TGIF! I decided to take the day off. After getting the twins to preschool (so nice to be leisurely about it), I managed to get 2 loads of laundry on the clothesline before heading out to do endless errands. Errands are so much more bearable when you take NPR along for the drive.
Today's top news stories are Scott McClelland's new tell all book, and the upcoming meeting of the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee. I don't have much to say about McClelland except...ooo, big surprise!! Bush mislead the nation. There's a shocker. McClelland should thank everyone on both sides of this debate for boosting his sales. There truly is no such thing as bad publicity.
Rules & Bylaw, now there's a subject I can sink my teeth into. I bet when those DNC members were elected to or were selected for that committee, they didn't anticipate it being a very glamorous assignment. When I hear the word bylaws, I think of the two long, painful, dramatic years my little local Mothers of Multiples club spent rewriting our piddly little bylaws. I don't want to imagine what the DNC Bylaws look like.
So, given that I am from New Hampshire, I'm sure you can guess where I stand on the issue of seating delegates who had the audacity to move their primary or caucus up. But, in case you are new here, let me make it clear: rules are rules. And by nature (and certainly by nurture), I am a rule follower. End of story.
Sort of. Things are really never that cut & dry, I know. I was very glad to read earlier in the week that lawyers for the DNC ruled that reinstating 100% of the delegates would not be possible. I think most rational people agree. Rules without any consequences are hollow (any parent knows that!). Now, their task is to figure out how to award some portion of delegates as to allow participation while still sending a strong message for 2012: don't mess with New Hampshire.
And, coincidentally, there's a representative from NH on the Rules & Bylaws committee: NH State Senator Martha Fuller Clark. I don't know her personally, but I recall voting for her when she ran unsuccessfully for Congress a few years back, and I have a favorable impression of her. I'm sure she's experiencing a sudden increase in popularity in the run up to the big meeting, but I feel confident that she will remain her down to earth self. I trust her, and I think you should too.
My vote, were I on the committee, would be to let all delegates attend the convention, and have each vote count as one half. I don't think there is any other fair way to dole out delegates. Giving more delegates to Hillary because she "won" is ridiculous. Other candidates pulled their names off the ballot, and weren't an option. But even more importantly, they didn't visit the states. They didn't set up field offices, buy TV commercial time or set up town-hall meetings. So of COURSE the "establishment" candidate with all the name recognition received the most votes (I originally wrote "won" but really that is not the correct term to use here). Duh. That's the part that makes me so angry. As an Edwards supporter, I'd like to believe JRE might have earned a delegate or two had he set up shop in those places. He's so much more persuasive in person. But he didn't have the chance to go out & shake hands with the voters, because he followed the RULES. So, Hillary's attempt to say she earned those votes fair & square tells me a little more than I want to know about her sense of fairness.
Now, allow me to rant a bit (what? what have you been doing so far??): If voters from Florida and Michigan feel disenfranchised (as they should) I believe that their anger should NOT be directed at the DNC (who clearly stated the rules up front) or the candidates (who mostly followed those rules), but to their respective State Democratic Party Leaders. Another Duh. Anyone who is trying to shift that blame is desperate & self-serving. I hope Michigan and Florida voters vote THOSE knuckleheads out.
Phew, do I feel better now that I've gotten that off my chest.
And just in time...I do think my laundry is dry now (free and without producing a single speck of carbon emmission).
