Harold Ickes' parting shot suggests more Democratic turmoil

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: Harold Ickes' parting shot suggests more Democratic turmoil


Harold Ickes, Jr., son of FDR's Secretary of the Interior

Maybe it will prove an idle threat.

But as the Democratic rules committee ended its lengthy meeting today in Washington today with a decision on the Michigan primary that left Hillary Clinton's campaign irate, the words from one of her chief strategists have to haunt party leaders striving for elusive unity.

"Mrs. Clinton has instructed me to reserve her rights to take this to the credentials committee," Harold Ickes said.

The rules panel, which Ickes serves on, achieved its goal of resolving one of the party's two disputed primaries -- the Florida contest -- in a way that Ickes and other Clinton loyalists indicated they could live with. And combined with the more contentious action on the Michigan vote, the result was to put Barack Obama on the cusp of securing the number of convention delegates needed to soon declare himself the presidential nominee-in-waiting.

But Ickes' admonition on Michigan means that the Clinton camp has not signed off on the new "magic" number: 2,118 delegates. And that means any claim by Obama to be the presumptive nominee will carry an asterisk -- perhaps all the way to the late-August convention in Denver.

Indeed, along with Ickes' words, the chants of "Denver, Denver" by disgruntled Clinton supporters as the rules committee gathering broke up must be uneasily echoing in the ears of other Democrats.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/05/harold-ickes-pa.html

[billybob537]

1. Whaaa! Hillary is supposed to win

It's not fair It's sexist.
Whaaa!

[kestrel91316]

2. Ickes is now being interviewed on MTP by Russert and he just

compared Obama to McGovern in '72 and then in the same breath DENIED he compared him to McGovern. Ickes maintains that the POPULAR vote should determine the nominee and not the actual delegate count earned.

I have no words.

Wait. I have one word: DIVISIVE.

I am reminded why I never go to GDP anymore.

[democracy1st]

3. you should see this idiot on "Meet The Press" this guy is a serious lowlife

[Bob Dobbs]

4. rethuglican operatives

"If we can't win for our power elite overlords, we will make sure the other power elite candidate, johnny, will."

[Gidney N Cloyd]

5. I swear, Hillary keeps some odd company.

Does she find them or do they find her?

[Warpy]

6. Are y'all getting it now?

This was never about Clinton, her ambition, her desire for revenge, or her desire for the presidency. She's only the visible face out in front.

This has always been the power struggle at the center of the party between the DLC and people loyal to Dean.