Via Memeorandum, we learn that Nevada’s state teachers union and six Las Vegas area residents are suing to make it harder for many members of the infuential Culinary Workers Union to caucus in Nevada. The culinary union endorses Sen. Barack Obama; the teachers union has not endorsed, but top officials support Sen. Hillary Clinton. The Politico links to the Vegas blogger who broke the story.
Clinton has long maintained that the caucus system disenfranchises certain types of voters.   But altering the status quo in Nevada may be seen by others as an act of disenfranchisement also — and one from which Clinton may not be able to credibly distance herself. It is unlikely to quell — and may even inflame — criticism from African-Americans about the way the Clinton camp is going after Obama, even if this particular act of hardball is not directed at African-Americans.
If the spectacle of identity politics turning in on itself was not enough, we are now seeing a standard Leftist tactic – using a lawsuit to achieve what might not be achieved at the ballot box — in an intra-party battle. The ugliness is just beginning.
Update: Excitable Andy is agitated… because of the hypocrisy!
Comment by McGehee on 1/12 @ 3:29 pm #
But in the end, I expect the Dem ticket to be Clinton-Obama, and their campaign song will be a certain Michael Jackson-Paul McCartney duet.
Comment by Darleen on 1/12 @ 3:36 pm #
McGehee
I don’t believe for a second that Hillary and Michelle Obama could be in the same room for more than a few seconds..and Michelle will certainly never allow Barry to accept VP status.
Comment by happyfeet on 1/12 @ 4:00 pm #
I think after not getting the nomination, Obama really should think about maybe kinda just finishing his first term in the Senate, but the same ego that drove him to run with a whole year of Senate experience I think could make being heartbeat-away guy seem like a logical progression. But these are the Clintons, and their vp choice I think will be the product of some weird calculus. Wesley Clark has been kinda quiet lately it seems, and Bill owns him.
Comment by B Moe on 1/12 @ 4:04 pm #
One of the Progressive Vegas blogs covering the story:
http://www.lasvegasgleaner.com/las_vegas_gleaner/2008/01/caucuses-suck-n.html
From the first comment:
“Is Karl Rove secretly running the Clinton campaign in NV? Nothing says George W. Bush like trying to crush the voice of the working class because it is politically expedient.”
You just can’t make this shit up.
Comment by McGehee on 1/12 @ 4:16 pm #
Not even in exchange for a CCW permit?
Comment by McGehee on 1/12 @ 4:17 pm #
“Clinton-Clark”…
Am I the only one who hears a shotgun cocking…?
Comment by steveaz on 1/12 @ 4:40 pm #
“I don’t believe for a second that Hillary and Michelle Obama could be in the same room for more than a few seconds…”
Darleen, aside from some evidence of Obama being personally piqued by something Hillary’s campaign may have said or done, can you list one or two substantial reasons why Obama and Hillary can’t cozy up in time for the convention?
I ask because the only differences that I see between Hillary and Obama represent the kinds of “issues” that Sally Jesse Raphael could mop-up in just ten minutes in front of a studio-audience. Before the second commercial-break, Sally’ll have Ob and Hill a wet, group hug.
The “Uniters” Obama/Hillary ticket is, I’m sure, the Dem’s big plan for the DNC convention – along with a lot of gumbo and Chocolate Katrina-talk.
Comment by Darleen on 1/12 @ 4:43 pm #
well, B Moe
Bill Maher thinks the Rethuglicans stole the NH primary from Obama and gave it to Hillary.
BWHAHAHAH!
Pingback by Nevada Democrat Teachers Do Not Want To Count Every Vote — Pirate’s Cove on 1/12 @ 4:46 pm #
[...] at Protein Wisdom: Clinton has long maintained that the caucus system disenfranchises certain types of [...]
Comment by maggie katzen on 1/12 @ 4:50 pm #
Rethuglicans and Karl Rove. Is there anything we can’t do? except rig Congressional elections, of course.
Comment by SGT Ted on 1/12 @ 4:55 pm #
Can’t they wait until AFTER the election to start the lawsuits? What ever happened to tradition?
Comment by SGT Ted on 1/12 @ 4:57 pm #
If Hillary! had won Iowa, she would be singing the praises of how the Caucus form of electioneering is a fine example of Grassroots Democracy! in action.
Comment by Darleen on 1/12 @ 5:00 pm #
Steveaz
No doubt that Barry could, himself, be open to the VP spot, for no other reason that being in a position to run for Prez in the future (while keeping his fingers crossed that it was a two-term Presidency). But can Barry convince Michelle?
Presidents and VPs who personally hated each other’s guts is not new. And look at the Kerry/Obama love-in the other day. Listening to them batting their eyes at each other, one almost heard the strains of the Carpenters Close to you scoring the moment.
JoKe was well aware, too, the “up yours” message he was sending to Edwards.
Comment by Jeff aka Alcyoneus on 1/12 @ 5:02 pm #
Wait. Liberals are using the court system for political purposes?
I like Protein Wisdom. But this kind of outlandish stuff will hurt your reputation.
Comment by Christopher Taylor on 1/12 @ 5:19 pm #
Well, the Democrats have been rolling over in glee at the social con/moderate split in the GOP with people backing Huckabee and Giuliani hammering each other in a “civil war.” Now they’ve got a feminist/racial huckster civil war going in in the Democratic party. Except the Democrats fight really dirty rather than with ideas and words.
Comment by TmjUtah on 1/12 @ 5:25 pm #
I don’t think that Obama will accept a VP slot, assuming events do progress to the point where that is an option.
The putative Second Black President may be green, may be marxist, and may just be a national disaster waiting to happen all on his own watch – but I also think he’s pretty darned shrewd and has enough political sense to realize that his membership in a Hillary! administration would bring a whole new appreciation to the term “spear catcher”.
I would imagine that Algore has already dropped Obama a line on that subject. How must it have been to lose running with the full power of the end-of-history movement and monolithic MSM support to a fargin’ cowboy…
Pardon me. Gotta laugh for a sec. Okay, all done now.
Note that the wooden one has refrained from endorsing anyone yet. I would not be surprised if Gore endorses Hillary!… if she locks up the nomination.
Comment by Darleen on 1/12 @ 5:45 pm #
Oh jaysus on a pony…. excitable Andy writes for UK Times Online ostensibly about Hillary! vs Obama but has to make the first two paragraphs about the evil Rethugs:
Comment by Trailertrash Josh on 1/12 @ 5:55 pm #
steveazz-
can you list one or two substantial reasons why Obama and Hillary can’t cozy up in time for the convention?
Hillary (and/or her campaign) has called him a “crackhead Muslim promoting a ‘fairy tale’ to White Liberals who want an ‘imaginary black friend’- so that they won’t appear to be racist…”
Steveazz apparently thinks that Obama will “know his place”… and bow down to kiss Hillary’s cankles.
Comment by Mikey NTH on 1/12 @ 6:41 pm #
Again, Josh – why should that stop a convention love fest? It never has before.
Although meals would be interesting…
Dear Diary: Had dinner with president and Mr. Clinton last night. Charming evening. Am scheduled for breakfast meeting tomorrow.
Note to self – get new dog before tomorrow breakfast. Get new one before dinner, too.
Comment by Christopher Taylor on 1/12 @ 7:31 pm #
Huh, so investigating a venal and corrupt president helped save his presidency? I wonder how well President Bush must be doing with constant attacks, lies, and smearing by the Democrats in congress. The problem here is the UK readers will believe him.
Comment by Scrapiron on 1/12 @ 9:08 pm #
B Hussein Obama has no choice but play the race card full time until the election. His only qualification for POTUS is ‘he’s black’ and deserves it due to the history of slavery. He’s a bigger con man (polite way of saying lying thief) than Je$$ie and $harpton rolled into one.
Comment by steveaz on 1/13 @ 9:34 am #
Thanks, Darleen.
I am distressed: A modern American political party (ie. the Democrats) can field two candidates with identical philosophies and policy-prescriptions, but the nation’s mainstream media-machines will represent these facsimiles’ trivial peeves as “irreconcilable differences.”
As long as vested media will continue to grind the Dem’s music-box like a Fez-wearing monkey, they can dupe America’s voters to drop their hard-earned change into the Dem’s hat!
Comment by B Moe on 1/13 @ 9:45 am #
“B Hussein Obama has no choice but play the race card full time until the election. His only qualification for POTUS is ‘he’s black’…”
As true as that may be, that is precisely why Obama is not playing the race card, and Clinton is being forced too. If Obama continues to run against Teh Status Quo, and successfully paints Hillary as a card carrying member, he has a chance. If Obama goes the Sharpton/Jackson route he is admitting his own lack of qualifications and it is over for him.
For the same reason, I wonder about the benefits for him of taking the VP job, the Clinton taint hasn’t really helped anyone else, that position might be a better choice for someone on the downward end of a career, rather than a rising star.
Comment by B Moe on 1/13 @ 9:48 am #
I also have some extra commas I would like to trade for periods, if anyone is interested.
Need more coffee. Need more coffee.
Comment by steveaz on 1/13 @ 10:32 am #
OT, kind of…All of YOur Organs Is Belong to US!
BBC 4 just reported that the PM’s Labor party has proposed making organ donation mandatory in Britain. The proposed law will make it the citizen’s duty to “opt-out.”
This amounts to Corporeal Eminent Domain: everything, from my testicles to my adenoids will be drafted into state-service!
I wonder if, someday, the Gub’ment won’t decide it doesn’t have to wait ’til we expire to take a piece? I mean, what’s to stop them from harvesting a couple lobes off your liver in your vivant twenties as some macabre form of Health Tax?
Comment by JorgXMcKie on 1/13 @ 10:35 am #
Obama won’t accept a VP slot because it gives him nothing he wouldn’t have otherwise. Assume Hillary! wins. Even in a two-term situation, good Democrat Obama (he backed Hillary! in the election) is only 53 in 2016 and ‘experienced’ and ready. Assume Hillary! loses. Without Obama on the ticket, he is the most obvious candidate for the Dems in 2012.
Why would Hillary offer it? 1) Because she *must* or be giving up at least some part of her vote base. That is, to solidify the party prior to the election. What else would she gain? Not much. Perhaps a slightly reduced black vote turnout. Whose vote does she gain besides some small increase in the black vote with Obama as VP?
SO, not in either’s interest in actuality, although I expect the offer to be made.
More interesting, if Obama wins the nomination who is his VP? Not Hillary, I’ll bet.
Comment by SGT Ted on 1/13 @ 11:34 am #
More interesting, if Obama wins the nomination who is his VP? Not Hillary, I’ll bet.
I wouldn’t put any money on that. The machine will install her as VP nominee, should she lose and should Obama be so stupid as to kick Hillary! to the curb. She carries a huge segment of the womens vote. Combined with the racial vote that Obama will draw might very well be the ticket to the WH. That doesn’t even factor in a lower than normal voter turnout that might occur on the Repub side should McCian or Giuliani win the nomination.
Comment by McGehee on 1/13 @ 12:21 pm #
I guess I’m just not convinced Obama would have the option of refusing the offer.
Comment by Mockin'bird on 1/13 @ 12:49 pm #
You know, Mrs. Clinton, just don’t buy a bottle, grab a hottie campaign worker, and drive off a bridge.
Pingback by Dems 2008: Campaign by Lawsuit Update [Karl] on 1/16 @ 8:21 pm #
[...] I noted previously: Clinton has long maintained that the caucus system disenfranchises certain types of [...]
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Greetings from Europe. Good blog.
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