Now, Team Hillary Goes After Speaker Pelosi

They went after Barack Obama, and he proved more popular and more resilient than Team Hillary. They went after Howard Dean, and he didn't cave. They went after Bill Richardson, and he didn't give in. Now, they have come for our Speaker, Nancy Pelosi.

Hillary Clinton's big donors see their dreams of a Senate confirmation hearing and a post as Ambassador to the Bahamas dying before their very eyes, and so they are making threats. Senator Clinton's fundraisers, indignant that after all of these years of effort on behalf of Bill and Hillary they may not become overnight guests in the Lincoln Bedroom, and irate that all their money may not buy them a plum foreign assignment in the next administration, told Howard Dean that he had better find a way to get Florida and Michigan seated at the Democratic Convention -- or else they'd pull their money from the Democratic National Committee.

But their ploy didn't work.

Then, James Carville famously branded Bill Richardson a "Judas" for letting his conscience come before his jobs.

Bill Richardson laughed.

And now, the same fat cats who took on Howard Dean, and failed, are going after our good Speaker, Nancy Pelosi. They are once again threatening to pull their money from the Democratic National Committee. The reason this time? Speaker Pelosi said that the superdelegates should follow the will of the people and that the superdelegates should pick the nominee who has the most votes and the most delegates.

To those whose dream is gladhanding at the Atlantis Resort, this was an outrage! They immediately fired off a letter to Madame Speaker. They wrote:

"We have been strong supporters of the DCCC. We therefore urge you to clarify your position on super-delegates and reflect in your comments a more open view to the optional independent actions of each of the delegates at the National Convention in August."

In other words, the donors, the money people, believe they are more important than the hundreds of thousands of people who have made small donations to the candidates. They believe that their money buys them a greater say in our democracy than the say that you have and that I have.

Are they right? I guess that Hillary Clinton has told them that they are indeed correct.

Now, the big $$$ people expect that they will roll over Nancy Pelosi. They will wave wads of cash at her, and hope that their threats cause her to encourage the superdelegates to pick a candidate, without paying heed to what the people want.

Speaker Pelosi is tough. I look forward to her response to those who seek to bribe her.

The Speaker won't be the last Democrat threatened by a desperate group of people, clinging to the last vestiges of a presumed power. After Senator Obama, Chairman Dean, Governor Richardson and Speaker Pelosi, Team Hillary will come after anyone who dares see things objectively. They will come after anyone who has the gall to speak up. They came for them. They'll come for me, too.

Is this the future of the Democratic Party? Is this what we want? If this is how Senator Clinton's team deals with their fellow Democrats; how would a President Clinton ever get anything accomplished in a bipartisan way?

Back in the early '90s, Senator Clinton told Jim Cooper, the Congressman from Tennessee with a health care proposal that was more moderate than hers, that she would crush him and he would regret ever speaking to her. She told Bill Bradley that she would demonize anyone who stood in her way on health care. She icily dismissed Daniel Patrick Moynihan's questions about her program.

Let's remember, Jim Cooper, Bill Bradley, and the late Senator Moynihan are and were Democrats. Hillary's plan went down in flames. So did the Democrats in the 1994 elections.

Can we really take eight more years of the Clintons in the White House?

The Obama campaign, and all good Democrats, should follow the wisdom of Dalton, bouncer at the Double Deuce: Dalton said, "Be nice until it's time not to be nice."

Democrats, it's time to send a message to Team Hillary, the team that is trying to take down the Democratic Party. It's time not to be nice.

Comments

[MaineMike]

This just makes the Clintons look like desperate bullies.

If the Clintons feel that they still have such a great chance of winning, why get their cronies to write such letters?

[BillZBubb]

Wow, the anti-war, anti-Bush people are now rallying to defend "Impeachment is off the table" Pelosi! Ah, politics!!!!!

[mlaiuppa]

I really find Hillary's calls to "free" up the delegates and let them vote for whoever they want regardless of the primary vote amusing.

She apparently doesn't realize it's a two-edged sword and her delegates could very well desert her and vote for Obama.

Is it ego or delusion? Maybe just memorex?

[NickfromCali]

I'm fairly sure that one of those "fat cats" is Richard Blum, not only husband of Hillary supporter Sen. Dianne Feinstein (says she's a Democrat-CA), but also does business in China (as well as getting the Halliburton leftovers in Iraq), thereby being on the opposite side of Speaker Pelosi on China Human Rights

[magen]

Remember the protest group "Billionaires for Bush"???????????

That was just a joke.

Now here we are in reality with "Billionaires for Hillary".

Wow.

[BenMurphyNYC]

Are people aware that Senator Obama has two times the number of Elected Officials who are Super Delegates supporting him even though their state voted for the opposite candidate? Weird, right? If you only watched MSNBC you would think the opposite was true.

[bauersox]

"Speaker Pelosi is tough. I look forward to her response to those who seek to bribe her."

I don't think it's fair to call the donor letter a "bribe." These "rich donors" are the same people who subsidized Pelosi's own campaigns, who put her where she is today. It's more like a threat to withhold support in the future. And they have every right to remind Pelosi that they supported her for a reason and they expect her to deliver.

[Nommo]

Ok, so it's not a bribe. It is blackmail, basically.

[redjacket]

Here's the list of rich donors who tried to strong arm Pelosi - if anyone's interested -
Marc Aronchick

Clarence Avant

Susie Tompkins Buell

Sim Farar

Robert L. Johnson

Chris Korge

Marc and Cathy Lasry

Hassan Nemazee

Alan and Susan Patricof

JB Pritzker

Amy Rao

Lynn de Rothschild

Haim Saban

Bernard Schwartz

Stanley S. Shuman

Jay Snyder

Maureen White and Steven Rattner

[crackerjill]

I wanted to know. Thanks for posting.

[BenMurphyNYC]

Clarence Avant, MoTown Records, total gifts to Democrats $102,450+ since 2004
Key Gifts:
Hope Fund (Obama"s PAC $5000), Obama for President ($4000), Barbara Boxer ($4600), Al Sharpton ($2000), Kweisi Mfume ($3000)


Sim Farar total gifts to Democrats $129,000+ since 2004
Key Gifts:
Hope Fund (Obama"s PAC $2500), DNC ($50,000), DSCC ($26,875)

[BenMurphyNYC]

Robert L Johnson, BET, $240,000+ in gifts to Democrats(since 2004)
Key Gifts: Barack Obama ($4100), DSCC ($40,600), DCCC ($28500)

Chris Korge, $101,000+ in contributions (since 2004)
Key Gifts: DNC ($50,000), DSCC ($15800)

[BenMurphyNYC]

Marc and Cathy Lasry $421,250 in much appreciated gifts to our party,
Key Gifts: DSCC ($143,000), DCCC ($75000) DNC ($25000)

Hassan Nemazee $232,500 in much appreciated gifts to our party,
Key Gifts: DSCC ($76,700), DCCC ($25000), DNC ($25000)

[Nommo]

Hmmm, is that Hassan or is that Hussein?

[Benmyoho]

Glad the Speaker Pelosi has been put in her proper place. Where's her spine concerning the impeachment against Bush? Nothing. Nada. Zero.

[Independent voter]

Some spine is better than no spine.

(Is it OK if I say this huffpo censors?)

[HeresJohnny]

Look, everyone, I hate to intrude with a moment of reality, but here's the situation. We can talk about the nomination until the cows come home, but the die is cast. We have about 800 superdelegates who can vote for whomever they choose, and the delegate math as it stands will likely provide neither candidate the 2,025 votes needed to secure the nomination. So, it will fall to the superdelegates to be kingmaker. Knowing this, there is no way Clinton drops out of the race; as she sees it, she still has a very real chance. The superdelegates will do what they do, and all outcomes are valid. The system was set up this way, and it will play out this way. Maybe it gets changed as a result of what happens this year, but it's not changing now. This race will continue, like it or not, until the party elites decide to end it.

[Titonwan]

They way Hillary sees it, the Chicago Fire was a "small camping incident that resulted in the damage to a few canned goods."

[Sylmason]

Go home hillary, and please take that finger-pointing washed up freak of a husband with you. Please get Chelsea some help, because you two dysfunctional parents have more of a problem that you are aware of. This child just might run for something. Four-H Club president, maybe?

[jbatch]

I'm with you right up to the moment you call Nancy Pelosi "our good speaker." You lose me there. Because of her cowardliness, Dems didn't shut down the war -- all she had to do was withhold the money. Then we would have had a national debate about continuing at a time when 60 plus per cent of Americans wanted it ended. How hard would that have been?

And worse, our constitution has forever been subverted by this "unitary executive" who has done so with overt crimes. Yes, Bush has publicly and privately broken the law and subverted the constitution. Signing statements, FISA, knowingly lying to the American people etc. etc. Impeachment wasn't optional -- it was a matter of defending the rule of law and the constitution. Men and women have died protecting it from lesser threats.

It was an act of extreme cowardliness and a betrayal of the men and women who so died not to impeach this criminal. No, she is not our "good speaker." Not by a long shot.

[robotfog]

don't forget that pelosi knew about the torturing but did nothing to stop it or to bring it to our attention.
Vonny cal.

[BenMurphyNYC]

Party leaders like Howard Dean, Senator Reid and Al Gore have done an excellent job of staying out of the primary race but for some reason Speaker Pelosi has dealt herself in. As House Speaker, Chairwoman of the 2008 Convention and a Party Leader she should respect the role of the "honest broker" and restrain herself from commenting any further. There are a lot of Democrats out there that still support Senator Clinton - If Obama is going to be the nominee - a Pelosi lecture is not going to sway us over to support him. She should stop 1) trying to kill the "dream ticket" 2) stop trying to re-writing the DNC bylaws on how Super Delegates vote 3) cool down and focus on Convention and the business of the House

[northeast73]

LOL...you JUST DONT CARE that there are 10 states left to vote do you?

OBAMA CAN LOSE AND HILLARY CAN WIN....LEGITIMATELY.

How hard is that to understand?

LET THE VOTERS, VOTE AND STFU.

The Obama nation is SOOOOOOOOOOOO desparate it is pathetic.

[indc]

Yes we all are, which is why I remember the time I can under sniper fire in Bosnia after the plane had to make an tactical landing... we were suppose to have a ceremony at the airport but we had to run, duck, and cover just to get to our vehicles and then it was uncertain if we would arrive safely at out base. Wheee, that was close.

tax returns, WH paper, earmarks, donor lists, less lies more factual information please, perhaps you can take the time to write to Hillary and suggest transparency in government is a good thing for the public, .. oh she knows that, so, like Cheney she hides things for her own protection, tax returns, unscrubbed from 2001-2007, 2001-2006 should have been released long ago... every wonder what she and he are hiding... selling out the American people for a personal dollars talk about Judas, or Judases in this case.

[northeast73]

Hillary did not come under sniper fire while landing in Bosnia. She was under the "threat of" sniper fire while visiting the frontlines on that trip. Read the AP report from the time,.


Hillary Clinton took the time as First Lady to visit our troops on the frontline, which was, at the time, considered the most dangerous mission a FL had taken since Eleanor Roosevelt.

Has Laura Bush ever visited our troops in Iraq?

I'm fine with Hillary's embelleshment...there was a grain of truth to it, and really was just a misspeak.

[Titonwan]

Sorry, I can't hear you. Would you please increase your font size to number 72. Thank you :) :o :| :(

[simplecitizen]

Are these so called power brokers losing their minds because they are certainly going to lose their seat at the table if they don't stop the nonsence. Like her or not Nancy Pelosi is the most powerful Democrat currently in office and you don't threaten her if you want to continue to have a voice in politics. Obama will win this thing and these opportunists will soon back him and fall in line. Clinton's power in the Democratic party and her ability to pressure others to do her bidding or dirty work is near an end. Lets hope the Clintons retire from the scene and Hillary goes back to being a senator who can do some good for her country in Congress. Obama will be a great President and we will finally have someone who is intelligent running this country. Won't it be wonderful to have someone talk to the American people without a smirk on his face and who knows the difference between truth and spin.