Repost: Interview With Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, Part I

Our lovely blogmother, Riverdaughter, has requested that I repost this interview with one of the possible contenders for Hillary Clinton’s Senate Seat, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney.

Doesn’t this woman seem just an eensy, weensy bit more qualified than Princess Caroline?

You Said It, Sister!

And speaking of “uneducated old women…” The following is Part I of my email interview with the gracious, intelligent, fiery and fabulous feminist, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, after reading her book: “Rumours of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated.” Part II will be posted tomorrow.

MadamaB: Your path to politics was far from direct. Could you share some of that journey?

CM: When I was growing up, I never dreamed of going to Congress. The options for women were very limited. I thought I would be a teacher, librarian or a nurse. Politics wasn’t even a possibility. I can remember reading an interview in Life Magazine with Margaret Chase Smith, Senator from Maine, that illustrates the thinking of women in politics when I was growing up. The interviewer asked Senator Smith what she would do if she woke up in the White House one day. She answered: “I’d apologize to Bess Truman immediately and leave.” It just shows how self-effacing a female politician had to be in those days – the idea that she might want to run for higher office was just too threatening. If you asked Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi what they would do, they’d have a list. It just shows how far we’ve come but, as I show in my book, not enough.

When I left college, I came to New York and became a teacher, teaching English as a second language to immigrant women in upper Manhattan. Within a year after I started, my program lost its funding. I was nominated by my colleagues to lobby the legislature to get the funding restored. I was successful, and my success got me noticed by the Department of Education, which hired me as a lobbyist. I soon realized that you can accomplish a lot more good by working for the legislature, so I became a staffer, first for the New York State Assembly and later for the New York State Senate. While I accomplished a lot as a member of staff, it soon became clear to me that you really have power only when you actually have a seat at the table as the elected official. So I ran for the City Council in 1982.

MadamaB: You have been a Congresswoman in New York since 1992. What prompted you to write this book now?

CM: During the years of Bush I saw a rollback, a stalling of progress on women’s issues, and in many instances an effort to roll back gains we had achieved in the ‘70s. I wanted to bring attention to the problems we continue to face and the danger that we might lose some of the civil rights protections we had struggled so hard to achieve – and more than that, I wanted to get women involved, to give them ideas of how they can work for change in their own communities. I wanted the book to serve as a wake up call, to galvanize women and like-minded men to take action to address some of the problems I talk about in the book.

MadamaB: The candidacy of Senator Hillary Clinton seems to have brought out an awareness that misogyny is far from dead in our society. Yet the press, and many national figures, refuse to admit it exists at all. Is that what inspired the title of your book?

CM: Conventional wisdom about how far women have come far exceeds how far we actually have come. 2008 will go down in history as the year we finally came face to face with the level of misogyny that still persists in American society. While it was awe-inspiring to see Hillary Clinton as a major party candidate, the number of attacks on her for being a woman was simply astonishing. It came from every direction – from the hecklers at rallies who held up signs saying “Iron My Shirt” to the netroots who created a website “Make Me A Sandwich” to the politicians who compared her to the villain in the movie Fatal Attraction and vilified her for not giving up her run for the White House. Most of all, it came from the media who treated us to a nightly attack: Her supporters were called castratos in the eunich chorus; one commentator said she was scary, castrating and that he involuntarily crossed his legs when she came into the room; another said that when she spoke, men heard “Take out the garbage.” If that’s what they thought about someone as accomplished, intelligent and gracious as Hillary Clinton, what must they be thinking of us?

When I started writing the book, some people said that Hillary’s ability to run as a serious candidate would make the book seem out of touch with reality. How could I say that our progress was exaggerated when one woman was Speaker of the House and another could be the Democratic Presidential nominee? Well, not every woman is a Nancy Pelosi or a Hillary Clinton, and most women I meet are struggling because of laws that do not support work/life balance, because they do not have health care, because they’re not paid the same as their male colleagues; or because they’ve spent a lifetime with a wage gap and now have to live in old age on social security and pensions that perpetuate that gap. I wrote the book for all those struggling women – and hopefully to inspire the next Hillary Clinton to throw her hat into the ring and join me in trying to change all that.

Kennedy Will Work Twice as Hard

December 26, 2008 — Today, NY Senatorial bidder, Caroline Kennedy, has stated in an AP interview that she knows she’ll have to work twice as hard in her job if appointed by Governor David Paterson, himself an appointee. Kennedy wants Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat, which will be vacated when Clinton becomes Secretary of State after approval by Congress, which is when Paterson will “decide.” Kennedy might be listening to the escalating buzz in the State that she’s butting in line. (Hmm, sound familiar?) Others in the queue include: New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, State Senator Liz Krueger, and US Representative Carolyn Maloney.

Let me qualify: I really don’t want to compound the woman bashing thing, because I’m ashamed and disgusted about how women treated other women in this election cycle, and how many women and outspoken feminists abandoned Hillary. Hmmm, like Caroline Kennedy, for example. I’m also a firm believer in and product of lifelong learning, and have had many careers. After all, I learned to blog at 60, didn’t I?! I also am a stand for factoring in people’s life experience, temperament, judgment, accomplishments in other fields, communication skills, and integrity, not just their diplomas or what is on paper.

I’ll definitely grant you that growing up in any household breeds some familiarity with the ins and outs and language of any kind of work, business, hobby, or way of doing things. For example, my dad was an orthopedic surgeon. When I was a little kid, I’d see photos of layers of tissue cut open, pinned back, as my dad referenced his medical books, sitting in his club chair after dinner. I’d go on hospital rounds with him, and as a teen, had summer jobs in his private practice’s office.

I didn’t become a doctor. I like to say “I’m not really a blood ‘n guts person.” I took the path of body-mind healing—whereas quite a few of my family and friends were inspired to become docs because of my dad. I was married for fourteen years to an auto mechanic. I’ve seen engines being rebuilt, and know much more about cars than most Jewish American Princess Baby Boomers. I can recognize different cars by the sound of their start up motors and and engines.

Actually, lately I’ve been reconsidering my career choices. and have decided that I want to be a surgeon. In fact, I’m going for the on-the-job training program. So, if I work twice as hard, will you let me operate on your broken leg? No wait, I think I’ll be a mechanic. Can I rebuild your engine? I think I can, I think I can. After all, reality TV, and this past year, have taught me that anybody can do just about anything they want to, and I mean that in every way. But I digress . . .

I’m curious: What did your parents do, or what was the family business that wasn’t your career path? What if you made a promise to work twice as hard? Would you be qualified to pick it up on the spot just by doing so? Or . . . what work do you or your partner do? Could someone pick it up instantly by working twice as hard? Do tell.

[cross-posted from Lady Boomer NYC]

It Just Keeps Getting Better and Better

Remember the good old days when the nutroots declared that Holy Joe Lieberman was a heretic who had to be excommunicated from the Democratic party?  Today at FullyDerangedLunatics:

Joe Lieberman’s 2006 primary campaign manager, Sean Smith, who accused Ned Lamont of hacking their website the day of the Connecticut primary in 2006, has been selected to be the new Administration’s spokesperson at the Department of Homeland Security.

These days it seems the Obamanationals are drinking more Kool-aid but enjoying it less.

Fascism and Obama For America

See That Flag? It Means We Are Patriotic!

Boy, this working thing really cuts into my blogging time. What’s up with that?

Never mind. I’m home for a few hours, and today, I’m thinking about Fascism.

Fascism is usually defined as a merger of corporations and state. Since we have deregulated our financial institutions to the point of insanity, they made a lot of bad lending decisions and are leveraged out the wazoo. We are now forced into bailing them out with taxpayer money because they are “too big to fail.” Other corporations, like the Big Three automakers, now expect taxpayers to pony up more cash to pay for their poor competition in the market of ideas.

When you nationalize key industries and institutions, that’s a large part of what makes up a fascist state (well, that, and things like The Patriot Act and warrantless wiretapping, which we have also allowed to happen). I thought we Murkins were dead-set against this type of economics, being so in love with “the free market” and all?

In reality, which despite reports to the contrary actually exists outside of Ayn Rand’s brain, a truly competitive market needs to be overseen and regulated, or the corporations will run amok, taking our economy – and the world’s – with it.

We have seen this actually happen over and over again, yet ideology continues to trump common sense with voters from all sides of the political spectrum. We keep allowing our politicians to loot our pocketbooks and direct trillions of our dollars into their cronies’ bank accounts, with nary a peep of protest from us.

The people this year who were likely to enforce regulation and transparency on the giant wealth-transferral machine that our government has become, were driven out of the race by the corporate media and deserted by their own political parties; while Barack Obama, the most unelectable candidate I have ever seen in my lifetime, was elevated to the status of Jesus.

And only the PUMAs asked why. Why did the corporate media love Obama so much, when he had friends and associates that would have driven anyone else, of any political party, out of the race before he was even allowed to become a candidate? Why did the Chicago Machine politician, the ultimate insider who married into The Family, pass the Democratic Party’s vetting process? We received no response other than wild accusations and rejection by friends, family members and former blogging communities for asking these obvious questions.

Since I’m talking questions, let me ask two more. What will happen once Barack Obama is inaugurated? Will we keep going down this road of merging the private and the public sectors of our economy?

Friday: Things that really piss us off

Allan Katz, Proud RBC Committee Member

So, David Plouffe went to Harvard the other day to muse hypothetically about what might have happened if Florida had actually, um, *counted* back in February:

“In fact, we might not have been the nominee,” Mr. Plouffe said at a forum sponsored by the Kennedy School of Government.

Mr. Plouffe said that he was surprised – and relieved – when the Clinton campaign bowed to pressure from early primary states, including Iowa and New Hampshire, and agreed not to campaign in Florida after the state defied the Democratic National Committee and scheduled its primary before Feb. 3. That spared the Obama campaign the burden of running in a state where all sides agreed Mrs. Clinton was very strong.

“The Florida primary was always of concern to us,” Mr. Plouffe said. “When they agreed to do it in the Clinton campaign, I was really surprised.”

(The vote was held, and Mrs. Clinton won, but the Democratic National Committee said that delegates won there would not count in determining the outcome of the race.)

The way it turned out, Mr. Obama crushed Mrs. Clinton in South Carolina on Jan. 26 and rolled into Super Tuesday on Feb. 5, when there were more than 20 states holding contests. Florida would have taken place on Feb. 29, which Mr. Plouffe argued could have made everyone forget South Carolina.

“If we hadn’t had that moment of velocity coming out of South Carolina — particularly after losing New Hampshire – I don’t know if we could have survived Feb. 5,” he said.

Well, wasn’t that nice.  They were relieved that Clinton had stuck to her agreement because that meant Obama didn’t have to spend money and time in a state he knew he couldn’t win at the same time they could work with Obama’s enablers in the DNC to fuck over Floridians, Hillary and the rest of the country’s Hillary voters.

I can just imagine Plouffe, Axelrod, Brazile and Obama himself sniggering and patting themselves on the back for pulling a fast one over on Hillary the sucker and the rest of us.  High fives all around.  I mean, why bother treating your voters with respect when the other guy makes it completely unnecessary?

There are business courses available for people who want to figure out how to get what they want and believe it or not, they never recommend the aproach that Obama took.  Oh, that doesn’t mean that the management types ever take the advice but the pros who teach this stuff make a point that playing the game by cheating and backstabbing is limited short-term thinking.  *Supposedly*, good negotiators operate in good faith and are up front and honest.  Good game players triumph over evil in the end blah-de-blah-de-blah.  So, maybe Hillary’s crew were a bit over confident that they could win in the end.  But I can still remember the night of SuperTuesday when even Karl Rove thought that Obama would have a hard time pulling off a primary win.  Well, SURE, but that’s only because Rove was counting Florida and possibly Michigan.  It was probably only a hearbeat later when Rove realized what a brilliantly devious thing it would be for the media to suppress Floridians and pretend it didn’t count.

Did Hillary have a choice in the matter?  Allan Katz, the Floridian RBC member who screwed us all royally and says he is now proud of it would probably say “no”.  The RBC’s decision of the previous August to strip FL and MI of their votes made the RBC members into minor celebrities.  Whoo-hoo!  15 minutes of fame and all that.  They.  Had. The.  Powwwwwer!!!  What a moment in the sun, a chance to make a solemn, momentous decision on TV, a day that will live in infamy when the petty bureaucrats had a chance to make the 2008 election into a teachable moment about race.

How delighted they must be that they elevated skin color over character so that now we have the specter of four years of Jon Favreau, Rod Blagojevich and the Villagers holding the White House hostage if their cushy status quo is disrupted.  This is the price that the rest of us pay.  The Democratic party has covered itself with dishonor.  Oh, sure, it *won*.  But the consequences of not bargaining in good faith are that now voters sincerely believe that there isn’t a bit of difference between the parties, that all politicians are crooked and that you can’t trust any of them.  Obama won because the Republicans were sooooo baaaad.  But in the future, the Democratic party will have a much harder time making its case.  It has lost the moral high ground.  It ripped the nomination from one of its most deserving, loyalists and gave the finger to the voters.

Mr. Plouffe, we have very long memories.

Wednesday: For Sale- Senate Seat, like new, barely used

Kudos to myiq2xu for coming up with that ad copy.

The Governor of Illinois sounds like he’s a bit tetched.  He’s a megalomaniacal, power hungry, corrupt pol in deep, deep denial.  His approval ratings are hovering right down there with George Bush.  And he *knows* he may be recorded when he flat out asks for a quid for his pro quo.   What made him so damn cocky? 

We have learned from years of the Whitewater investigation that where there’s smoke, there isn’t necessarily fire.  It could very well be that Barack Obama had no interactions with his personal Jim McDougal regarding the disposition of his senate seat.  But those of us who witnessed how the primary was stolen from Hillary Clinton already know how corrupt Mr. Obama is.  A man who gets $600,000,000 in campaign contributions, some of them from untraceable pre-paid credit cards and manages to buy superdelegates to flip and whose campaign organization threatens various states to withhold funds from downticket races if their delegates don’t switch sides, has more than enough experience with buying his way to the top. Some stupid Obamaphiles and media types will say that’s just hardball politics and everyone does it.  But when money and favors exchange hands in order to bump someone out of the way and gain you an undeserved advantage is viewed by the skeptical eye of Patrick Fitzgerald, it looks a lot like corruption- and it’s illegal.

Barack Obama is already as corrupt a politician as Rod Blagojevich.  But as to *this* indictment,  this is no failed real estate deal where innocent people are getting caught up in a political vendetta.  This is the selling of a US Senate seat coming on the heals of one of the most brazenly  corrupt primary and general election seasons I have ever seen in my life.  And Patrick Fitzgerald is no Ken Starr but there is a very real possibility that in little more than a month from now, he could be out of work if Barack Obama chooses to replace him.  Now why would he want to do that?

And Rod Blagojevich is a little bid mad, un poco loco en la cabeza, unpredictable and curiously reluctant to step aside during his indictment.  Oh, the things he knows.

So far, the only good that seems to have come out of this is that Jesse Jackson Jr. will probably not be going to the Senate:

Even before Mr. Obama was elected president, Mr. Blagojevich was recorded telling an adviser on Oct. 31 that he was giving greater consideration to one candidate (described only as Senate Candidate 5) after an approach by “an associate” of that candidate who offered to raise $500,000 for Mr. Blagojevich, while another emissary of the Senate hopeful offered to raise $1 million. “We were approached ‘pay to play,’ ” Mr. Blagojevich said on a recording.

But prosecutors, who have made it clear that the investigation is continuing and who issued a plea on Tuesday for people to come forward with information, warned against drawing any conclusions about the true roles of candidates or anyone else in Mr. Blagojevich’s plans. And they emphasized repeatedly that the affidavit made “no allegations against the president-elect whatsoever.”

Several people among the half-dozen whose names have been suggested publicly as Senate possibilities did not respond to requests for interviews. Others, including Representative Jesse L. Jackson Jr. and Mr. Jones of the State Senate, who has been one of Mr. Blagojevich’s few allies in Springfield, issued statements expressing shock over the accusations, but they did not answer requests for interviews.

“If these allegations are proved true, I am outraged by the appalling, pay-to-play schemes hatched at the highest levels of our state government,” said Mr. Jackson, who had openly expressed interest in Mr. Obama’s old job and who met with Mr. Blagojevich, whom he is not known to be close to, for 90 minutes on Monday afternoon to discuss the post.

Cry me a river, Mr. Jackson:

I guess we should be grateful that he only offered a bribe and didn’t threaten the state of Illinois with making their legislative agenda dead in the water if the governor didn’t appoint his niece.

Still, what goes around comes around.

Lest we forget

In other news, DeeDee Myers, President Clinton’s former press secretary, is pretty steaming mad over the Favreau picture:

What’s bugging me is his intention. He isn’t putting his hand on her “chest,” as most of the articles and conversations about the picture have euphemistically referred to it. Rather, his hand—cupped just so—is clearly intended to signal that he’s groping her breast. And why? Surely, not to signal he finds her attractive. Au contraire. It’s an act of deliberate humiliation. Of disempowerment. Of denigration.

And it disgusts me.

Oh, I know: If Hillary can get over it, why can’t I? Her spokesman, Phillipe Reinnes, tried to make light of the incident. “Senator Clinton is pleased to learn of Jon’s obvious interest in the State Department, and is currently reviewing his application,” he told the Washington Post in an E-mail. Obviously, she has no interest in making a federal case out of this particular incident, particularly as both the Clinton and Obama camps work on letting bygones be bygones. She has to pick her battles, and for her this ain’t a hill worth dying on.

But there is a larger issue at stake. At what point does sexist behavior get taken seriously? At what point do people get punished in ways that suggest this kind of behavior, this kind of thinking, is unacceptable? At what point do we insist there will be consequences? Clearly, that didn’t happen during the recent presidential campaign, when Hillary was—as I guess she is now—fair game. The press, the pundits, and the public could say things about her (“She’s a shrew!”) and to her (“Iron my shirt!) that were over-the-top sexist—yet got almost no reaction.

Indeed, Ms. Myers, where do we draw the line and hold people accountable?

KEEP THE PRESSURE ON GROPERGATE!

1. Sign the Pumasphere Petition and Send it to Friends and Family:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Fire-Jon-Favreau/

2. Send an email to the obama transition team, demanding that Favreau resign!

vjarrett@barackobama.com

3. Call Transition Headquarters:

202-540-3000 press option # 2 for a live person

Scratching Post DNC Tuesday – Hillary speaks! 10 pm EST (estimated time) Plus DNC “Caption this moment”

RISE, HILLARY, RISE!!!

WE LOVE YOU HILLARY!!!!

Conflucians, Senator Hillary Clinton will speak tonight at the Democratic National Convention at 8pm EST.  Our first viable female candidate who won more votes than any candidate in our nation’s history, is being forced to relinquish her votes on the 88th anniversary for Women’s Suffrage.  We know that she’s going to ask us to unite, to come together as she’s graciously asked us to do since suspending her campaign on June 7th, 2008, but everyone who reads the Confluence knows that we cannot unite as we have in the past when the DNC stole votes and delegates, thrwarting the DNA of Democracy itself: our right to have our votes counted and cast as they were intended.   

Esteemed Senator Clinton, we acknowledge you are between a Mt. Everest of rocks and a hard place.  But we will march and fight until every vote is counted and reported, and when Democracy comes back to the Democratic Party, so will we.  Until then, PUMA!

While Riverdaughter, Mawm and Gary go with their PUMA packs to PUMA headquarters in downtown Denver or prowl in the PUMAmobile, Rico’s got his Pink PUMA & Mountain Lion Martini glasses chilling in ice, while Flo’s got her catcher’s mitt ready for unwelcome words.  If you didn’t have any dinner, we have Denver Bison (or Tofu) mini-burgers and fresh popcorn for all the action that’s going down in Denver.

Speaking of action, just like RiverDaughter said here, and BostonBoomer said below, PUMAs are the news story!  Here’s this little nugget from Rebecca Traister from Salon.com:  Rebecca’s not exactly a PUMA-friendly reporter, but at last she gives Tweety a good slap: 

Aug. 26, 2008 | DENVER — “This is where you see the civil war!” burbled Chris Matthews, experiencing near-asphyxiatory pleasure on an outdoor stage in the sweltering Denver heat, while behind him two competing groups, Obama supporters and the PUMA (Party Unity My Ass) backers of Hillary Clinton, chanted “Obama! Obama!” and “Hillary! Hillary!” at each other. Matthews looked as though he might wet himself as a camera panned the crowd, and he declared, “We’re at ground zero!”

…

Talking to these women, I began to believe that the threat of PUMAs, or aggressive Hillary supporters who planned to take over the convention, was a full-blown myth. I couldn’t find any; I hadn’t seen any. I half suspected that they were the creation of a media anxious to gin up a story in which the villains were a bunch of grumpy old white chicks.

But that was before I left the confines of the official indoor events and stepped out into the wide world of public protest and freedom of expression. And before the news of Monday’s shifting policies on the roll call vote began to leak out, and before Hillary supporters lining the streets of downtown Denver heard convoluted versions of what was likely to happen.

…

“You mean Reverend Wrong,” Mar interrupted. “Look, I know about the race card. I know about race. I’m African-American. And it was Obama who played the race card, and it’s going to come back and bite Obama in the butt.” African-American supporters of Obama, in Mar’s view, “are proud. Yes, I understand that. But you want someone who can lead America, not because he’s African-American, or because she’s a certain gender, but because she can lead.” But what about the woman they wanted as America’s leader? Clinton has been leading her supporters, or trying to lead them, to vote for Obama. “We want Hillary,” said Novacek, with the fingers-in-her-ears insistence of an implacable toddler. “She can stand on her head and plead with us, and I still will not vote for him. I want her. She is best for the country.”  

Caption this DNC moment!  Add your Conflucian Savoire-Snark to these photos:

PHOTO 1:

PHOTO 2

RISE, HILLARY, RISE!!!

¡QUE VIVA LOS PUMAS!

(Long live PUMAs!)

The Big “D” Democrat

I have been a Democrat all my life. I admit that life is only 18 years old, but you have to admit these last two decades have been a couple for the record books. I’ve lived to see an illegitimate president run the country right into the ground as he cleared brush from his Texas ranch 154 days out of the year. I watched a decade of prosperity and peace crash down in unholy flames in the middle of New York when I was just 10 years old. I watched the fraudulent Commander-in-Chief trick the country into a war it didn’t need against a people that didn’t deserve it when I was 11. I watched that same huckster be told by the historic first female Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, that “impeachment [was] off the table” when I was 16. A man who had facilitated unprecedented war crimes had gotten off scot-free. And it had been my party that let it happen.

Jon Corzine: The Popular Vote Indicates the True Will of the People

My governor, Jon Corzine (D-NJ), he of the speedy car with no seatbelt accident (tsk, tsk, Jon), rephrases his “taken out of context” comments that he made on Squakbox from last week in a piece in the HuffingtonPost today. I’m glad he is clarifying his remarks because I don’t live that far from Drumthwacket and I was going to drive down there (seatbelts fastened) to give him a piece of my mind. In An Issue of Legitimacy and Democracy, Jon argues that MI and FL need revotes and then says:

Clearly, the cumulative delegate totals must be considered. Absolutely, the cumulative popular vote is important. And, a practical analysis of electability and the electoral map must be weighed.

For me, the most important of those factors is the popular vote since Democrats have rightfully and passionately long argued that every vote should be counted. Practically, that popular vote should include participation of the fourth and eighth largest states in the nation. Most Democrats agree that ignoring the voices of Florida and Michigan is a mistake and threatens to impact the outcome of the fall elections.

Like many, I fear that not considering the wishes of millions of Democratic voters in those states will taint the attitude of voters everywhere about our ultimate nominee. Early polling in Florida has already indicated as much…

I believe, as I think most Democrats do, that the popular vote is the most democratic way to select a candidate. In fact, I recently signed legislation in New Jersey that joins the state in a compact to choose a president by direct popular vote.

When we listen to all of the people in our party, we end up choosing the person the entire party can support.

Amen, Jon. Buckle up, buddy.

Update:  RealClearPolitics has another take on the popular vote in No Really, Hillary Has a Decent Shot.

A Tale of Two Videos

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Er, scratch that. It’s been used before. But surely, ladies and gentleman, you will have never seen a bigger miscarriage of justice since Bush vs. Gore than the DNC hearing that stripped Florida of its delegates. You may want to procure a strong drink or a xanax (but not both together) before you sit down for the next 80 minutes to view this classic of having every opportunity to avoid Murphy’s Law but diving headlong into it anyway. Here is the egregious piece of footage: Florida Democratic Primary Election Hearing of the DNC

(Didn’t it occur to anyone in that room that this was being recorded for posterity? I’m betting some of them regret having ever encouraged technology.)

And this piece of footage is of Howard Dean on This Week with George Stephanopolous (thanks to Katiebird) trying to justify excluding Florida because it broke the RULZ and wouldn’t have a caucus with a total of 150,000 ballots for all 4 million Floridian Democrats who were eligible to vote. It just warms the cockles of your spleen.

All that is left now it to re-erect La Guillotine and to escort Donna Brazile and pals to it in a trundle of their own making.