Thisis sad:
Hotline has the list of speakers at the pro-Clinton rally outside the RBC meeting Saturday, organized by the group Women Count.
It includes Florida officials, Reps. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, and New York congressional candidate Eric Massa, who seems to be listed as a member of congress.
Eric Massa has much to be admired for, no doubt. I would have loved to see him elected in 2006...and I still support his 2008 bid.
But...
But this act borders on the unconscionable.
I have never resented Hillary's determination to stay in the race until the end. Plenty of candidates throughout history have done so.
What I do resent, however, is her intellectual dishonesty--a shameful display now being propagated by her supporters and surrogates, Massa included.
Be it her argument that she is "winning" the popular vote, that caucus states--or "Obama" states--don't matter, or that she is "more electable," whatever that means.
But perhaps her most offensive argument is this fabrication that a) Michigan and Florida should "count" and b) to not to do would be to disenfranchise them. I will take each in turn.
a) Hillary is a bit too "Johnnie Come Lately" to whine about FL & MI. This is, after all, the same person who said Michigan "doesn't count" and who signed the very same pledge Obama signed respecting the DNC rules.
Heck, her chief delegate strategist, Harold Ickes, was and is on the Rules Committee--the very one which devised the rules which subsequently caused these penalties to be imposed.
For anyone on the Clinton side to feign offense now is simply shameful.
b) The is no right to the franchise that has been take away.
That is right: there is no constitutional right to vote in a party primary. Period.
Sure, parties cannot discriminate based on race, gender, etc; but again, there is NO CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT to vote in a party primary.
In fact, the Democratic Party could pick its nominee through a bowl off (bad for Obama), a game of HORSE (good for Obama), or a drinking contest (bad for everyone).
So to argue that people have been disenfranchised is a slap in the face to the suffragettes and civil rights marchers who truly fought for the right to vote.
That Eric Massa is enabling this shameful display is a sad commentary on someone I used to believe had great promise...