UPDATE: I was just advised that the The Courage Campaign has a petition asking McAuliffe not to appear at the AHIP gathering. Please take one minute to sign it.
Yes, that Terry McAuliffe, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
But before I tell you what Terry's up to, you might be amused to know that I applied for press credentials to cover the health insurance industry depravity which will unfold next week in San Francisco. All I wanted to do was write about Terry's speech and to let you know what AHIP is planning in the year ahead. The bastards turned me down, with a curt one sentence email from Robert Zirkelbach, one of the press flacks from AHIP.
Subject: RE: Press credential request for Institute 2008
Date: 6/12/2008 4:31:32 P.M. Pacific Standard Time
From: rzirkelbach@ahip.org
Reply To:
To: nyceve@xxx.com
Unfortunately, I am unable to provide you with a press pass for the Institute.
Scared that nyceve might tell the truth to some bloggers? Holy Patootie, they ain't seen nothin yet.
In 2002, the economy was tanking. Bush was over-reaching. It had become clear that the GOP Senate and House leadership were not running conference committees in good faith, but were instead ignoring majorities built with both Dems andReps on the Senate side to rubber stamp slim GOP-only majorities on the House side. The worst impulses of the GOP were on fuull display - implicating one gubernatorial candidate with involvement in the torture and death of a DEA agent, linking one incumbent senator to Saddam Hessein because he didn't support moving the Department of Homeland Security largely outside of civil service protection,
Unity my ass after all the crap Hillary has pulled during this campaign. Ok, give me a couple weeks and I'll have a little heart for her supporters, but this weekend Hill and Ter can suck it. How dare you use Republican fear tactics to exploit the American people Hillary. You are not a role model to women/men and your speech was far from gracious and way overdue. Hopefully, you take a hard look at what you've become during this campaign, take a complete u-turn, and actually work hard in the Senate to improve the lives of the American people. It also might be good for you to use some of those "leadership" skills you claim to have to stop the war in Iraq and prevent future ones (Iran) from happening.
I have this incredibly goofy smile on my face right now. What caused it? Reading this account of Terry McAuliffe at Hillary's staff party:
Looking relaxed, McAuliffe stopped by to speak briefly with reporters, saying the entire campaign staff is looking to "take some time, relax, and do everything we can to help Barack Obama."
"It was a great campaign, 17 months... Talk about her breaking the glass ceiling, and I think she shattered it. She got in, she got more than 18 million votes, she won a lot of important states. I think I speak for all the staff here, they’re very proud. It was an exciting campaign. It was very close, but now we do everything we can to help Barack Obama become the next president, because it’s about the issues."
McAuliffe said Clinton's mood is "great." Asked if she'd soon do a campaign swing for Obama, he said she would "do anything."
"She has made that clear, she will do anything she can to help Barack Obama," he said. "If he wants her to travel every day she’ll do that."
He would not give much insight into what she'd say tomorrow, saying only that it would get people "pumped up" and build the momentum for the final five months.
Like the rest of us, Barack Obama learned from the media that Hillary Clinton will announce the suspension of her campaign for the Democratic Party's nomination for President this Saturday. And while there is all sorts of gossip about what will happen next, for now the drama continues.
Just last week, Bill Clinton complained that he'd "never seen a candidate treated so disrespectfully just for running." Well look again, Bill. Because your wife just succeeded in performing a 10-point-perfect double-dis against Barack Obama. First she stiff-armed his historic claim to the party's nomination with her "victory" speech on Tuesday night. Then the next day she ignores the most basic courtesy of telling her party's nominee she is dropping out of the race. She even passed up the opportunity to do so in person at the AIPAC conference. What a class act!
"Unless she has some good reasons-- which I can't think of-- I really think we ought to get on with endorsements (of Obama) and dealing with what we have to deal with... so we can move forward," Rangel said.
This is going to be short, but it's something that's been buzzing around in my head all day. (Yes, bad pun intended.)
And I'm not proud of it. I wanted to be proven wrong.
I was tempted to come out with this straight away but thought to relish BO's amazing triumphant night before confronting the H resiliency issue was the order of the day.
Regardless of my elation, which does not yet feel complete and I know won't until H has conceded and endorsed BO, I will be posting updates throughout the day.
I'm not the least bit surprised by her speech or behavior although stupidly I did expect more from her, because I've known all along she wouldn't exit gracefully.
Last night on The Daily Show w/ Jon Stewart... Clinton zealot and renowned delusional talking head Terry McAuliffe stopped by to rally the troops. What is he rallying for and why would he think that Jon Stewart would give him a pass on it? Because its TERRY MCAULIFFE thats why! The man is campaigning in an alternate reality.
The interview with Jon Stewart is really hilarious and at one point he asks Terry to convince him (a Mets fan) that the NY Mets didn't suffer an historic collapse last year but instead won the World Series.
On the Colbert Report there was an interview of almost equal quality. Stephen interviews George Will who he describes as "one of the intellectual giants of conservatism.... he has less competition than he used to". LOL
Will and Colbert discuss conservatism and how it differs from liberalism. An interesting and entertaining exchange. I actually kind of like George Will even though I disagree with much of his ideology.
After a bruising, exhilarating and unprecedented six months of Democratic primaries and caucuses, my American friends have finally run out of states. And despite what Terry McAuliffe is saying right now, it looks like sanity will prevail in Hillaryland tonight and she will concede and move on rather than burn the party to the ground in her naked quest for power.
I feel sorry for Clinton's supporters, but not just because their candidate is about to lose. Watching them weep and scream and tear their clothing in grief after the DNC's decision on Michigan and Florida, it seems to me that the Clinton campaign has done them a great disservice. They set up Hillary Clinton as a historic figure who represented the only hope for America to see a woman in the Whitehouse (thus casting their opponents as misogynists), and have worked her supporters into a frenzy based on a series of politically expedient lies.
Terry McAuliffe, Harold Ickes and Howard Wolfson. Three major reasons why the superdelegates and state party apparatus will never fully support Senator Clinton. A long time ago, there was a young man who took the time out of his life to run Democratic Congressional Campaigns, after a lifetime of volunteering. He ran headlong into a process controlled by members of the DLC (Democratic Leadership Council), the moderate to conservative body embraced by the team that ran Bill Clinton's campaign. It was an eye-opening and unhappy experience. In case you haven't guessed, that young man was me...
I fired up my computer this morning to be confronted with the news that Clinton is STILL trying to poach superdelegates from Obama. In spite of all the calls for her to drop out, in spite of all the marshaling of facts and figures, she will not concede. I've felt for weeks now that she is very likely to take this fight all the way to the convention, and that feeling is growing stronger, not weaker, as time goes by.
Why are Clinton and her diehard supporters refusing to give up in the face of impossible odds?
Trust me...I can't stand Fox News. It's actually banned in my house and my 2 year old son already knows this. However, hats off to Chris Wallace on this one. The video is about the assasination comment, but the transcript includes questioning him on the FL and MI issue and McAuliffe sounded like an idiot.
For those who haven't been been watching, Mr. Super has posted a FL/MI timeline detailing the back and forth of the MI and FL moving up their primary dates. It's really fascinating to read, as he's updated a whole bunch this morning.
I'll extract just a couple of things that I found of note in there, but it does really help to shed some light on things.
Mr. Super (yes yes I know, we all know who he is now, but we still like calling him that ;) ) starts today off with quoting an article from the Washington Post, simply stating that (as we all know), that the crying over MI/FL didn't begin until after their primaries were finished and their votes needed by the Clinton Camp.
Voiceover: There exists a parallel universe, where our earthly events are duplicated. But, they are duplicated backwards, for it is a reflection. Our earth is a sphere, so the parallel earth is, of course, a cube. This is: The Bizarro World. So, while this exchange would be taking place on earth..
[ cut to two women talking ]
Woman #1: Oh, I'm cold! Turn up the heat! And have the maid clean up the house! It's a mess!
Woman #2: Oh, that's a good idea. We ought to throw out this trash, too.. but first, I'd like a glass of water.
Voiceover: The following exchange would be taking place in the Bizarro World:
Woman #1: Oh, I'm cold! Turn up the air conditioning! And have the maid dirty up the house!
Woman #2: Good idea! And throw away all these diamonds! But first, me thirsty. Me want a glass of nice, dry sand.
Beneath the spin has never been more meaningful than it has become during this political season, because it’s beginning to look like Hillary Clinton has taken it’s meaning to a new and very insidious level. After her comment regarding Robert Kennedy’s assassination, I began to consider all the "gaffes" that both she and Bill have been involved in during this campaign, and I’ve found strong evidence that points to the possibility that Hillary has been engaged in the practice of subliminal messaging throughout this campaign. If this is indeed the case, it makes her latest misstatement much more serious than many of us would like to believe.
"The Obama campaign ... tried to take these words out of context," Clinton campaign chairman Terence R. McAuliffe said on "Fox News Sunday." "She was making a point merely about the time line."
Appearing on CBS's "Face the Nation", Clinton senior strategist Howard Wolfson said McAuliffe is "absolutely right" that Clinton didn't want to apologize to Obama for the remark and said: "I think it was unfortunate to attack Senator Clinton's remarks without knowing fully what she had said."
Just was you thought the RFK assasination gaffe couldn't get any worse, Mr. Terry "This thing will be over on Feb. 5" McAuliffe says all this is Obama's fault. There is no possible way his candidate uttered that disgusting remark. If you look at the video closely, it obviously altered. Obama subliminal prowess is the culprit here.
