Feinstein Censure Killed Without a Vote
Rick Jacobs
Posted November 19, 2007 | 04:45 AM (EST)
The California Democratic Party killed without a vote the resolution to censure Senator Feinstein Saturday night in a crowded committee room, just a stone's throw from Disneyland. The destiny of the censure resolution was clear from the outset. Because the resolution had been submitted within ten days of the meeting, it was on the agenda of the resolutions committee as a "late" resolution (because Senator Feinstein's most recent actions occurred in that timeframe). The rules state that if any one member of the committee objects to a specific late resolution, that resolution is dead; it is not heard, not voted upon and not considered in any way.
When the resolution was brought up late in the session, the Party's senior advisor and long time chief spokesperson, Bob Mulholland, stood and shouted from the side of the room, "Object, and object!" There were other shouts from the room as committee members joined in. Committee Co-Chair John Hanna objected and then others objected and then, as if to make sure that we got the point, everyone who wanted to join the chorus of objections demanded that their objections be counted, too. It was a sort of pile on moment, in which one veto simply would not do. It all happened within about a minute.
Senator Feinstein's best friend, campaign chair and DNC member, Roz Wyman, had sat in the room all day, just a few feet from me. When all of the objecting was over, Bob Mulholland came over to her for a quick chat, Roz stood and said, "I'm going home," she patted a few people on the back and off she went. Mission accomplished.
Curiously, the next resolution but one, entitled "Defining 'Waterboarding' as torture and eliminating its practice by the U.S. government," met the same fate. Mr. Hanna objected to this resolution as well. The CDP refused to take a stand on the substance of a bill that Senator Feinstein herself has already signed on to support with Senator Kennedy.
While the censure resolution failed on procedural grounds, the movement succeeded in changing the entire conversation. As Brian Leubitz noted at Calitics, CDP Chair Art Torres addressed the plenary session of the executive board Saturday morning, extolling the long and virtuous record of Senator Feinstein, pleading against censure. The chairman said he had called the senator and told her that people were upset. Chairman Torres chose to frame the anger at the senator at only two specific (and odious) votes, ignoring the fact that this is part of a long term pattern of breaking ranks with other Democrats and voting to support President Bush. But Mr. Torres got the point. Without this impending threat, he would never have bothered to give this speech. We can only hope we had some impact on Senator Feinstein, which we'll know soon enough.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rick-jacobs/feinstein-censure-killed-_b_73232.html
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