.

UPDATE: Avi reminds me that Colon took some heat from local Clinton supporters for appointing an add-on who hasn't committed to support Clinton.

In a very positive step for our genome-centered future, the U.S. House overwhelmingly passed the Genetic Non-Discrimination Act.

By a margin of 95-0 in the Senate and 414-1 in the House (Ron Paul the only opposing vote), Democrats and Republicans alike recognized the danger in railroading people based on their genes. How very wise.

The bill would bar health insurance companies from using genetic information to set premiums or determine enrollment eligibility. Similarly, employers could not use genetic information in hiring, firing or promotion decisions.

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, was the only member of Congress to vote against the bill.

President Bush is expected to sign it into law.

I've had about all I can take, and I will now take my leave of dKos until this primary is over. I'll see you in the General. But I will leave you with this as my parting primary shot:

Tonight, I was surfing Politico and came upon a gem: Mr. Super had posted again.

http://www.mrsuper.org/...

This time, he shared a bit of  information  that should come as no surprise to many of us:

There is a lot of debate going on over on private DNC member listserves tonight.  The main issue is a) do we make our leanings known now or b) do we wait until all of the states have had an opportunity to vote?

The supers are decided. They aren't taking second looks.

Bottom line: the superdelegates are just hoping for HRC to fall on her sword  so that they don't have to run her through.

Make sure that as you watch these results tonight  that not much is likely to change. Tomorrow, we will wake up, HIllary will still be in the race, and she will still annoy us all.

But let's remember that Barack, the DNC, DSCC and DCCC need money too. Donating gives these organizations, no matter how long HRC continues her cowardly run, can support our downballot candidates and take the fight to the RNC and John McCain that they so richly deserve.

It's official: Hillary's campaign is running out of time and, perhaps more importantly, excuses.

Today, David Espo of the AP, much like Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen did a few weeks ago, are once again calling BS on Hillary's stated belief in her own chances:

Time is running out on Hillary Rodham Clinton, the long-ago front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination who now trails Barack Obama in delegates, states won and popular votes.  

*********

There's little if any public evidence the party's elite, the superdelegates who will attend the convention, are buying her argument anyway.

Boy, John McCain really stepped in it this time. And I think he just opened the door to talking about the run-up to the war, what he knew, what the president knew, and the lies that the war was based upon.

This is, of course, the tip of the iceberg: it shows how fundamentally inhumane and out of touch John McCain and the GOP really are.

Jason Linkins of the Huffington Post has it now:

But for McCain, the whole matter of whether we would have been better off actually working to defeat the terrorist organization that attacked the United States as opposed to launching an costly military distraction in Iraq is a concern best left for tweedy types to discuss at their chummy leisure:

   

MCCAIN: We can look back at the past and argue about whether we should have gone to war or not, whether we should have invaded or not, and that's a good academic argument.

This does not surprise me. President Carter's intentions  thus far have remained enigmatic.

However, I am pleased that he has de facto agreed with the Pelosi/Reid/Gore formulation of "let the people decide":

Ugh, what terrible timing. I saw this on Ben Smith. Surely he and Drudge will push this in order to get hits on Politico and drudgereport:

You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them...And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.

Okay, good so far...

I wanted to ask in this diary if anyone is aware of any DNC or outside group effort to attack McCain in the next 2 months.

To be perfectly honest, I would not mind if the primary remained unsettled if a non-candidate could keep ratcheting up McCain's negatives as he goes on his Lie-ography tour.

From the AP...

Barack Obama, 49 percent

Hillary Rodham Clinton, 39 percent

The two rivals' standings in the Pew Research Center poll have changed little from late February, the latest indication that so far Obama has weathered the controversy over provocative sermons by his longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

I guess if I've learned anything in the past 10 years, it's about gutter politics. Most of the time, I think of these tactics as GOP or Rovian, such as attempting closet smears of gay people, drug users, black people, Muslims, Democrats, et al.

While I always have been proud to believe that the Democrats were better than that, I have always been equally disappointed in them  for their lack of courage. They have remained complicit bystanders at the scene of the majority of the GOP's crimes against America, standing in cowardly silence as the GOP, in the words of Bill Moyers, "asked America to look heavenward as they picked their pockets."

Hey folks, I wanted to write a diary that (I believe) explains the reason why Ralph Nader will be a nonfactor in this race. I know a lot of people who remember that he made the difference in Florida and other swing states in 2000 are angry today, as well as maybe a little afraid that he could tip the balance once again.

I just want to go over two factors that, in my mind, prove that he will not matter.

Political Wire says so. What the hell? The polls are STILL OPEN there.

If she had a shot at winning, she would wait until much later, right?

This is bizarre.

Hey everybody! You might have seen my note/update in CTLiberal's diary concerning your "ticket" to get into the Precinct Convention (the official name for Texas' caucuses). I wanted to write a separate diary about what to do if you want to vote early AND caucus on Election Day.

EARLY VOTING IN TX STARTS TOMORROW! YOU WILL WANT TO KNOW THIS STUFF!

Also, I want to give a quick primer on the stuff that you will need to vote.

NOTE: The information regarding pieces of Identification needed to vote may vary from county to county.

DISCLAIMER: I work for an Elections department in Central Texas.