Carl Jarvis(who really has no beer on ice, nor chips in the larder,
nor any plans to watch the game.)
On 2/1/20, miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
DNC Members Discuss Rules Change to Stop Sanders at Convention
y David Siders, POLITICO
01 February 20
The talks reveal rising anxiety over the Vermont senator's momentum on the
eve of voting.
A small group of Democratic National Committee members has privately begun
gauging support for a plan to potentially weaken Bernie Sanders'
presidential campaign and head off a brokered convention.
In conversations on the sidelines of a DNC executive committee meeting and
in telephone calls and texts in recent days, about a half-dozen members
have
discussed the possibility of a policy reversal to ensure that so-called
superdelegates can vote on the first ballot at the party's national
convention. Such a move would increase the influence of DNC members,
members
of Congress and other top party officials, who now must wait until the
second ballot to have their say if the convention is contested.
"I do believe we should re-open the rules. I hear it from others as well,"
one DNC member said in a text message last week to William Owen, a DNC
member from Tennessee who does not support re-opening the rules.
Owen, who declined to identify the member, said the member added in a text
that "It would be hard though. We could force a meeting or on the floor."
Even proponents of the change acknowledge it is all but certain not to gain
enough support to move past these initial conversations. But the talks
reveal the extent of angst that many establishment Democrats are feeling on
the eve of the Iowa caucuses.
Sanders is surging and Joe Biden has maintained his lead nationally, but at
least three other candidates are widely seen as viable. The cluster raises
the specter of a convention requiring a second ballot.
If Sanders wins the Iowa caucuses on Monday and continues to gain momentum,
it is possible he could arrive at the convention with the most delegates -
but without enough to win the nomination on the first ballot. It is also
possible that he and Elizabeth Warren, a fellow progressive, could arrive
at
the convention in second and third place, but with more delegates combined
than the frontrunner.
If, on the second ballot, superdelegates were to throw their support to
someone else, tipping the scales, many moderate Democrats fear the upheaval
that would cause could weaken the eventual nominee.
Conversations about a potential rules change picked up as Sanders ascended
in the primary, but they have not gained traction to this point within the
DNC.
"There's talk about somehow trying to change this rule at this convention -
just casual conversation, and I have participated in it some," said Don
Fowler, a former DNC chairman from South Carolina who opposed the DNC's
decision in 2018 to strip superdelegates of much of their power in the
presidential nominating process. "But I want to be clear that I would not
be
a party to any effort to do that in the 2020 convention . It's bad
sportsmanship."
Fowler said, "I think it would be not in good faith if those of us who lost
that fight in committee would somehow regenerate that fight in a national
convention." If they did, he said it would result in "the most hellacious
fight you've ever seen at the Democratic convention."
Fowler declined to identify members participating in the conversations, and
the DNC itself dismissed the idea.
"[DNC Chairman] Tom Perez fought tooth and nail to ensure our nominee would
be chosen by pledged delegates, not automatic delegates," David Bergstein,
a
DNC spokesman, said in an email. "The DNC passed these reforms unanimously.
These rules make our party stronger and help ensure our eventual nominee
has
the full support of the party behind them."
The decision to relegate superdelegates - now called "automatic delegates"
-
to the second ballot in a contested convention consumed the DNC for nearly
two years after the 2016 election. Superdelegates overwhelmingly sided with
Hillary Clinton, infuriating Sanders' supporters.
The rule change was widely viewed as a major victory for the Democratic
Party's left flank. At the time, Perez called the delegate overhaul
"historic," while progressive Democrats and many moderates lauded its
appeal
to young voters skeptical of centralized party power.
One DNC member who has advocated for the change in discussions with other
members described the effort this week as an "uphill battle."
But the member, who declined to be identified, said the convention body is
the "ultimate authority of the party, so the convention body can do
anything
they want to."
He added, "We haven't had the first vote in the primary yet. Let's see how
the panic sets in as this thing progresses."
More likely is a bid to rewrite the rules after the convention in Milwaukee
- not for this year's nominating contest, but for 2024.
Fowler said that "there's a great anticipation that after this convention,
there will be an effort to adopt the old rules . There are a lot of people
who are interested in that."
Following the publication of this report, Perez responded on Twitter:
"Absolutely not. We put in the work to ensure power was returned to the
grassroots, we will be following the rules set forth by the DNC. We will
not
bend on this, we will not change our rules."
And Sanders senior adviser Jeff Weaver, citing the party's "multiyear
process to reform the nominating contest," said in a text message that
"trying to undo those reforms would be a serious mistake."
Even many vocal opponents of the move to dilute the power of superdelegates
after 2016 aren't interested in revisiting the decision.
"My side, including me, we lost the debate," said Donna Brazile, a former
DNC chairwoman who sits on the body's Rules and Bylaws Committee. "I don't
believe it's wise to re-open a wound once it has healed."
By 2024, she said, the rules will once again be "fair game, just like it
was" after the 2016 presidential election. "But right now, we should be
comfortable with the process," she said.
Owen, who also opposed reducing superdelegates' influence, said Friday that
any rule change now would constitute a "slap in the face to the people who
voted to change it."
"I want our team to win," he said. "And the way a team wins is through
unity, not through division."
Email This Page
Comments
+6# Rodion Raskolnikov 2020-02-01 13:38
Changing the rules on superdelegates now that Sanders is surging in
popularity!!!! It cannot get any worse than this. But it really is worse:
"a court case against the DNC and Debbie Wasserman Schultz for rigging the
2016 primary election against Bernie. The attorneys in the case didn't deny
the charges but instead claimed that the DNC does "not owe voters an
impartial or evenhanded primary election." Throughout the hearing, lawyers
representing the DNC and Wasserman Schultz doubled down on arguments
confirming the disdain the Democratic establishment has toward Bernie
Sanders supporters and any entity challenging the party's status quo."
This case was eventually denied by a federal judge. It is now on its way to
the supreme court. The issue is exactly what the DNC owes to the people who
register as democrats and contribute to the organization. The DNC is
claiming that it owes then ZIP, nothing, nada, squat.
The DNC has claimed that it has the right to choose the candidates and not
voters.
I get it. Let's call Adam Schiff and impeach Tom Perez and other officers
of
the DNC for "abuse of power" and "obstruction of an election." Maybe Schiff
can find the Russians who are working overtime in the back offices of the
DNC to rig the 2020 election. "You know they are there. You just know they
are," Schiff will tell us.
If the rules change, I quit. I'll never have anthing to do with the Demo
party.
+4# Rodion Raskolnikov 2020-02-01 13:49
A little more from the suit against the DNC for rigging 2016:
"Shortly into the hearing, DNC attorneys claim Article V, Section 4 of the
DNC Charter- stipulating that the DNC chair and their staff must ensure
neutrality in the Democratic presidential primaries- is "a discretionary
rule that it didn't need to adopt to begin with." Based on this assumption,
DNC attorneys assert that the court cannot interpret, claim, or rule on
anything associated with whether the DNC remains neutral in their
presidential primaries.
The attorneys representing the DNC have previously argued that Sanders
supporters knew the primaries were rigged, therefore annulling any
potential
accountability the DNC may have.
The DNC attorneys insisted to the judge that the charter requirements that
elections be "impartial" and "evenhanded" were discretionary and not a
requirement, in effect "We don't have to run an evenhanded primary, even if
we say we're going to. To this day the DNC believes that if it wanted to
'go
into back rooms' and 'pick the candidate,' this would 'have been their
right,' and no one outside the organization would have any right to enforce
the DNC charter or interfere in any other way."
https://blueamerica.crooksandliars.com/2019/09/03/dnc-we-do-not-owe-voters-a
n-impartial-or-evenhanded-primary/
What's wrong with these DNC officers?
Refresh comments list
JComments
THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you
are
ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your
choosing
and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader
Supported News community.
You Are Not Logged In
Forgot Username?
search...
037709-starr-013020.jpg
FOCUS: Trump's Legal Team Gave Thousands In Contributions To Republican
Senators Ahead Of Impeachment Trial
Igor Derysh, Salon
30 January 2020
037711-biden-013020.jpg
2 Truths And 31 Lies Joe Biden Has Told About His Work In The Civil Rights
Movement
Shaun King, Shaun King's Newsletter
30 January 2020
027751-idf-123017.jpg
FOCUS: Top 5 Ways Trump Plan For Palestinians Is A Crime Against Humanity
Juan Cole, Informed Comment
29 January 2020
037724-garham-013120.jpg
FOCUS: Republicans Are Prepared To Go Down With Trump
David A. Graham, The Atlantic
31 January 2020
037709-alan-dershowitz-trump-impeachment.gif
RSN: An Acquittal Of Donald Trump Is By No Means A Certainty
Marc Ash, Reader Supported News
30 January 2020
021028-krugman-051316.jpg
Greta Versus The Greedy Grifters
Paul Krugman, The New York Times
29 January 2020
037698-joe-biden-012920.jpg
Why Does Joe Biden Keep Losing His Cool With Voters?
Luke O'Neil, Guardian UK
29 January 2020
037710-dershowitz-013020.jpg
FOCUS | Alan Dershowitz For The Defense: L'Etat, C'est Trump
Susan B. Glasser, The New Yorker
30 January 2020
029123-bernie-sanders-042418.jpg
Bernie Sanders Can Exploit Donald Trump's Weaknesses
Meagan Day, Jacobin
29 January 2020
PRIVACY POLICYTERMS OF USECONTACT USWHO IS THIS?YOUR PROFILE
C 2020 Reader Supported News
