Obscenity-laden e-mail shows Florida delegate fight lingers

[IndianaGreen]

Posted on Saturday, June 14, 2008

Obscenity-laden e-mail shows Florida delegate fight lingers

By Lesley Clark | McClatchy Newspapers

Florida Democrats will gather Saturday night in Hollywood, Fla., looking for unity after one of the most fractious primary seasons ever.

But just two weeks after Democrats thought they mostly had put the debacle over Florida's delegates behind them, party faithful are bickering over who will get to attend the national convention in Denver in August.

The back-and-forth largely was behind the scenes, until party activist Jon Ausman sent a blast e-mail late Thursday featuring obscenity-laced excerpts of e-mails he'd received from Kirk Wagar, Barack Obama's finance chairman for Florida. Wagar's e-mails rip Ausman and the state's top Democrat, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, who had backed Hillary Clinton but supported Obama after he became the presumptive nominee.

The highlights of Wagar's e-mail: "You (Ausman) f---ed us. We are dealing with it. You need to accept the fact that you f---ed us."

And of Nelson: "I am getting very sick of Nelson making a bad situation worse."

Wagar promptly responded with an e-mail apologizing for the profanity but suggesting Ausman had used "out of context snippets" from "ongoing and sometimes heated arguments" the two had. He also said he had not maligned Nelson. He said Friday that he had "made a mistake" but hoped those who know him "know my passion is for the right thing and not self-interest."

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/254/story/41070.html

[babylonsister]

1. Obama's campaign is sending 400 volunteers to FL this weekend, from same

article. I wonder why the negative was cherry-picked instead of the positive? :think:

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/story/569953.html

snip//

Obama's campaign plans to train some 400 volunteers this weekend in what it has said is one of the biggest mobilization efforts the state has seen; the Republican Party of Florida will be running a statewide voter registration drive this weekend, targeting, among others, Hispanics in South Florida.

The Democratic delegate spat comes as the party seeks to heal wounds that emerged between the Obama and Clinton camps over seating of the state's delegation. Two weeks ago, the Democratic National Committee agreed to seat the entire delegation -- with a half-vote for each -- at the convention. Clinton, who won the Florida primary, had pushed to seat all the delegates.

The state party announced that Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a fervent Clinton supporter who quickly endorsed Obama, would headline the party's Jefferson-Jackson dinner Saturday at the Westin Diplomat to ``help bring our party together once and for all.''

State Rep. Dan Gelber, a Miami Beach Democrat and Obama supporter, said he expects the dispute will be but a ``blip.''

''We're a highly charged party transitioning from a contentious primary to a general election,'' Gelber said. ``This is a blip that will be forgotten moments after it's written about.''

And Nelson brushed off the dispute, a spokesman said, calling it ``much ado about nothing.''

[IndianaGreen]

3. McClatchy is a reliable news source

and those were the very first paragraphs in the article.

Of course, no one matches our own madfloridian in knowledge about all the Byzantine intrigue and double-crossing that characterizes Florida Democratic politics. I am curious as to what she has to say about this article.

[babylonsister]

4. Did you even bother to read the rest of the article, the one

McClatchy references as the original source?

[madfloridian]

6. I posted about it in this post....there are still great undercurrents

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/2229

And I don't think we know the full story.

I posted in the comments that Obama's guy, Wagar, is secure in his job. That the Obama campaign will replace about half a dozen delegates....

"Despite the blow-up, Wagar's spot with the campaign is "absolutely" safe, Obama spokesman Josh Earnest said.

"My sense," he said, "is that by the time November rolls around people will realize the stakes are much higher" than "who gets a few hotel rooms."

Ausman endorsed Hillary the night before Obama became the nominee, he said because he wanted her to be VP.

He is becoming very annoying.

[madfloridian]

7. There are people pushing things covertly...and still two pending lawsuits.

So I think there is still a problem.

Until the lawsuits are dropped, they are still pending and could affect our nominee. One has been appealed to the Supreme Court.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/2130

[madfloridian]

8. Oops, meant to reply to babylon sister.

[glowing]

2. Well, these asshats in FL are idiots... they rile up the populous and then

step back in line once they realize their girl didn't make it.. would look bad for them and be hard for them to be in the DNC fold and still highlight DLC agendas.... Most of our Dems are DINO's. Most are as corrupt as repugs down here.

so, they get a bunch of people's panties in a wad thinking the Florida primary mirrors the 2000 stolen elections... What they didn't realize was that it didn't matter, the Primary had already been won.. and all the Dems would step in line in June.. they would not go to Nov... so, it was stupid play.. unless, they are hoping for McCain election so Hillary can run in 2012... At this point there are a lot of people who are really upset about the whole schenanigans. There are life long Dem activists who refuse to do any work for the 08 season. AND then we still have a lot of uninformed people who still vote Repug (how I don't know).... Its really a horrible state to live in.. I should never have moved here.

[JVS]

5. Will these asshats be at the convention? I hope the other conventioneers give them a lot of shit.

[anonymous171]

9. If Obama wins without FL, the FL democratic party will lose a lot of significance.

Florida will become just another red state.