Hillary Clinton's Superdelegates Coordinate "Screw Democracy" Message

Posted by David Sirota, Open Left at 1:09 PM on February 14, 2008.

Looks like Hillary Clinton's campaign machine is getting its superdelegates (aka. party insiders) to start softening up the public for a potential trampling of democracy that may mark the Democratic National Convention. This morning we have two superdelegates from different parts of the country landing headlines in their local papers saying they are fully prepared to ignore voters and trample democracy - as long as that lets them help Clinton potentially steal the Democratic nomination. In my upcoming book, The Uprising, I trace the ugly history of superdelegates - and how they were set up precisely to stop popoular uprisings like we are seeing in the Democratic nomination contest.

Here in Colorado, we get this dispatch from Mannie Rodriguez in the Rocky Mountain News:

Because regular delegates are allocated proportionally, some calculations show that even if Obama were to roll through the rest of the primary season, he would not be able to secure the nomination with pledged delegates alone. That could result in a floor fight during the convention - with superdelegates key to the outcome.

"I'm going to stick to her 100 percent," Rodriguez said. "I hope it doesn't go to superdelgates deciding, but if it does, I'm with her all the way."

Forget that Colorado voters overwhelmingly supported Obama, forget that Obama may win the total, democratically awarded regular delegates...

Then in a suburban Philadelphia newspaper, we get this from Clinton-backing superdelegate Marcel Groen:

"It's worked for the past 40 years, for the most part, and largely it's an honorary position," he said. "But if it's going to be real close, then I think it's wise to let the leaders of the party do the right thing."

This follows Clinton hack Lanny Davis's missive on Huffington Post saying almost exactly the same thing (after embarrassing himself by claiming Adlai Stevenson was elected president). It also comes as the Boston Globe today reports that Clinton is determined to "take the Democratic nomination even if she does not win the popular vote" with a plan to "persuade enough superdelegates to vote for her at the convention." Clinton "will not concede the race to Obama if he wins a greater number of pledged delegates by the end of the primary season, and will count on the 796 elected officials and party bigwigs to put her over the top, if necessary, said Clinton's communications director, Howard Wolfson."

So that's the coordinated message: If democracy has been allowed to be trampled in the past, then we should all sit back and be fine with democracy being trampled now...as long as it is trampled in defense of the Clintons.

Egomania knows no bounds and no loyalty - not even to the founding principles of democracy.

Clinton partisans will counter that we should count the Florida and Michigan delegates because they were supposedly "disenfranchised." What a joke. The candidates agreed not to campaign there, and agreed that the delegates would not be seated. Now, of course, the Clinton partisans want those delegates to count, even though they were banana republic-style elections - no campaigning, and in the case of Michigan, not even anyone other than Clinton on the ballot. Puh-leeze.

To sign a petition demanding superdelegates respect democracy, go here. And make sure to check out the Superdelegate Transparency Project here.

David Sirota is a veteran political strategist and author of Hostile Takeover, a New York Times bestseller about the corruption of both political parties.