March 9, 2008
Dennis Hastert, the longest serving Republican speaker of the house in history, has been succeeded. The battle over Dennis Hastert’s seat wasn’t just an election, it was Vietnam, it was Nicaragua, it was a proxy war between two much bigger entities. Bill Foster (the Democrat) and Jim Oberweis (Republican) were just pawns.
The 14th district of Illinois, once holding the powerful Speaker Joeseph Gurney Cannon, had been solidly Republican for over twenty years, and on most years the Democrats wouldn’t even contest a district like that. This year, with their popularity the highest it had been in years, the Democrats made a run at the district. Bill Foster received over a million dollars from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, while Oberweis received 1.2 million, one fifth of the National Republican Campaign Committee’s total money. Both John McCain and Barack Obama campaigned for the candidates in the district, with John McCain making Oberweis half a million dollars at a fundraiser and Obama making an advertisement for Foster. Ultimately, Foster prevailed 53-47. Foster and Oberweis will run against each other again this November. Bill Foster, by virtue of his position, will become a superdelegate at the convention, and has indicated he will cast his superdelegate vote for his new, in-state colleague.
Florida and Michigan Want to Be Rewarded For Breaking Rules
By now you’ve likely heard the story. Florida and Michigan broke party rules by moving their primaries before Super Tuesday (The Florida RNC chair was quoted as saying “We understand that this violates the rules of both the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee. We don’t care”) and they were warned “Don’t move your primaries forward or you’ll be stripped of your delegates.” They moved their primaries forward and, *gasp*, had their delegates revoked. Florida and Michigan are now crying foul, saying their voters are being disenfranchised. Hillary Clinton believes that the original results, which she “won” (Obama wasn’t even on the ballot and nobody but her or Kucinich campaigned in the states) should be kept, and the delegates should be given back. Clinton, Florida, and Michigan would also be ok with a re-do of the primaries, as long as the DNC foots the bill.
There are several problems with this idea. For starters, a Florida primary costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $18 million, while a Michigan primary would cost $10 million. The DNC has 3.7 million dollars in its coffers, not even enough for a mail-in primary, which has been suggested and would cost in the neighborhood of $5 million per state. The other problem with a mail-in primary is that it gives Clinton an advantage because polls say 83% of her supporters have stamp collections.
The most logical think to do is a do-over primary where the states foot the bill, and/or a do-over caucus (those are much cheaper) where the party foots the bill. The main problem is that Governor Granholm of Michigan says that her state, which is in a recession, won’t pay for any sort of re-do, while Dean say the DNC neither has the money nor the interest to reward rule-breakers. Governor Crist of Florida says he’d support a re-do, but the state legislature would likely disagree. Furthering the problem, is that Clinton’s campaign has nixed having a caucus, mainly because she doesn’t do well in caucuses, while Obama’s campaign has said they wouldn’t agree to a firehouse primary. A full blown primary, which neither has expressly said ‘no’ to, would cost way more money than either the states or the DNC would agree to.
James Carville, best known as Bill Clinton’s equivalent of Karl Rove, has come up with a novel solution. He says he’s going to find independently wealthy Democrats and get them to fund the primary, while he challenges David Wilhelm, who ran Bill Clinton’s campaign and now supports Obama, to do the same. Wilhelm hasn’t responded publicly.
There have been some rumors that Michigan is going to announce that they will hold a caucus in a few days. This seems like the most reasonable solution. Michigan and Florida need to pay for their own contests, as they were warned beforehand what would happen if they broke the rules and they did it anyway. It’s a thin premise to say the voters are being “disenfranchised” since courts have made it very clear that the party gets to pick how their nominee is chosen, and that a primary voice is not guaranteed.
The bottom line is that the states should have sorted this out before it happened, and Hillary Clinton should have complained about it some time prior to a month after the fact for the plea to really be taken seriously as anything other than political maneuvering. If you’re a resident of Michigan or Florida, I suggest you vote against the incumbent this time around, because ultimately it’s the fault of the people you elected to represent you, and that’s the Muse. The Michigan delegation has officially had its 177 hotel rooms cancelled, and Florida’s 200+ delegates never had hotel rooms. This shows you that this is more than a game of chicken, this is a game of no limit hold ‘em where the DNC has all the chips. And it could have been prevented if Florida and Michigan didn’t gamble it all away.
Try finding hotel space for 387 people on the fly right before a denver convention.
“Obama wasn’t even on the ballot and nobody but her or Kucinich campaigned in the states”
All editorial bias aside, the grammar in the quoted sentence is shockingly bad.
When an individual writes 10,000 words per week, it’s rather petty to complain about 16 words that still make sense and just are slightly lacking in syntax. Such is the risk of writing a blog. Even the New York Times errs on a daily basis, so these ad hominem attacks are misplaced to say the least.
Furthermore, where is the editorial bias in stating the fact that Clinton and Kucinich were the only individuals on the Michigan primary ballot? It’s simple fact. Where is the editorial bias in stating that Clinton and Kucinich were the only ones who campaigned in Michigan and Florida? It’s simple fact. Not only that, but, in case you haven’t noticed, these are opinion pieces. Also, the New York Times, MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News, four of the six biggest voices in politics (the other being ABC and the Washington Post), have all had profound editorial biases in their NEWS reporting, which is an exponentially bigger crime than an editorial bias in opinion reporting. “Bias”, by all accounts, is the entire purpose of opinion pieces.
If you want to have a civil discussion about how you think my facts are in any way errant, you can send an email to themuse@albanyhighcougar.com. If you want to continue trolling, go to Politico.