Hillary Messes With Texas from DailyKos

[shraby]

Gonna do this one drive-by style and let the Dallas Morning News article speak for itself, by and large. This hasn't gotten out to the greater blogosphere yet, so here goes:

Hillary Clinton and her lawyers are trying to cast doubt on the precinct conventions.
Hillary Clinton and her lawyers are trying to deligitimize the concept of the convention itself.
Hillary Clinton and her lawyers are trying to drag out the delegate selection process for their benefit.
And ultimately, Hillary Clinton and her lawyers are probably trying to null and void as much of the convention/caucus aspect of Texas' delegate selection process as possible.

As final results from the Texas Democratic caucus remain unknown, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign wants signatures from the March 4 contest verified before party conventions are held around the state later this month.

In a letter sent to the state Democratic Party late Friday, the Clinton campaign requests the March 29 count and state Senate district conventions be postponed until the eligibility of an estimated 1 million caucus-goers are double checked.

<http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/3/16/21328/5928/217/477783>

[skooooo]

1. The senior democrats of the party..

...need to tell Hillary it's time to step down and get back to being a Senator.

[roguevalley]

26. Fine. Let her. Then send the fucking BILL to her campaign. How do

they expect people in states they fuck with or denigrate to VOTE FOR THEM IN NOVEMBER IF THEY ARE THE CANDIDATE!?!

[BumRushDaShow]

2. The Clintons not only praised the Texas 2-step process in 1992 & 1996

but helped to develop it.

But now that she's losing the delegate total in the state?

[WolverineDG]

7. She wasn't supposed to be inside the Alamo walls (whoops)

too bad she got outnumbered by pissed off, organized, grassroots Texas Dems.


dg

[Cha]

27. This needs to be brought up over and over again..

that is was good then but now that she's lost Texas she's turned into what? A sore loser with lawyers.

[Kittycat]

3. Clinton: Delay the Delegate Count (Because I'll Lose) - w/link

http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/03/clinton-delay-the-delegate-cou.html


Clinton: Delay the Delegate Count (Because I'll Lose)
9:54 AM Sat, Mar 15, 2008

The Hillary Clinton camp has tried every avenue to delay reporting on the delegates from the Texas primary. They tried to intimidate the Texas Democratic Party prior to the primary. That failed. On election night, they threw up a duststorm of objections about irregularities. Now, the Clinton camp us urging the state party to delay the March 29 county and senate conventions, where details of how 67 delegates picked in the county caucuses will be announced. Drawing/Wayne Slater

Why are they doing this? Because they are losing.

CNN projects that Barack Obama won the Texas caucuses with 38 convention delegates, compared to 29 for Clinton. The Texas primary is a complicated, two-step process. Clinton won more delegates than Obama in the popular-vote portion, 65 to 61. With his likely caucus-delegate haul, looks like Obama won the overall statewide delegate lead, 99 to 94 -- or once superdelegate endorsements are factored in, 109 to 106.

Hillary Clinton declared victory in Texas and moved on. As for these pesky details, like delegates, that's the last thing the Clinton campaign wants to talk about.

Here, after the jump, is the Clinton campaign letter urging Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Ritchie to delay the March 29 county/state senate conventions:

...More at link

[Cha]

28. hilary's not only a sore loser with lawyers..she

doesn't care who knows it. hilary has no shame and should never ever be saying to anyone else much less Obama, "Shame on you".

No primaies yesterday but Obama keeps winning delegates. It must be driving hilaryland deeper into their rut.

[Window]

4. Oh, boy Hillary. What next?????

I am so sick of that woman and her camp pain.

[goclark]

43. A Pillary Camp pain is what we are stuck with... nt

[ChimpersMcSmirkers]

5. The more she does this shit, the more she digs here own grave.

I think we approaching the tipping point of just how much of this nonsense the
SD's are willing to tolerate.

[Scurrilous]

6. K & R

:thumbsup:

[saltpoint]

8. As others have pointed out, she has a technical right for this maneuver but

the longer-term public relations damage to her credibility is likely to suffer.

And deservedly so.

[MonkeyFunk]

9. Wasn't everybody here

clamoring for a recount in New Hampshire? Weren't they saying "What's wrong with making sure the vote was fair?!"

Now Clinton wants to make sure it's fair, and she's a villain.

[XemaSab]

11. Kucinich was the one pushing for a recount

n/t

[MonkeyFunk]

14. Yes, I know...

and the effort was widely supported here.

[WolverineDG]

12. No, she wants to gum up the process

She had experience in running a Texas campaign in 1992 & 1996. She had no problems with the caucuses at that time. Since she ran her campaign on the theme of "experience," I'm not buying her argument that the 2-step Texas system caught her by surprise. But if it did, it shows that she is incompetent & incapable of strategic planning, not exactly Presidential material in my book.

dg

[MonkeyFunk]

16. So when Kucinich does it it's laudable

but when Clinton does it, it's "gumming up the process." Gotcha.

[WolverineDG]

18. Was there a convention that was delayed because of Kuchinich?

No, there was not.

Face facts: She KNEW what the process in Texas was. She FAILED to plan accordingly and LOST. She's trying to stop our county conventions, which by the way, are set according to STATE LAW and can't be changed on the whims of a sore loser trying to rewrite the rules so she can win.

dg

[MonkeyFunk]

29. She wants the signatures verified

That's how Obama won his first election, you know - he challenged his opponent's signatures in the primary.

Hypocrisy abounds.

[WolverineDG]

33. There's already a process for that

it's called the Credentials Committee & anyone who wants to be a whiner about signatures can file a complaint in writing 3 days before the convention with the county's party chair.

No need to go to court about it, except to get free publicity (which, btw, is backfiring badly).

dg

[MonkeyFunk]

35. She hasn't gone to court

she's written a letter. Her campaign has received 2000 complaints of violations.

What's wrong with checking into them?

[WolverineDG]

38. She's threatening to, in order to stop the caucuses

I've already answered your incessant "what's wrong with checking the names" question. There is a process already in place for that.

dg

[cali]

37. Yep.

And you sure have a big chunk of it.

[MonkeyFunk]

41. What, exactly,

have I been hypocritical about?

[cali]

36. No, everybody wasn't clamoring for a NH recount

Most Obama supporters weren't. I certainly was not. I didn't support that and I don't support this obvious ploy either. Sorry.

[1776Forever]

10. Is it just me or where is she getting all the money for these lawsuits? It must cost big bucks...

and at what cost for the Party. She is tearing the Party apart! And if those HRC super delegates think the Party will come together after they tear it to shreads then think again! How can she be doing this while she has not given any of her tax records and for that matter Bill's Dubai and Saudi millions to his library that he says are for their "charity"?

Clinton says 'not yet' to releasing tax returns

by James Oliphant

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/02/clinton_says_not_yet_to_releas.html

Despite pressure from Sen. Barack Obama, the Clinton campaign said Friday that it wouldn't not release Sen. Hillary Clinton's tax returns unless she secures the Democratic nomination.

The news was greeted by harsh rejoinder from Obama's campaign “Why should Democratic voters have to wait until after the primary campaign is over to find out important information about Senator Clinton's finances that Senator Obama has already disclosed?" said Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor.

"For someone who claims to be fully vetted, hiding a campaign loan from voters until after Super Tuesday and refusing to release your tax returns until after the primary doesn't seem like the best way to prove that there are no surprises for the Republicans to find once they start digging,” Vietor said.

:hide:

[K Gardner]

22. Did she JUST say this?? Because I just heard surrogates on TV saying April 15. Somebody needs to

check this and if true, it might just warrant another Cheats and Liars Comment.

[K Gardner]

23. That article is from Feb 8. She's since said she'll release on Apr 15. So we'll see.

[KittyWampus]

13. Yeah, this was the Clinton plan all along. What a bunch of criminals. Where's the expose?

[damndude]

15. plus

there says nothing about the ability or interest to carry the state in the fall like filing a lawsuit against it. piss on texas seems to be her motto.

[PatGund]

17. So let me get this straight.....

Rules count in Texas, but rules are supposed to be ignored in Florida and Michigan??

Interesting campaign strategy.

[WolverineDG]

21. She "won" FL & MI

She lost Texas. There's the difference.

dg

[1776Forever]

24. Me Me Me Me Me - Is WE in Hillary & Bill's vocabulary? I think not!!!

:rant:

If this continues I am out of the Democratic Party for every! I have had it!!!! No mas!!!!!!

[damndude]

25. the RULES were Fla and Mi wouldn't count

mrs. clinton is trying to re-write the playbook in the 4th quarter

[PetraPooh]

19. "Eligibility checked??" I thought it was an open caucus to Dems & Repubs. What's to check?

[K Gardner]

20. "We Don't Much Like Whiners in Texas!" (Some Texas Radio Guy on MSNBC

talking about Hillary)

She's floating another lead balloon !

[rainbow4321]

30. B. Clinton to TX: Obama campaign “believe they can come in that night and take the delegates away"

Blame your wife, Bill, not TX voters. And, AGAIN, where was YOUR outrage with the TX system when YOU ran and won the TX caucus??

---------------------
Prior to Super Tuesday:


http://www.observer.com/2008/bill-clinton-rallies-texs-diehards-continues-question-process

The former president also complained, as his wife started to fall behind in the polls, about the rules governing the Democratic contest in this state.

“The election process you’ve got takes the cake,” he told the crowd, citing the unusual combination of early voting, a primary and then caucuses on the evening of polling day.

Obama has consistently beaten Hillary Clinton in caucus states and the former first lady’s campaign is concerned that she could win the popular vote here but fail to gain a significant boost in delegates if Obama performs strongly at the evening gatherings.


The former president put it more provocatively than that, however. He asserted that members of the Obama campaign “believe they can come in that night and take the delegates away. Are you going to let that happen?”

[thevoiceofreason]

31. Earth to Hillary: There is no "signature" at the precinct convention.

People just write in their name (printing legibly). Their voter registration card and signature is verified when they voted at the . . . primary! And if Garry mauro is your legal workhorse, that wagon ain't going very far.

[JackORoses]

32. Obama pities the poor fool who messes with Texas!

[KittyWampus]

34. thi sneeds more exposure.

[cooolandrew]

39. Hillary is not Texan not really HRCs place is it really.

[apocalypsehow]

40. Unbelievable the depths to which the Clinton's will stoop. K & R.

n/t.

[KittyWampus]

42. Messing with Texas, the only way she can win.