The Bloviating Hillary Camp

While the campaign and their supporters are sounding more and more like Republicans, trying to lie their way to the top, Harold Ickes takes the cake. Here is is stance on the Michigan delegates:

In a conference call with reporters, Clinton Senior Adviser Harold Ickes clarified their position on Michigan -- they don't want the 55 "uncommitted" delegates to go to Obama (his name did not appear on the ballot in Michigan).

Remember, Michigan and Florida were stripped of their delegates by the DNC because they had moved their primary up the calendar in violation of Democratic Party rules.

If you listen to Hillary Clinton, you might be convinced that Barack Obama is the enemy in all this. You might believe that Michigan was "disenfranchied" by the Barack camp. This is entirely false.

All of the Democratic candidates agreed with decision. Hillary is spinning Michigan's situation to the American voters. In fact, just for fun, here is what the same Harold Ickes had to say not too long ago:

On Aug. 25, when the DNC's rules panel declared Florida's primary date out of order, it agreed by a near-unanimous majority to exceed the 50 percent penalty called for under party rules. Instead, the group stripped Florida of all 210 delegates to underscore its displeasure with Florida's defiance and to discourage other states from following suit. In doing so, the DNC essentially committed itself, for fairness' sake, to strip the similarly defiant Michigan of all 156 of its delegates three months later. Clinton held tremendous potential leverage over this decision, and not only because she was then widely judged the likely nominee. Of the committee's 30 members, a near-majority of 12 were Clinton supporters. All of them—most notably strategist Harold Ickes—voted for Florida's full disenfranchisement. (The only dissenting vote was cast by a Tallahassee, Fla., city commissioner who supported Obama.)

But, today, we have to hear all these bloviating Hillary supporters rail on and on how Michigan and Florida need to count. But this isn't about disenfranchisement. If it were, the Hillary camp would not be insisting Obama get ZERO votes in Michigan. No rational human being would suggest that makes any sense.

How stupid does she think we are?

(Hint: Absolutely fucking stupid.)

UPDATE: Josh Micah Marshall summarizes it best:

Why do I think that? For a number of reasons. One of her most senior advisors, Harold Ickes, was on the DNC committee that voted to sanction Florida and Michigan by not including their delegates. Her campaign completely signed off on sanctions after that. And Clinton was actually quoted saying the Michigan contest didn't count. Michigan and Florida were sanctioned because they ignored the rules the DNC had set down for running this year's nomination process.

The evidence is simply overwhelming that Sen. Clinton didn't think this was a problem at all -- until it became a vehicle to provide a rationale for her continued campaign.