Terry McAuliffe wants to change horses in the middle of the stream.

[madfloridian]

He wants to change the rules of the primary after the primary has already begun. He just said so on MSNBC, and he looked shifted-eyed when he said it. He knows perfectly well that he insisted rules be followed when he was chairman. He told Carl Levin in 2004 that Michigan would not even get near Boston if they moved up the primary.

Terry, Terry, Terry, that was such a dishonest thing to say on national TV. You made it sound like Charlie Crist already had everyone on board for a new primary. Hell, he doesn't even have his own party on board with it, much less the Democratic leadership in the state.

What really makes me angry is that twice in the last two days Governor Dean, your successor at the DNC, has gone on TV and said we were not going to change the rules for FL and MI since the primaries had already started. He made it clear that everyone knew the rules at the start.

Sure he said he would talk to Governor Crist, but remember...Dean first said that the offer was not for Crist to make. And it isn't. He also said FL and MI could not change the rules just because they wanted to do so.

From the CNN Late Edition transcript:

If somebody after this convention wants to change the rules and say there should be no superdelegates or fewer superdelegates, that's not a problem. But you can't change the rules.

Everybody knew when we came into this campaign that 20 percent of the delegates were superdelegates, and you can't change the rules any more than you can change the rules on Michigan and Florida.

Howard Dean said the very same thing today on CNN with Wolf Blitzer. He was even firmer about it...FL and MI can not redo the rules.

The DNC has offered money for a caucus type of do-over, but the Democratic leaders in Florida said no. Senator Bill Nelson said absolutely not.

That was absolutely sneaky and underhanded of you, Terry McAuliffe, to make it sound like Florida was disenfranchised by the party, to get their hopes up, and their anger. It was a very bad call.

You undermined the authority of the present chairman. It was dirty pool.

Depending on "magical thinking", threatening lawsuits, and ignoring party rules.

I believe that the current chairman knows that the campaign you are leading does not respect the rules of the national party.

The rules the party has put in place to choose its nominee are not the rules of the Clinton campaign and, just like the Obama campaign, we are doing what we can under those rules to secure the requisite number of delegates for the nomination. One way to avoid the situation described above is to figure out some way to honor the votes of Michigan and Florida, where there was record turnout. Counting the delegates in Florida and Michigan is a civil rights issue, and a solution needs to be figured out before the convention.

It was unconscionable for you to say it on national TV.

[book_worm]

1. Terry's a horses ass (not to boot a terrible party leader when head of DNC)

[jlake]

2. Terry speaks for me! He should return as head of the DNC immediately!

[madfloridian]

3. Good by to you

Enough of the specious constant attacks.

[jlake]

I didn' t attack a soul. I praised a marvelous and loyal Democrat.

[papau]

42. and many agree with you-including myself -but on DU anything that does not give Obama the win is bad

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

16. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Hawkeye-X]

19. Ok. I'll wait for you to get your ass booted this week.

Can't wait for the mods to get rid of you.

[jlake]

21. Because I support the former DNC chairman?

Are you trying to hijack the party or something?

[ClassWarrior]

23. He's "the former DNC chairman" like Ed Wood is a former movie director.

NGU.

[Hawkeye-X]

32. McAwful had three tries (or so) to gain Democrats.. instead...

he lost a lot during Clinton years. We kicked him out, and put Dean in, and net result? Major trend back to the Democratic party, and a new strategic plan that Obama is following, instead of the tried and failed 17 state strategy that McAwful and the DLC loves to use.

Hawkeye-X

[PatGund]

41. Why not?

Certainly Terry was the best damn chairman the GOP ever had.

[thepurpose]

4. Watched Terri on Hardball. He was all for following the rules when the were to his advantage

However, he has no problem changing them when they don't. What an ass.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

5. He's a POS IMO. EOM n/t

}( I love acronyms

[paulk]

6. that shifty eyed Terry McCaulife!

He's a baaaaaaad man!

[VolcanoJen]

7. Terry McAwful elicited BOOS from Ohioans at our Obama Party in Cincy

The second he appeared on the screen, the boos started. The more he talked, they grew louder!!!!

Having a blast live-blogging Ohio for DU,
Volcano Hussein Jen

[Carolina]

26. wish I were there VJ

booing with you... Terry, Penn, Wolfson, Clinton birds of a feather and all one big POS!

[madfloridian]

30. Thanks for sharing that.

It warms my heart. :hi:

[Bluerthanblue]

8. gets you wet and sometimes cold-

Changing faces in the middle of a dream gets you old
Oh, gets you old
Looking farther than you'll ever hope to see
Takes you places you don't know
Search for someone you can't ever hope to be
And still you go
Oh, still you go
Don't you think it's kind of sad to say
Don't you think it's gonna change
Makes you think you'll have to stay inside for a while
Changing horses in the middle of a stream
Gets you wet and sometimes cold
Changing faces in the middle of a dream gets you old
Oh gets you old...gets you old... gets you old...gets you old


sorry- an old Fogelberg favorite.

[madfloridian]

37. I kind of like it.

:hi:

[surfin]

9. Something big happening in Texas

Msnbc reporting Clintons calling emergency press conference to challenge in Texas.

[madfloridian]

14. She's already said she may sue the state of TX.

.

[Arugula Latte]

17. What's Veruca Clinton whining about now?

[surfin]

22. Something Crazy

I guess they claim something was handed out before it was suppose to be handed out. Made no sense to me but big emergency to them KO said. Man from Tx he was talking to said even if it was hand out early, he could see no reason to be concern.

[xxqqqzme]

11. he is such a loser - he lost everything while he was chair.

I can think of no reason to even give the ass the time of day. I saw him on MSNBC; listened for about 10 seconds; surfed away as he babbled on....You have more patience than I do to stick around and listen to his incoherent ramblings.

I hate the dlc. They will be the destruction of the party yet.

[madfloridian]

12. Ok, I just figured out the ignore function is not working.

I need to be vewy vewy careful tonight.

[madfloridian]

25. OMG, definitely not working.

I am in deep deep doo doo for posting this tonight without the ignore function working. :wow:

[jefferson_dem]

13. Thanks for keeping these scumbags honest, madfloridian!

:thumbsup:

They are a shifty bunch and I, for one, will be glad to send the lot of them scurring back under their respective rocks.

[MonkeyFunk]

15. Well, at least he'll have 'the rules' to comfort himself

with when we lose Florida and Michigan in November.

This is a ridiculous pissing contest - Howard Dean's ego isn't worth the general election.

[fujiyama]

24. This isn't about Dean's ego

It's about fair elections and changing rules in the middle of the game.

[MonkeyFunk]

27. fair elections?

No, it had nothing to do with fair elections. It had to do with ensuring Iowa and New Hampshire kept their prime position - a situation most DUers abhorred 6 months ago.

The fact is, they kept their position, the people in FL and MI voted, and it's just stupid to risk losing those states in November over this stupid issue.

[Warren Stupidity]

20. The Clinton camp has amply demonstrated they will do anything to win.

That said, I'm not entirely convinced that is a bad thing. Think about it.

I draw the line at promoting the reknucklian fucknut over Clinton's rival, but I want our nominee to fight with everything he or she has to win for our party.

[Generator]

28. Yes they will and yes it's bad

Because the reason Gore and Kerry aren't president is party because of them and their sabotage. Also, she will do anything-means she is not one of the good guys. She will support wars, start them, anything to make her look like she has cojones. It's always about the Clintons. Always. Not about America or Democrats but about them. They aren't on anyone's side but their own-and they don't even get that! They deludingly think they are doing what's best. If you think the last eight years were worth Ms. Rodham Clinton being president-if you think all those deaths were less important than her political career-okay-anything to win!

[Debi]

29. Did you hear TA lie about the FL legislature vote?

The republicans forced the vote - the Democrats were unwilling victims and then got punished by their own party x( What an asshole! Thanks to you we know the truth and can ignore Terry's spin.

[madfloridian]

33. Every Dem leader in Florida, every media outlet in FL, lie about it.

They just keep repeating it was done by the GOP.

It is scary to me how well propaganda works.

[madfloridian]

31. He goes directly against Chairman Dean's statements today. Pure arrogance

on Terry's part. Here are Dean's words from the CNN transcript from the Situation Room today.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0803/04/sitroom.02.html

DEAN: My job is to follow the rules, to follow the rules regarding what states have done and if they're eligible or not and to follow the rules regarding super-delegate. Everybody knew what the rules were when they got into this. So to change the rules in the middle of the game is clearly unfair, no matter what candidate it benefits.

Once you start the game, you can't change the rules, because everybody knew what those rules were. They knew that there were 20 percent super-delegates. They knew that Florida and Michigan delegates couldn't participate in the nomination. And to change those rules, you either have to have a nominee who agrees to it or both campaigns that agree to it. And I don't think that's going to happen.

BLITZER: And --

DEAN: So the rules are not going to be changed.

Good for him, and shame on Terry.

[madfloridian]

34. The commission which made the DNC rules was a deal by McAuliffe and Levin

to make Levin happy for not moving up the MI primary. Terry appointed the commission in December 2004, not long before he left office. Dean took over in February 2005. The commission was set and working on the rules already.

But now Terry wants to go against those very rules. Amazing, isn't it?

Carl Levin and Terry McAuliffe made a deal about primaries in 2004.

The panel, which carried the unwieldy name of Commission on Presidential Nomination Timing and Scheduling, made two sets of recommendations, one dealing with the opening phase of the nominating calendar and the other with the later phases.

The commission came into existence as part of a bargain between former DNC chairman Terence R. McAuliffe and Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.). Levin has long agitated against what he calls the privileged position of Iowa and New Hampshire, which hold the first caucus and first primary every four years. During the 2004 presidential campaign cycle, McAuliffe bought peace with Levin by promising to appoint a commission after the election if the senator would agree not to try to blow up the calendar for that year.

It will muddy Hillary's legacy if she and her campaign choose this route. No matter what happens in today's primaries or later...there is still the lawsuit hearing on March 17. It is a shadow over the race.

Lawsuit over Florida delegates will be appealed to Supreme Court if needed.

This has been tiring for many of us in Florida. It goes to a pattern of ruthlessness.

[dpbrown]

35. Terry's "only big states matter" strategy is what is screwing up Senator Clinton

It's also what handed the Democrats loss after loss. Howard Dean was right. All the states matter, and being competitive in all the states is the way Democrats get and hold onto power.

[CookCountyResident]

39. "All states matter" indeed

That's why the House and Senate were set up the way they were per the US Constitution.
So that the states would have at least EQUAL representation in one governing body, no matter what their population is.

Same should hold true here with the way elections/delegates are set up.

Those Founding Fathers - pretty smart guys.

[madfloridian]

36. Video of Dean on CNN today. He reiterates that FL and MI knew the rules.

Here is the video.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/03/04/dean-primaries-are-a-walk-in-the-park/

"DEAN: My job is to follow the rules, to follow the rules regarding what states have done and if they're eligible or not and to follow the rules regarding super-delegate. Everybody knew what the rules were when they got into this. So to change the rules in the middle of the game is clearly unfair, no matter what candidate it benefits.

Once you start the game, you can't change the rules, because everybody knew what those rules were. They knew that there were 20 percent super-delegates. They knew that Florida and Michigan delegates couldn't participate in the nomination. And to change those rules, you either have to have a nominee who agrees to it or both campaigns that agree to it. And I don't think that's going to happen.

BLITZER: And --

DEAN: So the rules are not going to be changed."

[CookCountyResident]

38. It's always about the money.

It was about the money when he was chairman, and it was about the money (and the deals) since then.

[death to the DLC]

40. pardon my French,

but fuck Terry McAuliffe and the rest of the DLC corporate scum.

They've had their little era and it is finally coming to a close.

Haven't they done enough damage to this party? Jesus H.

Go the fuck away already!

[madfloridian]

43. I hope to hell the Hillary folks keep pushing this.

It will show her up for what she is and what she is doing.

Read this.

http://www.thenation.com:80/doc/20080317/berman

She is going up against the party's authority.

Keep it up, folks.

[psychmommy]

44. dean is the man

we all need to go visit and show dean some financial support. money talks louder than any campaign can scream.

[Justitia]

45. Skeevy Terry McAwful is just trying to steal the election any way he can, he's desperate. -eom

[whirlygigspin]

46. anything to win

I can just picture the convention floor now

"Mr chairman, the state of Florida wishes to be recognized"

--"Florida is not recognized"

then all the Hillary mafia will jump and scream unfair




it's bound to be one hell of a convention

oh my oh my