For months, critics and candidates have been publicly denouncing what they view as open favoritism of the Democratic National Committee (and particularly DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz) toward Hillary Clinton. Even DNC members have objected to the role of the DNC and the view that it is trying to guarantee that Clinton is the nominee. One of the most commonly cited (and commonly accepted) examples are the small number of debates scheduled by the DNC at hours that guarantee the least exposure for Clinton. That criticism is likely to become deafening this Sunday when the key debate before the Iowa caucus will be scheduled not only on a Sunday night but in direct conflict with the NFL playoffs and the new episode of Downton Abbey. Our house is a typical example of the obvious dilemma. My wife is a Downton Abbey fan and, as you know, I am a football fan. The result? The debate might as well have been held by the DNC on Mars. It is a schedule that only Max Bialystock could truly love. [Update: despite virtual universal derision over the scheduling of the debates, Wasserman Schultz went public today and claimed that the schedule was actually designed to “maximize” exposure. This type of statement only magnifies the view that party leaders and some politicians have such a low opinion of voters that it borders on open contempt. How would scheduling a debate on a Sunday night in conflict with two of the biggest television draws maximize viewership — putting aside the refusal to allow more debates as demanded by two of the three candidates and many voters? Indeed, if she was implausibly trying for the largest audience, she is grossly negligent as the low ratings have proven.]
Despite this bizarre and overt effort to minimize audiences, any effort to shield Clinton is failing if recent polls are an indicator. Clinton is falling in the polls much as she did in 2008 and the bias of the DNC is resonating with the base.
What is curious to me is that I thought Clinton was doing quite well in debates and recent interviews. The clumsiness that we saw earlier seems to have been largely removed. In other words, she really does not need the help from the DNC. Indeed, all of this weird minimalist scheduling is simply reaffirming the view of her critics that she is an establishment insider and that there is no real choice being allowed voters.
The scheduling on Sunday is also playing into GOP critics like Sen. Ted Cruz who observed that “They keep scheduling the Democratic debates at like 2 a.m. on Alaska PBS. It’s almost like they don’t want anybody to see their candidates for president.”
I find all of this fascinating to watch (or not watch in the case of the Democratic debates) because it seems so counterproductive and damaging to both the Clinton campaign and the DNC. The conventional wisdom has long been that parties want as many people to watch debates as possible. Conversely, this seems engineered to be a flop like the DNC version of “The Producers”
In the end, when the low ratings roll in, the DNC could always quote Downton Abbey with a sense of satisfaction: “We were a show that flopped”
bam bam –
How about horizontal stripes😂
VietVet
I’m with you on that one. I’m going to mail her, FedEx, a nice, little, frilly number from Macy’s. Something in a subtle print–something that brings out her eyes. 🙂
Mike Smerconish joins Kline and Specter
Isn’t Kline and Specter the law firm denounced by Judge Stearns? U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns of the District of Massachusetts recently granted final approval to a pair of settlements totaling $150 million in a class action RICO suit against TAP Pharmaceutical Products Inc. over alleged illegal sales tactics that drove up the price of the prostate cancer drug Lupron.
But Kline & Specter “refused to join in the cooperative effort,” Stearns wrote, and “instead embarked on a pre-emptive strategy to seize control of the litigation by using the state court proceedings to gain leverage over counsel cooperating with the MDL action.”
Stearns faulted Kline & Specter for launching a pair of Internet Web sites that, Stearns said, were “intended to mislead potential members of the [federal multi-district litigation] MDL class.”
He also faulted Kline & Specter for sending a “Dear Client” letter to “every person who had registered” on the firm’s Web sites. The letter, according to Stearns, contained “a number of deliberate misrepresentations and falsehoods.”
After reviewing the Web sites, Stearns issued an order in which he found that the sites were intended to mislead potential members of the MDL class.
Stearns said he concluded “the typical registrant on a Kline & Specter Web site would not know that he or she was opting out as a participant in the MDL class by ¿registering’ with Kline & Specter. Moreover, neither of the Web sites explained that a registrant who opted for inclusion ¿in litigation in the state courts’ might (depending on his or her state of residence) be left with no means of recovery.”
The ruling said that while Kline & Specter was “perfectly free to criticize the proposed settlement agreement … they are not privileged to engage in deceptive conduct manipulating the very consumers they claim to protect.”
“…nominating commission has reached an agreement on several candidates to replace the state’s U.S. Attorneys but a panel co-chair refused to divulge any names, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported today.
Eastern District Interim U.S. Attorney Michael Levy
Tom Kline (Kline & Specter)
Committee chair Tom Kline told the newspaper that his committee settled on a number of “qualified candidates” to succeed Eastern District Interim U.S. Attorney Michael Levy, Middle District U.S. Attorney Martin C. Carlson and Western District U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan.
Kline, a lawyer with Philadelphia personal injury law firm Kline & Specter, co-chairs the 16-member panel with colleague Shanin Specter, the son of Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.). Last week, the committee interviewed more than 40 candidates for the different posts. Read our previous post here.
Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Arlen Specter will submit U.S. Attorney recommendations to the White House once they receive the panel’s finali
Monday, July 13th, 2009
Interviews for candidates hoping to snag one of the three U.S. Attorney positions in Pennsylvania will begin this Friday, reports the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Supreme Injustice on the Waterfront? LWV and Philly Mag Raise Concerns
“a provision that legal challenges get fast-tracked past the lower courts and go right to the Supremes. At press-time, in the 11 separate matters involving SugarHouse that have been decided by the court, the casino has gotten favorable rulings 11 times.”
Has Pennsylvania’s highest court been compromised by greed and political corruption? A year ago, when I first got involved with working to keep casinos out of Philadelphia neighborhoods, I might have been shocked by the very idea. Now the question seems appropriate.
On Monday, the League of Women Voters (“LWV”) filed a federal law suit that makes a stunning allegation: it alleges that former Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chief Justice Ralph Cappy secretly met with legislative leaders and struck a deal to uphold the constitutionality of Pennsylvania’s slots casino bill in return for a pay hike in the form of . . . wait for it . . . the now infamous pay raise of 2006. Furthermore, the complaint asserts that these types of alleged shenanigans date back a decade to the mid-nineties.
Meanwhile, keep in mind that both the gaming act and the pay raise were passed by the General Assembly through a process called “gut-and-replace” whereby a law is stripped of its original language and intent, and rushed to a vote without the mandated three days of public review in both the House and the Senate. This is a clear violation of Article 3 of the Constitution and last year a lower court struck down a perfectly nice 2002 hate-crimes bill, finding the “gut-and-replace” tactic to be unconstitutional.
Though some observers have questioned whether the LWV’s case will succeed, few familiar with the history of the court’s decisions regarding casinos are shocked or surprised by the accusations that the Court might have lost its independence.
Is it true? If not, why would a respected nonpartisan group such as the League of Women Voters put its reputation on the line? And their case isn’t the only place where you can hear these questions raised about justices and injustice.
Take this month’s Philadelphia Magazine story about the feud between former friends and political allies Senator Vince Fumo and SugarHouse investor Richard Sprague as exhibit B. In his article, Robert Huber explains that:
These days, Dick Sprague helps watch over the State Supreme Court from his perch on its disciplinary committee, which is chaired by Bill Lamb, an ex-justice who is one of Sprague’s closest friends. So close that Fumo sometimes referred to them in phone conversation as the “tennis player” – Sprague–and his partner–Lamb.
Well guess what? You can cue up the spooky music because Bill Lamb is also an investor in SugarHouse. Huber goes on to slyly note that the gambling bill written by Fumo in 2004 has “a provision that legal challenges get fast-tracked past the lower courts and go right to the Supremes. At press-time, in the 11 separate matters involving SugarHouse that have been decided by the court, the casino has gotten favorable rulings 11 times.”
bam bam –
If Bernie demands Hilly wear a dress at the debates he has a lock on the nomination!
I agree with Isaac. Too many Americans need an enema.
I heard the democrats tried to book Wayne’s Worlds basement for the final debate but the basement held to many people for the democrats liking. No matter, watching the democrats debates is as exciting as eating a Valveeta cheese sandwich.
samfox
The eight years of the Obama administration will be seen as a necessary repair job fixing the catastrophe that was the Bush administration, which would not have been so bad if it weren’t for the rabid Republicans that opposed tempering the mess he made. It will also be seen as an example of the limitations of the two party system, a system that only remains in the US as most other advanced democracies have evolved to a more representative and less catastrophe resulting system, that of an average of four parties.
The problems facing the US today were not created entirely by the Republican party. However, the acceleration, ‘down the toilet’, as you so aptly put it, is due to the Republican party and that bad joke of eight years under the three stooges followed by the Republican party opposing any and everything, or holding America hostage to get their way.
Go back to the Reagan administration and review how the deficit doubled and tripled under Reagan and Bush and then start presenting your arguments. Recent history shows that the American economy has done much better consistently under Democrat Presidents. Both Reagan and Bush followed their sideshows with huge recessions.
The Republican party has been contaminated by the Tea Party idiots which has rendered Republican leadership more than worrisome. In a more advanced democracy the Tea Party would be a separate political party leaving the bulk of America’s conservatives free to approach rational thought. The extreme left would also be a separate political party leaving the bulk of America’s liberals free to approach the rational thought in the middle. Separating and identifying the extreme left and right would allow the center to compromise with the nut cases out of the mix.
America’s political system is to blame for the failures spanning the past several administrations. However, nothing good has come out of the Republican party. The beginnings of something good along with a yeoman’s job of addressing the fallout of two failed wars and tanking the economy, has come out of the Democratic party. There was some good to be found in the eight years of the three stooges and some bad to be found in Obama’s administration. However, look at the basic problems; they are primarily due to Republicans.
Your rant is nothing more than a regurgitation of the scare tactics used by Republican losers, who seem to have an unfortunately sizable following these days. The tactics are age old. Hitler used them. They seem to still work for some. Less than nothings like what we see contending for the GOP nomination don’t need to present any substance, all they have to do is to make vacuous statements like, “The President is overwhelmed.” That is all they have and yet somehow it is working. Too many Americans need an enemy, someone to blame for their shortcomings.
Behold proponent of black African ethnic cleansing Hillary Clinton: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-14/emails-prove-hillary-knew-libyan-rebels-were-conducting-ethnic-cleansing-supported-t
When Hillary’s hench woman (assistant) showed Hillary video of Ghaddafi being raped and murdered, Hillary chuckled and replied (unknown candid camera caught the whole exchange for eternity): “We came, we saw, he died.” Watch the video.
Tell me one thing in Trump’s life he did as evil and Satanic (crimes against humanity) as Hillary does on a regular routine day. I bet she has ordered people murdered while buttering her morning toast.
Hillary had her CIA hench men pay and arm the above described ethnic cleansing terrorists to rape and murder Ghaddafi for his mortal sin of proposing a pan-African currency which would minimize Western financial hegemony, and for threatening to take actions that would devalue French currency.
Investigative reporter Michael Piper makes an exceptionally good case that the CIA successfully recruited Hillary, Bill, and John Kerry to “the agency” while they attended university. Nothing on planet earth guarantees American financial success like working as an undercover agent for the agency. And nothing gets American intelligence as close to the American anti-war college underground as recruiting their all-time star organizers of the protest movement.
It all makes perfect sense when you examine Bill’s CIA drug running days as Arkansas Governor. See the list of Bill’s associates who have died mysterious deaths, such as suicide by shotgun blast to the back of the head.
“If you dine with the devil, bring a long fork.”
What stevegroen said in two posts.
Nobody is competent to lead a country of 300 million people with competing interests, let alone assume the role of the leader of the world. Break the US up into regions of about 5 million each and we might be able to find competent regional leaders.
The RepubliCon Debate was on Fox Business channel. We do not get that on our tv here. One had to watch it on the internet site. That as kind of dumb of RepubliCons too. Now they have over exposed them. In the old days when they just put up signs and said you have a choice not an echo you took them at their word and did not vote. This year its like eating bad food night after night. You want to watch old artFay ladies with ugly hats on Downton Abbey or some dumb football game rather than Ted Cruz or Bushie Boy. And where was the bitch from Buchenwald this last time? Carly something or other.
There are no “debates” presented by either the DNC or RNC. It is all a sham and these events are better labeled for what they are– vehicles of propaganda. They may schedule their propaganda for whenever they wish. It behoove US citizens to ignore them. An alternative is to research and focus on third party candidates who might actually represent us in what is left of our civilian govt. (not very much).
To those who say this is impossible I would say what do you have to lose? Spain just elected many people to their parliament who are far to the left of most US candidates. If there people can do this, so can Americans.
At any rate, actual debates should be held by independent bodies. Otherwise the US public should turn off the TV so we are not so readily propagandized by USGinc./military R US.
Jill: +1
They should put a runway on the stage, so that the candidates can model their evening and leisure attire. That’s about how much substance is coming from any of them and their parties.
And Jill Stein would make as good a president as any of them.
Issac, This nation IS going forward, Headfirst even. Down the toilet. If you think that is good…what can anyone say?
We are approaching a 20 TRILLION $$ debt. That’s forward? Bankruptcy isn’t forward.
Our borders are wide open. That’s forward? A terrorist with a missing Russian suitcase nuke coming across is not forward. Nearly a 100 of the portable Russian nukes are missing by the way. Look it up.
Fed burroacracies are regulating our energy sector to death. Higher energy costs for an already strapped family is not forward.
Our electronic infrastructure is wide open to an electromagnetic pulse bomb. That’s not forward.
0 is doing the Cloward and Piven ‘Strategy’ as an attack front against the US economy. Welfare roles are swelling. The new slavery called ‘workfare’ will not be long in coming once enough of the US population is dependent of govt for their livelihood. That’s not forward.
Crony capitalism is at an all time high, wasting billions of tax dollars. Not very forward. Free markets are under attack, again by regulation & cronyism. Hardy forward at all.
Then again, on Bizzaro World, all the above is considered ‘forward’. ‘Progressive’ destruction of the USA so we can be ‘rebooted’ with an all powerful & controlling centrally panned govt is only ‘forward’ to ‘progressives’ like Hill. She calls herself a ‘modern progressive’.
With all due respect,
SamFox
In this media driven circus every wart and mole will be exploited. A poll in Podunk Miss. will prove to readers of some rag that this or that candidate is doomed or trampling all the others. 90% of it all is filler for the voters to read.
Regarding the Republican party candidates, there isn’t one who offers any benefit to Americans in general. Everything they say pertaining to reality has been said before by both sides. Punters like Rubio can only come up with statements demeaning Obama such as, “President Obama is overwhelmed.” Any idiot off the street can say that and Rubio is nothing more than an idiot off the street. Trump has an uncanny ability of reading his consumer and he proves that by playing to mindless frustration, with no conceivable practical programs. There would never be a wall and if it was built or any portion of it, Mexico would never pay for it. There would never be a halt to Islamic immigration; Americans are bigger than that. Cruz is a bible thumper and that won’t fly. So they all ooze out the anti Obama blather after they get through pointing fingers at each other. Jeb Bush might just be able to win if he stays out of the stupidity and comes up with some proactive moments. Americans are getting more tired day by day of this travesty and hopefully will start to perk up their ears at some substance as it fights its way through the moaning.
Regarding Clinton and the other choice, it comes down to direction. The country has been on a direction progressing into where it should have been progressing decades ago. It is doing it two steps forward and one step, sometimes two and three steps back due to the shame and anger of the Republicans pulling it back or as they have admitted, standing in the way of ANYTHING Obama proposes, or for that matter anything Democratic.
Clinton is no angel but she does represent a continuation forward into the future against the results of a circus like contest if a Republican gets in. Bernie Sanders would be the best choice but he is two old for two terms and it will take two more terms to undo the damage done to America by the Republican extremists. We already had an aging President who fell asleep in meetings, thought he fought in WW2 but had great hair. We got the deepest and worst recession since the Great Depression as a result and then it happened again but only worse.
In spite of the candidates of both sides there are only two sides so it comes down to direction in the end. Do you want to go backwards or forwards. There will always be a step or two backwards. Perhaps if Clinton gets in the Republican party will burn out this endless smear campaign and come up with a viable array of responses to the problems of the day, like vet more carefully immigrants instead of slamming the door, tighten up security on the borders and send some illegals back and allow other to stay, and hopefully realized that our military is far too large and unwieldy as well as expensive to maintain, along with many realizations.
No hidden agenda here. Hillary is simply searching her closet for the perfect pantsuit to make her appear, well, uh, more human. Okay, how about more human-like? Less robot-ish. That’s all. Not an easy feat, by any measure, so, naturally, it takes some time. Can’t rush perfection. Once she finds the perfect pantsuit–you know, that one that screams, I’M JUST LIKE YOU, FOLKS–along with a large vat of spackle to fill in the cracks on her face, why, she’ll almost appear like a gal we can trust.
” Their actions clearly show they have no confidence in her ability to debate with her competitors.”
On the other hand, maybe she debates just fine – maybe they just don’t want any voters to see her.
Decisions are so hard, what to choose, what to choose? Rothlesberger or Clinton … Clinton or Rothlesberger.
This speaks volumes about what the DNC really thinks of its favorite. Their actions clearly show they have no confidence in her ability to debate with her competitors.
Downton Abbey should be a topic on here. Why would Americans want to look at those Brit dorks–especially the itchbays with the dork hats on?
A football fan and a Downton Abbey fan. Says a lot. But why are humans so dumb that they have to watch a debate in order to make up their minds as to who to vote for?
Germany voted Hitler into office. America can choose the Donald. Or the Cruz. We call him the Canuk around here.
I think the DNC is doing us all a favor. I just wish the RNC would, too. What’s more, neither should televise any of the debates for lack of substance.
Wassermann – Schultz should resign. She should have been kicked out long ago. Her support for the TPP and her obvious corporatist leanings make her a strange choice for the Chair of the DNC unless you factor in the fact that she was hand picked by President Obama.
Even if you are an HRC fan, which I am not, you must realize that WS taints your candidate and makes her look scared of any true competition.
Go Bernie!