The Democratic party's flawed primary in Michigan stems directly from the campaign of Michigan's "spectacles challenged" senator, Carl Levin, to overturn the "privileged position" of Iowa and New Hampshire as the first caucus and primary in the nation.... leading an effort to have Michigan as one of the four states allowed to hold its primary in January. (CNN)
Told that they couldn't do this, Michigan nevertheless pushed their date forward.... so, the Rules and Bylaws Committee took away Michigan's delegates to the national convention and declared their primary illegal.
Harold Ickes, Hillary Clinton's point man on the committee, voted for this sanction.
Accordingly, Barack Obama and John Edwards, two of the three leading Democratic candidates, removed their names from the ballot.... Hillary Clinton did not.
Hillary's position before the committee last Saturday when this issue was revisited, was that since she got all of the votes.... except uncommitted.... she should get all of the delegates. Ickes argued for this position on her behalf.
The name for this proposal is "chutzpah," made by a candidate not interested in party unity.... heck, not interested in the party at all.
Although Obama had majority support on the committee to split the delegates 50-50, he compromised with a 59-69 split in Hillary's favor, reflecting the Michigan Democratic party's "fair reflection" of what the vote would have been if not flawed.
Hillary wasn't happy, and Ickes reserved her right to take it to the Credentials Committee even though he voted with the committee for the sanction in the first place.
Levin, and others, will undoubtedly keep pushing to knock Iowa and New Hampshire from first-in-the-nation status. One thing is certain, this unnecessarily messy Democratic primary will assure that their primary process will change by 2012.
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