"Born and bred in the briar patch." aka the bramble bush. Clinton, Geller

[madfloridian]

"Please don't throw me into that briar patch."

Those were the words of Joel Chandler Harris's famous character from Song of the South, Brer Rabbit. Brer Rabbit was right at home and very comfortable in the thorny briar patch, also known as the bramble bush.

From a Georgia folktale:

America folklore

"Drown me! Roast me! Hang me! Do whatever you please," said Brer Rabbit. "Only please, Brer Fox, please don't throw me into the briar patch."

"The briar patch, eh?" said Brer Fox. "What a wonderful idea! You'll be torn into little pieces!"

Grabbing up the tar-covered rabbit, Brer Fox swung him around and around and then flung him head over heels into the briar patch. Brer Rabbit let out such a scream as he fell that all of Brer Fox's fur stood straight up. Brer Rabbit fell into the briar bushes with a crash and a mighty thump. Then there was silence.

Brer Fox cocked one ear toward the briar patch, listening for whimpers of pain. But he heard nothing. Brer Fox cocked the other ear toward the briar patch, listening for Brer Rabbit's death rattle. He heard nothing. Then Brer Fox heard someone calling his name. He turned around and looked up the hill. Brer Rabbit was sitting on a log combing the tar out of his fur with a wood chip and looking smug.

"I was bred and born in the briar patch, Brer Fox," he called. "Born and bred in the briar patch."

Now let me see, where did we hear about the bramble bush before now? Ah, I remember. That fellow in Florida, Senate Minority leader, Steve Geller.

From You Tube. Geller mocks own amendment.

Don't throw me into that bramble bush.

Don't get it yet? What you ask for is not really what you want to happen. He really did not want his amendment to pass.

And there is a column at Huffington Post today about Hillary Clinton and the Briar Patch politics involving tomorrow. If you go with this scenario, there is no winning no matter what the decision. She will go ahead anyway.

Clinton's Briar Patch strategy for the DNC meeting

FOREWORD: Barack Obama and Howard Dean are about to walk into Harold Ickes' trap tomorrow, and they aren't likely to even realize their mistake until Hillary Clinton cries "foul!" next week and announces that "justice" and "voters' rights" are forcing her to carry her campaign all the way to the Democratic Convention next August.

By leaning toward implementing a compromise "split the baby" decision tomorrow on how to allocate the Michigan and Florida delegates -- a compromise that nearly all observers see as a setback for Clinton -- the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee ("RBC"), the Obama campaign and other well-meaning Democrats will actually be throwing Brer Clinton into the briar patch -- giving her exactly the excuse she wants to continue her Quixotic campaign.

..."The rules meeting is a trap. Clinton wants the RBC to give Florida and Michigan not the full votes she is fruitlessly advocating for and which would in any case not translate to a win for her but the half-vote compromise she is publicly advocating against. When the committee does award half-votes, she will have cause to extend her campaign through the summer, guaranteeing a divided Convention and possibly killing Democrats' chances of capturing the Oval Office in November (and of preventing pro-life , pro-Imperial Presidency Republicans from replacing the two remaining Democrats on the nine-member Supreme Court).

Who knows, really. If you look at it that way, there is no scenario by which she will not continue. And if you look at it that way...it's tragic.

One lawsuit by a Floridian was dismissed yesterday. There is still one to go for sure by Geller, and maybe a refiling by DiMaio.

There is still the shouting and yelling tomorrow. And there is the lingering pain of seeing the former first couple lash out at their own party.

I am not sure what kind of politics it is, but the fact they are comfortable with it is scary.

[madfloridian]

1. And does anyone recall..

how not long ago there was a call that we should be careful and considerate of Hillary Clinton as she looked for an exit strategy?

How did that work out?

[grantcart]

2. I think its time for a face to face meeting between you and the Florida Democratic Leadership

Madfloridian








I would like to introduce you to the Florida Democratic Leadership










Leadership I would like to introduce you to Madfloridian

http://www.duiops.net/seresvivos/galeria/tigres/Creek%20Crossing,%20Bengal%20Tiger.jpg

[madfloridian]

7. Heh heh...the clown pic is most appropriate.

:hi:

[housewolf]

3. I read that article on HuffPost just before siging in here...

and I gotta tell you, .... I feel sick to my stomach.

Like so many here, I have had high hopes that the issue would be resolved in some fair way tomorrow and that the issue of who our nominee would be settled and that this in-fighting would cease.

Now, I have a sense of imminent dread. I've heard Harry Reid say that it would be over within a week, and Nancy Pelosi say that if it's not over sometime in June that she would step in... but DAMN!!!! Now I'm imagining ongoing sniping and division all the way until the end of August and a nasty fight at the convention creating even more ill-will, then having such a short time before the November election... and the whole time the press continuing to ignore McCain because they're too enchanted by the fighting Dems to focus on him...

and I'm just crying and don't know how we can all take it... and what does this say about the Dem Party that we could have EVERYTHING lined up for us to take the 2008 election easily but we have to make it so frickin' HARD for ourselves??? that if we lose this Novemember, it's onr OWN fickin' FAULT???? The stakes are SO high... and all we can do is fight against ourselves???? What the hell????


Here's that HuffPost article - It's pretty long and I hope the author is wrong, but go read it for yourself
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/m.s.-bellows/the-trap-clintons-briarpa_b_104198.html
The Trap: Clinton's "Briarpatch" Strategy For The DNC Rules Committee Meeting

FOREWORD: Barack Obama and Howard Dean are about to walk into Harold Ickes' trap tomorrow, and they aren't likely to even realize their mistake until Hillary Clinton cries "foul!" next week and announces that "justice" and "voters' rights" are forcing her to carry her campaign all the way to the Democratic Convention next August.

By leaning toward implementing a compromise "split the baby" decision tomorrow on how to allocate the Michigan and Florida delegates -- a compromise that nearly all observers see as a setback for Clinton -- the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee ("RBC"), the Obama campaign and other well-meaning Democrats will actually be throwing Brer Clinton into the briar patch -- giving her exactly the excuse she wants to continue her Quixotic campaign.

much more at the link...

[madfloridian]

4. I also hope the author is wrong

The whole thing has me sick.

[arewenotdemo]

5. Maybe I'm just too dense to see it...but if she has no intention of EVER quitting

then what the fuck difference does it make whether the committee halves the FL/MI delegates or not?

She will continue to maintain that she's the best candidate against McCain, had the most votes, ad nauseum.

IMO, a major smackdown is deserved. If that doesn't do the trick and she sabotages Obama's chances...at least she will have made herself a Dem pariah forever, and the Clintons will be history.

[madfloridian]

6. That's why I am skeptical of that article.

Not completely, but partly. I think she is playing it as she goes along.

[barack the house]

8. Anyone got any ideas how they handle it email Obama's site. We've got smart folks out there it's all

about ideas.

[grantcart]

9. emails and phone calls go through a volunteer room and then

are handed to the supervisor who is a paid staffer.

The staffer goes through and anything that might be seen as valuable is walked out of the room over to the appropriate staff person for immediate action.

Important messages get through but in very few cases will you get a response.

We were able to finally get a response on TVOR 'finding of 2 delegates' in Mississippi.

In calling back and talking to the supervisor I could tell that the messages were read and understood and that action was being taken but they are not going to get bogged down with a lot of crazy phone calls or emails from excited supporters.

Why do you ask?

[madfloridian]

10. NPR helping FL delegate spin the rules.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90931411

"Jon Ausman, a DNC member from Florida who endorsed the presidential candidacy of Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, will present Florida's challenge to the DNC ruling that stripped the state of all of its delegates.

A close reading of party rules shows that the DNC went too far, he says.

'Florida Picks Presidents'

Ausman says the rules allow the DNC to penalize a state by stripping just half of its delegates. If the DNC exercised that option, he says, Democrats would not be in the mess they're in today."

BUT Florida KNEW there was an option whereby they could lose ALL their rules.

Jon Ausman, shame on you for perpetuating the Clinton's manipulative lies.

Florida KNEW they could lose ALL their delegates if they voted yes to move the primary.

Under the DNC delegate selection rules, if a state party’s plan violates the rule with respect to timing, the number of its pledged delegates—those delegates awarded proportionally to candidates based on the primary or caucus results—is automatically reduced 50%(without any action by the RBC or DNC); no member of the DNC can attend the Convention as a delegate; no Member of Congress can attend the Convention as a delegate; and if applicable, the state’s Democratic governor can not attend the Convention as a delegate. In addition, any presidential candidate who campaigns in the state for the event in violation of the rules cannot receive any pledged delegates from that state.

In addition to these automatic sanctions, the DNC the RBC has authority under the rules to impose additional sanctions, including further reductions in the state’s delegation.

At its meeting on August 25, 2007, the DNC RBC found Florida’s plan in noncompliance with the DNC rules, and voted to increase the sanctions against Florida by reducing the state’s delegation by 100% unless the state party, within the 30-day period allowed by the
Committee’s regulations, submitted a plan for an alternative, state party-run process on or after February 5 that would be used to allocate delegate positions.

The spin and lies just don't stop.

[madfloridian]

11. Ickes.."I could possibly" vote against her interests, he said, "but it's highly unlikely."

From the WSJ

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121211454989231687.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

"Mr. Ickes said he and other committee members voted last year to strip Florida and Michigan of their convention delegates because "we wanted to send a definitely unambiguous signal" to other states against jumping the primary queue.

Florida and Michigan, he said, have "suffered" for their early votes: The campaigns passed them by, their primaries weren't in the national spotlight and local printers, radio stations and others who would have raked in campaign dollars lost out.

"If you say they should be sanctioned -- they were sanctioned," he said. No other state moved up its primary, so "now it's time to turn our attention to winning a general election," he said.

Florida and Michigan are seen as swing states this fall, with 44 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. Excluding them from the nominating process is "an open invitation to the Republicans" to turn those voters against the Democrats, Mr. Ickes said."

About a dozen of the rules committee's 30 members publicly support Sen. Clinton while perhaps eight have endorsed Sen. Obama. They deny that voting on a decision that affects their candidates creates a conflict of interest. "We're a political organization," says Mr. Ickes, and besides, "you'd have to scour America to find 30 people" who haven't participated in this year's campaign.

No other committee member has such deep ties to a candidate, though. Mr. Ickes, 68 years old, was President Bill Clinton's deputy chief of staff and ran Sen. Clinton's 2000 Senate race.

At this weekend's meeting, "I could possibly" vote against her interests, he said, "but it's highly unlikely."

[localroger]

12. If she tries it, she will be toast

Honestly, I wouldn't put this past her, but if she tries it the remaining superdelegates will line up against her en masse, and she and Bill will be done with the Democratic party. Her only remaining recourse will reek of olden days of decisions reached in smoke-filled back rooms, and you can count on Obama to pivot her right into McCain off that image. That will be Obama landing in <i>his</i> briar patch.

[madfloridian]

13. There are audios in that post of two of her conference calls.

Plus some more from farther down the Huff Post column in the OP.

"Dig through two hours' worth of prepared statements and Q&A by Clinton's top representatives, and you reach this bedrock: in their minds, there is no conceivable combination of circumstances conclusive enough that she would be forced to concede defeat, short of her personally seeing a majority of all conceivable delegates actually cast recorded votes for Barack Obama in Denver. Until that moment, it's all completely up for grabs.

That's the Clinton endgame.

Rachel Maddow is right: Clinton's going to the Convention. Everything else that happens between now and then -- the speeches, the remaining primaries, the spurious comparisons of Florida to Zimbabwe, the monthly "who outraised whom" campaign finance reports, the superdelegate endorsements, TV appearances, hearings, lawsuits, and 90% of the words spoken on MSNBC between 2 and 7 p.m every evening -- everything else that occurs for the next three months will be either irrelevant window dressing designed to distract us from Clinton's sleight of hand, or careful groundwork for the only primary that matters to Clinton any more: the Hillaryland Caucus that begins on August 25 and ends on August 28 and will be conducted at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado."