No End for the Dems' Disunity

[DeepModem Mom]

TIME: No End for the Dems' Disunity
By JAY NEWTON-SMALL/WASHINGTON
Sunday, Jun. 01, 2008


Supporters of Hillary Clinton rally as the Democratic National Committee Rules and Bylaws Committee prepares to meet to determine how to count the primary votes from Michigan and Florida.
(Joshua Roberts/Getty)

For most of Saturday, the media circus of hundreds of protesters outside the Democratic National Committee's special meeting to decide whether to seat Florida and Michigan's delegations was not mirrored inside the doors of the Marriott Wardman Hotel in Washington. As the 30 member Rules & Bylaws Committee heard the various arguments for softening the punishment the DNC had originally meted out to the two states for holding their primaries earlier in the calendar, the audience by and large kept its calm. But then, about nine hours into the seemingly interminable gathering, the crowd turned nasty and the appearance of civility, along with any hopes for party unity, never quite returned.

It happened as Alice Germond, secretary of the Democratic National Committee who so far has remained neutral in the presidential race, started talking about the civil rights movement as well as the importance of playing by the rules. Suddenly it dawned on the Hillary Clinton supporters in the audience that the committee was not going to go their way. "I was incredibly proud to come down here as a student on the mall and listen to Dr. Martin Luther King talk about civil rights," said Germond, as the crowd simultaneously began to hiss, cheer and shush, her voice being drowned out by the roar. "We are not the current administration who plays loose with rules," Germond continued, her voice rising a little desperately to dampen down the onslaught of outrage that was just beginning. "I'm feeling very badly that we can't seat Michigan and Florida in full," she virtually yelled over shouts of "Shame on you!"

The noise they made was the sound of the Democratic Party fracturing: one third for Obama cheering, one third for Clinton booing and the rest, including the chagrined members of the panel, frantically hushing both sides as if to say, 'Don't go there, don't show the Republicans how dysfunctional we are.' It was also a cry of desperation, because the panel's ruling virtually ensured that the door was slamming on Clinton, who with three races to go now has little chance of overcoming Obama's lead. The meeting only went downhill from there, with committee co-chair Alexis Herman pounding the gavel in a vain attempt to restore order and Harold Ickes, a senior Clinton advisor and member of the committee, claiming the panel was "hijacking" democracy and threatening to appeal the ruling well into the summer....

***

Ickes' angry sermon, as it turned out, was just the prelude to a near total meltdown at the end. The other committee members grimaced at the shouts of derision, which included chants of "McCain 08,""Bastards," and "Denver," an echo of their hopes that Clinton would take her case all the way to the Democratic National Convention to be held in August in Denver. After the meeting adjourned, women sat on the floor sobbing, while others, like Pennsylvania voter Betty Jean King, 60, a retired teacher from Shippensburg, ranted to television cameras: "If it's not Hillary, I'm voting for McCain. 17 million people voted for Hillary and I'm telling you many of them are going to defect."

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1810987,00.html?xid=site-cnn-partner

[LakeSamish706]

1. Let the "assholes" defect... They will be damn sorry with a McCain...

Presidency...

"If it's not Hillary, I'm voting for McCain. 17 million people voted for Hillary and I'm telling you many of them are going to defect."

This has been the whole idea by the Clintons for many months now.

[maryf]

2. Someone who votes on the issues, not!

Betty Jean King, 60, a retired teacher from Shippensburg, ranted to television cameras: "If it's not Hillary, I'm voting for McCain. 17 million people voted for Hillary and I'm telling you many of them are going to defect."

[napi21]

3. It's way too soon to say there's no end! Emotions and nerves are

still very raw! Healing takes time, and the actions of the candidates n the days & weeks to come. I'm completely convinced that there will be unity around our chosen candidate by a large majority of people.

[DeepModem Mom]

4. I'm cautiously optimistic, taking your view also. I'm hoping...

the Clinton supporters who showed up to protest aren't representative of the millions who voted for her. Half of my family and best friends support Hillary, and none of them would ever consider voting for McCain.

I'm concerned, though, by how the press will play all this. If they declare that our party is hopelessly split -- that is, that the Dems have messed up again -- that may become the perception and possibly cast us as doofuses in the eyes of "swing" voters.