Rules Committee Is Done

Chris Cilizza has the specifics on Florida and Michigan. Hillary and uber-Clintonista Harold Ickes both supported the Florida compromise, but "bitterness" lingers over -- I'm not making this up -- four delegates in Michigan.

Remember that this is now about four delegates. Assuming Obama secures the nomination with a greater than eight delegate cushion (because that's the swing), remind the beings from Planet Hillary that their candidate endorsed Florida and only wanted an additional four delegates in Michigan. Then serve up a hot cup of STFU.

Oh, and while Ickes was, well, icky, I nominate former Michigan Gov. James Blanchard Asshat of the Day.

Puerto Rico Tomorrow

Yes, Puerto Rico has their primary, for reasons unclear to anyone given that they don't vote in national elections. My guess is that it's about appealing to stateside Latinos, but whatever.

Anyway, Anthony and I had words about the primary earlier this week. I would add to all this that Hillary supporters have had their own fun with goal posts, for example arguing that supers should follow polls of Democratic voters (back when Hillary was leading them) and dismissing Obama's success in red states. If there was logical consistency on Planet Hillary, the beings there would not use the results in a territory with no electoral votes as the basis of an argument, but there isn't, so they will.

A few sources if you want to follow along. CQ Politics has answered 5 FAQs. Apparently an urban legend is percolating that the primary is winner-take-all. In fact it's proportional rep, just like all the rest. WaPo gives the rumor their Pinnocchio treatment. Also here's a general backgrounder with past results in Puerto Rican elections.

Finally, there hasn't been much polling, but the latest shows Hillary up 20 points.

It's Pointless to Argue About Michigan . . .

. . . because Planet Hillary simply is not interested in honest debate. (h/t Plunder)

Nonetheless, consider this. Forty percent of the voters cast a ballot for "Uncommitted." In other words, those forty percent took the time to go to the polls and to pull the lever/punch the chad/fill the oval/touch the screen for NotHillary. So if we just give Hillary her delegates and leave it at that, are we really "counting all the votes" in the sense of making them count?¹ We aren't. The people who voted Not Hillary expressed wishes that are being ignored under the "solution" proposed by the Clinton campaign.

The truly "count every vote" solution would be to subtract from Hillary's vote total those voting NotHillary and tally her delegates based on those votes.

Of course that will not satisfy Hillary. The Tubbs-Jones complaint betrays the strategy we all know is at work. A half-strength delegation does put Hillary any closer to Obama in terms of the number of delegates needed. But a full-strength delegation gives the appearance of diluting the magnitude of Obama's lead, and the whole game is convincing the supers that the voting result is sorta kinda a tie.

I'll admit I have doubts about Obama as a candidate. His experience is thin, he isn't enough of a politician to ditch his fringier friends, etc. But the Hillary campaign's craven, cynical, dishonest closing argument has not simply finished her with me. The whole enterprise so infuriates me that I have difficulty respecting people who will not join in denouncing it, much less those who continue to mouth such nonsense.

¹This being the only sense in which the "Count every vote" trope makes any sense at all, given that the votes have been literally counted. Planet Hill doesn't just want them counted, they want them to be given effect.

Worst Hyperbole Ever

Nothing is more important to the protests at the DNC than credibility. The protesters insist that their effort is only about principle, not straw-grasping Hillary advocacy.

It doesn't help the credibility story when an organizer of one of the groups protesting calls the W years "The worst eight years in the history of our country, bar none."

OK, it's a small point, but can we have a little perspective here? Bad, yes. One of the worst presidents, yes. But the worst eight years?

We've had a civil war in this county for God's sake. We endured a world depression during which Americans ate grass to survive. Nothing in the Bush years rivals Vietnam, Watergate and violent resistance to the civil rights movement individually, much less all three together from 1964-72. For that matter, any eight years during the slavery era, the Jim Crow era and/or the conquest of Native Americans stain American history more than anything happened in the aughts.

Ms. Campasono, this is obviously a cry for help. I'm a longtime sufferer from Bush derangement syndrome. You can only overcome it one day at a time. Just don't pick up the first issue of The Nation, and Easy Does It.

Another Sad Measure of Ohio's Charter Schools

The Newsweek school rankings came out this week. The top "non-elite"school by Newsweek's measure is BASIS Charter in Tuscon. There are a half-dozen charter schools in the top 40. And through the entire list, none from Ohio, according to the list compiled by Jill.

Charter schools shouldn't be a left/right thing, and in many states they aren't. Charter schools done right offer the right kind o choices to parents and students, and may be helping to break the dysfunctional structures that hold many districts back. That's why Barack Obama gave a recent education address at a charter school in Denver. It's why a group like Democrats for School Reform embraces charters.

But the charter system in Ohio is predicated on the belief that the market alone is sufficient to regulate schools and ensure quality. Ohio's experience is a strong indication that it is not.

Actually, the Story Is Cold Dead, but BSB Keeps Pounding on It's Chest Anyway.

First off, congratulations to the new Buckeye State team of Nick D and David Potts for a seamless transition to a new regime. They have embraced many of the virtues of previous Head BSer Jerid, and minimized his vices. Also, congrats for securing credentials for the Democratic National Convention in the General Blogger Pool.

All that said, quit yer goddam whining about Ohio Daily getting the nod for State Bloggercorps credentials. For those of you who don't know what this is about, Paul reset the "controversy" here when it first sputtered. You might think that when the DNC decided to acknowledge the importance of blogs and offered credentials to one of our own that we would all be happy and that the success of one is a positive reflection on the work we all do.

Dude, that is so 2006.

In Nick's announcement that they received General Pool credentials, he maintains that the story of BSB being passed over "will not die" and links to two stories, one in a WaPo blog and one on Wired. Actually there are three stories at work here. One is the story of the state blogger corps being overwhelmingly white. That's the focus of the WaPo story. A second is the story of some state blogger corps blogs actually being corporate owned as opposed to the DailyKos first raised that complaint which is the focus of the Wired piece.

Then there is the story of two quality blogs in the state of Ohio competing for state credentials and the loser raising a fuss. That angle is mentioned nowhere in any of the stories linked above. BSB is mentioned nowhere in either of the stories linked by Nick. In fact, at last count about five people, all in Ohio, give a crap.

But in their zeal to cry "We wuz robbed," the BS partisans are both linking their cause to real issues and dropping facile slams on Jeff Coryell, including resetting the meme first launched by Russo that all Jeff does is post press releases.

All bull. Jeff may be the hardest working man in blog business. He travels all over the state, has interviewed scores of candidates and other figures and offers plenty of analysis. Posting press releases is also part of the the current SOP for political blogs, though his presser posting is not significantly greater than either BSB and certainly less than ProgressOhio.

Bottom line, there's plenty of niches for different blogs to fill. Jeff represents what could be called the grown-up sector of the blogosphere. BSB is a little more shoot-from-the-hip, a little more reckless. That's fine and all -- part of what makes blogging great is the diversity of voices. But people shouldn't be shocked shocked if they live to give a finger to the establishment and the establishment doesn't love them for it.

In any event, I for one and happy that the DNC found room for both blogs under the big tent and am proud to be part of the blog world with both.

Widowfield Dropping Out of County Council Race

From today's Beacon:

Former state Rep. John Widowfield, who resigned from the Ohio House of Representatives on Wednesday, plans to withdraw from running for Summit County Council this fall.

Makes sense, since he has a serious scandal to contend with and could be indicted before the election. All that said, the stated reason strains credibility:

Summit County Republican Party Chairman Alex Arshinkoff said Widowfield told him a few weeks ago that he planned to drop out because of his new private-sector job.

Are you effing kidding me? He knocks off the only sitting R in County Council and the party is OK with him saying "Never mind?" Sorry, not buying it. This sounds like he saw the investigation coming and went scrambling for a golden parachute.

What's more, if true, the party is taking it's time dealing with it:

If Widowfield withdraws from the county council race, the county party will have until Aug. 20 to appoint a new candidate to run in the Nov. 4 election for county council's District 3 seat.

But of course that person needs to be gearing up to run against Paul Colavecchio who came within shouting distance of unseating Widowfield in 2006. In other words, someone with name recognition, campaign experience and a campaign infrastructure.

This will be something of a gut-check for the Summit Republicans. Tapping Louise Heydorn, the well-respected incumbent whom Widowfield unseated, would seem the logical choice. But Heydorn (or at least her husband) sided with the Coughlin camp in the Elephant Wars which brought this whole mess on in the first place. If nothing else, party boss Alex Arshinkoff is consistently vindictive. If Heydorn gets the nod, it's a safe bet that the Central Committee has gone against A²'s wishes. Longtime Alex watchers have been waiting for the revenge phase of the Elephant Wars. Passing on Heydorn would be a colorful start.