CNN's Donna Brazile Comes To SF For Obama Fundraiser July 15th, Palace Hotel
CNN's Donna Brazile is coming To San Francisco For a Fundraiser for the "Obama Victory Fund" July 15th from 12 noon to 1:30 PM at The Palace Hotel, (2 New Montgomery, downtown San Francisco and just off Montgomery BART Station), and you can join us with a $150 contribution or a $1,000 contribution for a VIP reception to host Ms. Brazile. To join us, just click on this link:
And as you sign up and donate, type in "Zennie Abraham" in the field "PLEASE LET US KNOW WHO ENCOURAGED YOU TO MAKE THIS CONTRIBUTION:"
About Donna Brazile
Donna Brazile is Founder and Managing Director of Brazile and Associates, LLC and is the first African-American to direct a major presidential campaign, having done so for Gore-Libermann 2000. Brazile is perhaps best known as the weekly and at times daily contributor to CNN's "The Situation Room" and other CNN programs.
Recently, Brazile made news again as an active member of the DNC Rules Committee, where she told then-Clinton supporter and former Governor Jim Blanchard "my mama told me you gotta play by the rules."
Donna Brazile is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including Washingtonian Magazine's 100 Most Powerful Women in Washington, D.C. and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's Award for Political Achievement.
A native of New Orleans, Louisiana, Brazile earned her undergraduate degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. She's also the author of Cooking With Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics
Please join us for this lunchtime discussion from 12 noon to 1:30 PM, Tuesday, July 15th.
The Four Michigan Delegates Obama Now Has Didn't Belong To Clinton To Start
At the historic DNC Rules Committee of Saturday May 31, 2008, both Florida and Michigan delegates were seated but with 50 percent of the common voting power each and with Senator Clinton receiving 69 delegates and Senator Obama gaining 59 delegates. The total number is 128 delegates, so the 50 percent split mark would be 64 delegates.
The Clinton camp, lead by Senior Campaign Advisor Harold Ickes, claims that they were forced to give 4 delegates to Senator Obama. Before we take on their claim, let's give it a closer look.
The reason is that Senator Clinton kept her name on the Michigan ballot, whereas Senator Obama, Senator Edwards, Governor Bill Richardson, and the other Democratic Presidential candidates took their name off the ballot, because they, and Senator Clinton, knew and admitted that the "Michigan primary would not count."
The remainder was the "uncommitted" vote, which, when the actual Michigan primary was held against DNC rules -- which told the state not to hold its primary ahead of the schedule orginally set for it by and with the DNC -- became an unusually large percentage of the vote, something like 30 percent of the total.
The Clinton people base their delegate estimate on that actual voting outcome, and say that the legitimacy of the Michigan process rests in the 600,000 people who voted in that state. That's the basis for the anger of some Clinton people like Ickes. And here's the major problem.
The delegates never actually belonged to the Clinton campaign, but to the DNC, because Michigan was stripped of its delegates by the DNC, which the DNC Rules Committee has the power to do, and did.
Because of that fact, the DNC Rules Committee could come up with any scenario they could and had the votes to pass, and that's what happened. The Rules Committee could have elected to do absolutely nothing and have a "zero-delegate" outcome, which means Senator Clinton would have no delegates seated from Michigan. Those delegates would be allocated by the DNC because, again, the DNC stripped Michigan of its delegates to start with.
And regarding the 600,000 voters, there's a great argument and study that suggests as many as 1 million people did not vote in Michigan because they were under the impression the primary would not count by the view of the DNC. And they were right. The DNC stripped Michigan of delegates.
Because of this, delegates were malleable by the DNC. In other words, because Michigan was stripped of delegates, the DNC could give life to and then shape and mold the delegate count and split as it chose to do so, and it did just that.
The DNC was well within its right to do what it did, and Senator Clinton in reality had no right to any number of delegates. She, like the other candidates including Senator Obama, was at the mercy of the DNC Rules Committee.
Harold Ickes knows this, and admitted on today's Meet The Press show with Tim Russert, that the reason the Clinton people and Senator Clinton said that they knew Michigan wasn't going to count. Here's what Ickes said on MTP today:
MR. ICKES: Michigan was, in fact, a real primary. Six hundred thousand people voted, Tim, compared, compared, compared to 160,000 in '04, which had a high--which had a real, live primary as well.
MR. RUSSERT: Then why did Senator Clinton say it wasn't going to count for anything?
MR. ICKES: I think at that time people were focused on Super Tuesday, and a lot of us did not feel that it was going to go beyond that.
Wow.
Think about that. I also can't believe Tim Russert didn't hammer Ickes on that statement because Harold just admitted on national television that the reason Clinton didn't concern herself with "defending Michigan" at the time was really because they didn't think they were going to need the delegates to win.
Wow.
So now that they're counting every delegate from here to Mars, suddenly challenging DNC rules and working some weird form of Jedi-mind trick on hapless political pundits , Michigan suddenly counts and the count must favor them.
That's not the way it works. Here's the bottom line: Florida and Michigan were stripped of their delegates, the DNC thus had the right to create delegates and shape and mold the delegste split, and as it turned out Senator Obama had the votes in the DNC Rules Committee -- including from Clinton supporters -- to achieve the outcome we see before us now.
This video presents the rousing speech gave by Florida Rep. Robert Wexler, an Obama supporter, and regarding the seating of Florida delegates. Wexler's impassioned plea for unity and his expressed support for "The Ausman Petition" has won him new fans around America, some calling for him to be considered for Vice President.
In the matter of today's DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee, there was a mention of something called the "Ausman Petition" which was accepted by the Obama campaign and Robert Wexler's saying on MSNBC, also by the Clinton camp. Now that's just the delegate petition, but not the Superdelegate Ausman Petition. Below is the letter by DNC Member John Ausman which presents his petition:
The staff of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) have completed and submitted their review of the two appeals seeking to have 23 superdelegates and 92 pledged delegates award to Florida .
The first appeal notes the DNC Charter states Democratic US Senators, Democratic US House Members, former DNC Chairs and DNC Members “shall” be delegates to the Democratic National Convention. This “bill of rights” given to 23 Floridians cannot be taken away by a subordinate body created by the DNC since that subordinate body does not have the authority to do so.
The second appeal states the penalty for violating the “timing rule” “shall be” a fifty percent (50%) reduction in the pledged delegates and the loss of the three (3) unpledged add-on delegates. This means Florida should have at least 92 pledged delegates.
The remaining 93 pledged delegates and three (3) unpledged add-on delegates I hope to win at a later time if not on this appeal itself.
Review by Co-Chairs, Rules and Presidential Politics
The two Co-Chairs of the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee (RBC) have been reviewing the staff comments and recommendations since 31 March 2008. While the 2008 Delegate Selection Rules provide a strict timeline in many areas when an appeal is made it is silent on how long the Co-Chairs can review the appeals and the staff review.
For those who suggest the Co-Chairs are stalling, or planning to delay hearings until June, I say lets give them a reasonable amount of time to review the documents. If the staff has two weeks to review and write a report then lets give the Co-Chairs the same two week period of time.
This means the Co-Chairs should make a statement on Monday, 14 April 2008, at the latest.
The Co-Chairs can say one or both appeals are meritorious and grant the sought for remedies, they can deny one or both appeals (which will allow me to appeal such a denial within five days to the DNC RBC, or they can call for a DNC RBC Committee to here argument on the appeals.
I believe we are going before the full DNC RBC and I would like to be there no later than Saturday, 10 May 2008.
Unfortunately, these two appeals involve more than the consideration of what the written rules governing the DNC say. Rather than interpret the rules as written consideration is now being given to what the two Presidential campaigns want (what they want, of course, is what benefits them the most).
I believe one campaign is very interested in allowing the DNC RBC decide the matter while the other is stalling in order to preserve their position.
One would think both parties would see the tremendous advantage of resolving this matter early as it would help improve fundraising for both campaigns in Florida (not to mention DNC and FDP fundraising) as well as allow our attention to focus on getting ready to be Senator McCain, but short-term views are prevailing over the long-term benefits of ending this running sore.
With respect, I am,
Jon M. Ausman, Member Democratic National Committee Florida
