Clinton Compares Florida, Michigan Situation To Zimbabwe Elections

The Huffington Post
May 22, 2008

Hillary Clinton is pushing harder and harder to convince the DNC to count the votes held in Florida in Michigan. And with reports suggesting that she is just going through the motions of the election, Clinton has apparently decided to ratchet up the rhetoric. During a rally in Florida yesterday, she not only compared the current situation to the 2000 election, she also referenced rigged elections in Zimbabwe:

Desperate to get attention for her cause to seat Florida and Michigan delegates, Hillary Clinton compared the plight of Zimbabweans in their recent fraudulent election to the uncounted votes of Michigan and Florida voters saying it is wrong when “people go through the motions of an election only to have them discarded and disregarded.”

“We’re seeing that right now in Zimbabwe,” Clinton explained. “Tragically, an election was held, the president lost, they refused to abide by the will of the people,” Clinton told the crowd of senior citizens at a retirement community in south Florida.

“So we can never take for granted our precious right to vote. It is the single most important, privilege and right any of us have, because in that ballot box we are all equal. You’re equal to a billionaire. You’re equal to the president, every single one of us.”

Steve Benen, for one, isn’t exactly pleased with Clinton’s comparison:

I’m 35, and have been following politics for quite a while, and I’ve never been so disappointed with a politician I’ve admired and respected. Yesterday’s tactics weren’t just wrong, they were offensive. For that matter, they seem to be part of a deliberate strategy to tear Democrats apart and ensure a defeat in November....

Instead of trying to help bring the party together—Election Day is 24 weeks away—Clinton went to Florida to argue that if Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee, his nomination will be illegitimate. And if the DNC plays by the rules Clinton used to support, it’s guilty of vote-suppression—comparable to slavery, Jim Crow, and Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe.

Meanwhile, the Obama camp has suggested their willingness to find some form of compromise. David Axelrod told NPR:

“We are open to comprise [sic]. We are willing to go more than half way. We’re willing to work to make sure that we can achieve a compromise. And I guess the question is: is Senator Clinton’s campaign willing to do the same?”

Axelrod continues: “Well, obviously, any compromise is going to involve some give, and that means if there’s something on the table, we’re willing to consider it. That may include us yielding more delegates than perhaps we would have, simply on the basis of the rules.”

Obama, Clinton signal Florida boycott over

HuffingtonPost.com
Brendan Farrington, 05/20/08

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The boycott is over.

Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton will both be in Florida on Wednesday after avoiding the state since last fall.

Obama is seeking to mend fences in a key general election state snubbed by the Democratic National Committee. Clinton is continuing her push to have the state’s primary count and its delegates seated at the party’s national convention in Denver in August.

“My campaign is actively working with the Clinton campaign, the Florida Democratic Party and the DNC, which is responsible for setting and enforcing these rules, to reach an agreement that will give Floridians a voice at the convention,” Obama told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Obama did not say how he wants the dispute resolved, only that it’s important to find a solution so the party can focus on winning the state in November.

Both candidates signed a pledge nine months ago that kept them from campaigning here before the Jan. 29 primary. Other than a rally Clinton held after polls closed that night, neither candidate has campaigned here since the DNC stripped Florida of its delegates in September because its primary was held before Feb. 5.

DNC rules committee members may decide whether restore delegates to Florida _ as well as Michigan, which was also stripped of its delegates _ when they meet on May 31.

Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe said the candidate would likely travel to Michigan sometime after her Florida trip to press for the delegates to be seated.

“They’re two of the five remaining events that are going to be very important to determine who the nominee of the Democratic Party is,” he said.

Obama, an Illinois senator, announced last week that he was coming to Florida, the largest of the swing states and a crucial battleground in November.

“It’s in all of our interests to make sure that this gets resolved as quickly as possible so we can start focusing on the issues that are really going to make a difference in the lives of Floridians,” Obama said.

Clinton, a New York senator, plans to hold events in three South Florida counties and will push to count Florida’s primary, in which more than 1.7 million Democrats voted. She earned almost 50 percent of that vote, compared to nearly 33 percent for Obama.

The fact that neither campaigned here for months created bitterness among the state’s Democrats.

Clinton supporter Ana Cruz, a Tampa-based political adviser and former executive director of the state party, said Obama will have to address the delegate issue while he’s in Florida.

“He’s coming here to show Florida some love, and rightfully so, but with that being said, there are still a lot of unanswered questions that need to be answered in order for us to properly move forward in this primary process and that is, do we count or not?” said Cruz.

Cruz also said the state’s Democrats will have to put the primary mess behind them and unite behind Obama should he win the nomination.

“We cannot continue to act like a circular firing squad,” she said.

Florida lawmakers and Republican Gov. Charlie Crist set the primary date in violation of both parties’ rules. Republicans lost half their delegates and Democrats were stripped of all. All major Democratic candidates refused to campaign here once the state party decided to stick with the early date.

Obama hasn’t campaigned here since August, when he held events in Tallahassee and Miami. His three-day swing will begin with a rally at a 20,000-seat hockey arena in Tampa.

Obama’s campaign has started moving staff to the state, with 10 field organizers joining a three-person finance team.

___

Associated Press Writer Sara Kugler in Louisville, Ky., contributed to this report.

Waxman tells Republican lawmaker, ‘I’ll have you physically removed from this meeting”

http://rawstory.com//printstory.php?story=10512
Tuesday May 20, 2008

House Oversight Committee chair grows frustrated with evasiveness of EPA Administrator at hearing

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency came under sharp attack at a House hearing Tuesday, with Democratic lawmakers accusing him of repeatedly caving in to White House pressure on environmental issues such as global warming and a recently enacted health standard for smog.

EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson rejected the characterization and said that while he frequently discusses EPA matters with the White House, the decisions are his.

But Johnson, appearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee for nearly three hours, repeatedly refused to discuss conversations he had with the White House, nor provide a number of documents that have been subpoenaed by the committee concerning the smog standard and his refusal to allow California to proceed with rules to cut greenhouse gases.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the committee chairman, said depositions provided by senior EPA staff members suggest that Johnson had been overruled or heavily influenced by the White House on recent EPA decisions on the smog standard, its rejected of a waiver for California on global warming regulations, and the EPA ongoing deliberations on whether to regulate carbon dioxide.

“You have essentially become a figurehead,” Waxman told Johnson. “… In each case, you backed down.”

He said in each of the EPA cases “the pattern is the same. The president apparently insisted in his judgment and overrode the unanimous recommendations of EPA scientific and legal experts,” said Waxman. “You reversed yourself after having candid conversations with the White House.”

Johnson, a 27-year career EPA scientist himself before being elevated to head the agency, repeatedly insisted that he was the final decision maker on the issues cited by Waxman, although acknowledging frequent discussions with the White House on those and other matters.

But Waxman’s committee can only guess on the details of those conversations and communications.

Johnson declined repeated requests by Democrats on the panel to provide any details about conversations he had with the White House, refusing at one point to even acknowledge whether he did or did not discuss the smog, California waiver or carbon dioxide rulemaking with the president.

Waxman, growing frustrated, said to Johnson, “It seems to me you’re being awfully evasive and I don’t know why you cannot tell this committee whether you in fact had a discussion about this rule, or that rule, or the other rule.”

Shortly after, Republican lawmaker Darrell Issa of California attempted to intervene, but Waxman waved him off. Issa continued to call for point of order until Waxman angrily pounded his gavel and said to him, “I will have you physically removed from this meeting if you don’t stop.”

Waxman then again pressed Johnson, who finally answered, “I don’t believe that it is appropriate for me to get into the details of what those conversations are or are not.”

California Supreme Court Overturns Gay Marriage Ban

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 15, 2008, 1:50pm

Definition of Marriage Is at Heart of California Case (March 5)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP)—The California Supreme Court overturned a voter-approved gay marriage ban Thursday in a ruling that would make the nation’s largest state the second one to allow gay and lesbian weddings.

The justices released the 4-3 decision, saying that domestic partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage in an opinion written by Chief Justice Ron George. Justices Joyce Kennard, Kathryn Werdegar and Carlos Moreno joined the majority.

Outside the courthouse, gay marriage supporters cried and cheered as news spread of the decision.

In striking down the ban, the court said, “In contrast to earlier times, our state now recognizes that an individual’s capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual’s sexual orientation, and, more generally, that an individual’s sexual orientation—like a person’s race or gender—does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights.”

While agreeing with many arguments of the majority, Justice Marvin Baxter said in a dissenting opinion that the high court overstepped its authority. Changes to marriage laws should be decided by the voters, Baxter wrote. Justices Ming Chin and Carol Corrigan joined in dissenting.

The cases were brought by the city of San Francisco, two dozen gay and lesbian couples, Equality California and another gay rights group in March 2004 after the court halted San Francisco’s monthlong same-sex wedding march that took place at Mayor Gavin Newsom’s direction.

“Today the California Supreme Court took a giant leap to ensure that everybody—not just in the state of California, but throughout the country—will have equal treatment under the law,” said City Attorney Dennis Herrera, who argued the case for San Francisco.

The challenge for gay rights advocates, however, is not over.

A coalition of religious and social conservative groups is attempting to put a measure on the November ballot that would enshrine laws banning gay marriage in the state constitution.

The Secretary of State is expected to rule by the end of June whether the sponsors gathered enough signatures to qualify the marriage amendment, similar to ones enacted in 26 other states.

If voters pass the measure in November, it would overrule the court decision.

Countdown Special Comment to President Bush: “Shut the hell up.��?