Blue Crab Boulevard

Welcome To Hillaryland

Ok, I have to admit that watching the Democrats wake up to the utter ruthlessness of the Clintons has a rather huge element of Schadenfreude to it. But still, this one is a cake-taker even for the Clintons. Ezra Klein, quite rightly, points out that the latest from the Clinton camp could very well destroy the Democratic party.

This is the sort of decision that has the potential to tear the party apart. In an attempt to retain some control over the process and keep the various states from accelerating their primaries into last Summer, the Democratic National Committee warned Michigan and Florida that if they insisted on advancing their primary debates, their delegates wouldn't be seated and the campaigns would be asked not to participate in their primaries. This was agreed to by all parties (save, of course, the states themselves).

Now Clinton wants those delegates seated and is asking her delegates to aid her in this change to the rules in midstream. Klein warns:

But if this pushes her over the edge, the Obama camp, and their supporters, really will feel that she stole her victory. They didn't contest those states because they weren't going to count, not because they were so committed to the DNC's procedural arguments that they were willing to sacrifice dozens of delegates to support it. It's as hard as hardball gets, and the end could be unimaginably acrimonious. Imagine if African-American voters feel the rules were changed to prevent Obama's victory, if young voters feel the delegate counts were shifted to block their candidate.

Watching all this has all the elements of watching a trainwreck. The sheer sense of entitlement from the Clintons is finally grating at even the loyal party members. The viciousness of the infighting is getting increasingly close to the surface. It will cause real damage. Believe it.

Bonus happy thought: if the Clinton's antics are getting to party loyalists, how do you suppose it is playing with the moderates and unaffiliated?

UPDATE: Others: Poligazette: Cheater (Also used by commenter Reader here.) Protein Wisdome detects a great disturbance in the leftosphere. QandO: How completely Clinton. Say Anything: Of course she feels that way now.

Politics | Gaius January 25, 2008

By Anthony (Los Angeles), January 25, 2008 @ 6:49 pm

I know quite a few lifelong Democrats who swear they will never vote for Her Inevitableness. One told me he’ll write in FDR before voting for Hillary, and another swore she’d vote for McCain before Hillary. It’s really quite amazing the amount of animus she attracts from members of her own party.
By NortonPete, January 25, 2008 @ 7:32 pm

Has anyone seen the picture of Bill and Hillary pointing fingers with the apparition of Karl Rove hovering over their heads?
I just made it up.
By Reader, January 25, 2008 @ 8:29 pm

Cheater.
By Gaius, January 25, 2008 @ 8:53 pm

Well, I did do a photoshop…..

http://bluecrabboulevard.com/2008/01/25/twofer/
By Dean, January 25, 2008 @ 10:52 pm

…and Peggy Noonan wrote yesterday that George Bush destroyed the Republican Party.
By Sam L., January 25, 2008 @ 11:51 pm

Changing the rules and moving the goalposts–why, no, I never agreed to those rules. Nobody ever told me those were the rules. Rules are a patriarchal ploy to keep down the oppressed–Up Against The Wall, Redneck MotherF!
By Mwalimu Daudi, January 26, 2008 @ 12:24 am

Bonus happy thought: if the Clinton’s antics are getting to party loyalists, how do you suppose it is playing with the moderates and unaffiliated?

Here is more of my patented pessimism: I have been waiting for nearly two decades for the Clintons to wear out their welcome among moderate and unaffiliated voters, and I have yet to see any evidence of it happening. The Clintons have the knack of appealing to the lowest, filthiest instincts of otherwise ordinary people, and too often they succeed.
By Uncle Pinky, January 26, 2008 @ 10:35 am

Gaius,

You got a response from Gandleman in that last trackback, printed below for your convenience:

Bonus happy thought: if the Clinton’s antics are getting to party loyalists, how do you suppose it is playing with the moderates and unaffiliated?

[ANSWER TO BC BOULEVARD FROM THIS MODERATE: Not good AT ALL.]

Hee hee.
By martian, January 26, 2008 @ 2:34 pm

“Bonus happy thought: if the Clinton’s antics are getting to party loyalists, how do you suppose it is playing with the moderates and unaffiliated?”

Quite honestly I have to wonder if the moderates and unaffiliated are even noticing the antics. I have to agree with Mwalimu on this one – I don’t see any evidence that they are wearing out their welcome, either.
By Dean, January 26, 2008 @ 8:20 pm

Linked!