Meet Harold Ickes

On this past Saturday the DNC Rules and By-Laws Committee met to finally come to some resolution about the Florida and Michigan delegation and political theatre would soon follow.There would be many political stars that would grace the meeting with their presence.Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, Florida Rep.Henry Wexler, former Michigan Rep.David Bonior,DNC Chair Howard Dean, and perhaps the biggest star of the entire committee meeting:Harold Ickes.Harold Ickes sits on the DNC Rules and By-Laws Committee and is a Senior Clinton Adviser (seems like a conflict of  interest but hey this is the Democratic Party).Harold Ickes is a very interesting person for both his intellect and his knowledge of politics.However, he displayed none of that intellect this weekend.He seemed like a frustrated 2 year old.Cursing and pouting almost every time he spoke with a noticeable distain for anyone that raised objections to his side of the argument.

The Clinton Campaign's argument is a good argument on his merits.People voted in Florida and Michigan so there votes should count.In Florida, the Republican Legislature is blamed for moving up the primary date against the Democratic National Committee rules.So to punish democrats in Florida could cause very harmful damage to the chances of whomever the Democratic nominee is (as I am writing this Sen.Obama just picked another superdelegate and is 40 delegates away from clinching).In Michigan, the situation is totally different.It was a Democratic legislature and Democratic governor that ignored party rules and moved up the primary date.But once again the voters should not be penalized for the mistakes of state party leaders.

Stripping away the delegates was perhaps not the most rational decision by the DNC.They should have penalized the Michigan and Florida delegations by making each delegate a half vote like the Republicans did in Florida.This idea takes me back to the star of our show:Harold Ickes.Mr.Ickes voted to have the delegates stripped away last year.Apparently, democracy is more important when you are losing a presidential campaign.Sen.Clinton is quoted as saying that the Michigan Primary would not count for anything.This notion that the Clinton Campaign have become the champions of of democracy is highly disingenuous.The compromises that were reached this weekend were flawed for many reasons.But when you have flawed leaders at the DNC that are partisan to one candidate or another...what do you expect?