The Hollywood Liberal

Florida, Michigan Delegations Get Half Votes
“After a nearly 10-hour marathon meeting of the Democratic party’s rules committee,” Sen. Hillary Clinton “came away with a total of 24 more pledged delegates, but today’s decisions on the seating of Florida and Michigan delegates fell far short of what her campaign had hoped,” according to the New York Times.

“In a blow to Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy, the committee voted to restore the delegations of both Florida and Michigan at the party’s nominating convention, but gave each delegate only half a vote.”

The Clinton campaign suggested they might still challenge the decision at the party’s Credentials Committee, the final arbiter of delegate disputes.

Clinton Supporter Shows Bruises She Received Being Ejected From Meeting
Long Island school teacher Deborah Foster

Deborah Foster, a Long Island school teacher and Hillary Clinton supporter who was ejected from the Rules & Bylaws Committee meeting on May 31, 2008 shows her bruises. Foster and others were shouting “Denver, Denver” when security removed them from the meeting.

MI/Fl DRC Hearing: Afternoon Session Live Blog I

Big Tent Democrat and I will live-blog the afternoon session of debate over seating Michigan and Florida delegates here. Comments will open at 4:15 pm ET.

Back From Ohio will continue live-blogging from the meeting room here.

The blog is below the fold. You can comment as usual or send us comments through the live blog. If you want others to see your comments, comment below the normal way. Only BTD and I see those submitted on the live-blog.

Comments now closed.

Overnight Thread

Electability
There are a lot of people who sincerely believe that their One True Candidate is more electable, along with plenty of people who take the superlative stance that only their candidate is electable. They may be right. I have no idea. I know smart astute people on both sides who think that way about their candidate. I long ago decided I would do my best to not head down the electability argument path. There are arguments on both sides, but I don’t find either to be especially convincing. Ultimately I don’t think you should head into the voting both and base your choice on how you imagine the American People will vote. That’s Tim Russert’s job, to divine the will of that mythical Amurkan, and we all know his track record.

Maine Jury Says It’s Legal to Protest an Illegal War
A rare bit of good news for the anti-war movement goes largely ignored by the media.

The Ones that Got Away
First and foremost, Dan K put up an excellent post the other day, asking TPM readers to formulate a broad vision for the American Left in 2058. In his words, “Take a momentary holiday from triangulating, strategizing, and poll-testing,…

Lawmaker Defaults on Three Morgtage Loans
Rep. Laura Richardson (D-CA) has been defaulting on her mortgage payments, but that hasn’t stopped her from loaning her campaign cash. She had three homes in default and has been renegotiating at least one loan with her lender, Washington Mutual,…

The LiberalOasis Radio Show: Uncommitted Superdelegate Edition

Today at 10 AM ET, The LiberalOasis Radio Show was broadcast on WHMP-AM in Western MA. My special guest was Deb Kozikowski, vice-chair of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, proprietor of RuralVotes.com and an uncommitted superdelegate, and she offered a window into what’s going on in the superdelegate community, as well as the rural community.

The audio podcast for the show is here: (iTunes / XML feed / MP3). Video of the opening monologue, about how Sen. John McCain appears to be leading the worst run campaign ever, is below:

Obama quits church after pastor controversy
Obama quits church after pastor controversy

Rove: Bush told Bachmann to ?take off those stupid pink gloves.?
Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) affections for President Bush are infamous. At the 2007 State of the Union address, she gripped onto Bush’s shoulder until he gave her “a kiss and an embrace.” In September 2007, she also claimed that the President tried to “embrace” her at the scene of Minnesota’s 35W bridge collapse. But […]

Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) affections for President Bush are infamous. At the 2007 State of the Union address, she gripped onto Bush’s shoulder until he gave her “a kiss and an embrace.” In September 2007, she also claimed that the President tried to “embrace” her at the scene of Minnesota’s 35W bridge collapse. But in a speech to Republicans in Rochester, MN, yesterday, Rove told of one incident where Bush insulted Bachmann:

The Texan delivered a few Minnesota comments, like…the time when he was with Bush and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. The president told her to “take off those stupid pink gloves.”

Watch a portion of Rove’s speech here.