I Love The Smell Of Schadenfreude In The Morning….
Theodore B. Olson the former solicitor general of the United States who represented George W. Bush in front of the Supreme Court in a rather famous case, indulges in a little schadenfreude this morning.
Imagine that as the convention approaches, Sen. Clinton is leading in the popular vote, but Sen. Obama has the delegate lead. Surely no one familiar with her history would doubt that her take-no-prisoners campaign team would do whatever it took to capture the nomination, including all manner of challenges to Obama delegates and tidal waves of litigation.
[Barack Obama]Indeed, it has already been reported that Sen. Clinton will demand that the convention seat delegates from Michigan and Florida, two states whose delegates have been disqualified by the party for holding January primaries in defiance of party rules. The candidates agreed not to campaign in those states. But Sen. Clinton opted to keep her name on the Michigan primary ballot, and staged a primary-day victory visit to Florida, winning both of those unsanctioned primaries. Her campaign is arguing that the delegates she won in each state be recognized despite party rules and notwithstanding her commitment not to compete in those primaries. Of course. "Count every vote."
As the convention nears, with Sen. Clinton trailing slightly in the delegate count, the next step might well be a suit in the Florida courts challenging her party's refusal to seat Florida's delegation at the convention. And the Florida courts, as they did twice in 2000, might find some ostensible legal basis for overturning the pre-election rules and order the party to recognize the Clinton Florida delegates. That might tip the balance to Sen. Clinton.
We all know full well what could happen next. The array of battle-tested Democratic lawyers who fought for recounts, changes in ballot counting procedures, and even re-votes in Florida courts and the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000 would separate into two camps. Half of them would be relying on the suddenly-respectable Supreme Court Bush v. Gore decision that overturned the Florida courts' post-hoc election rules changes. The other half would be preaching a new-found respect for "federalism" and demanding that the high court leave the Florida court decisions alone.
Would the U.S. Supreme Court even take the case after having been excoriated for years by liberals for daring to restore order in the Florida vote-counting in 2000? And, would Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, the dissenters in Bush v. Gore, feel as strongly about not intervening if Sen. Obama was fighting against an effort to change a presidential election by changing the rules after the fact? Will there be a brief filed by Floridians who didn't vote in their state's primary because the party had decided, and the candidates had agreed, that the results wouldn't count?
Will it happen? Well, it could. Certain factions within the Democratic party are already openly threatening to shatter the party if the superdelegates decide the nomination the "wrong" way. The problem is that who defines what is wrong is at issue. This could get very ugly. But Olson has offered to let Obama borrow the legal briefs he used successfully in that earlier case, should it come to that.
He's really having a lot of fun with this, go read the whole thing.
By MAJ Gross, Monday, 11 February , 2008 @ 8:23 am
Remember, just like Bush v. Gore, there will be no official connection between the people filing the law suit and the clinton campaign. It will just be “concerned citizens”.
By Mockinbird, Monday, 11 February , 2008 @ 10:17 am
They should let me decide!
By FedUp, Monday, 11 February , 2008 @ 10:19 am
mMMM… pass the popcorn… things are getting entertaining. They should be after subjecting us to a year of all this lunacy! All I can say for November…. let the best Republican win!
By elizabeth, Monday, 11 February , 2008 @ 3:01 pm
Ted Olsen for Vice- President!
By martian, Monday, 11 February , 2008 @ 3:09 pm
They could end up spending so much time wrangling with each other that there is no clear Democrat candidate on election day and the Republican candidate wins because he’s the only one on the ballot that people can legally vote for!
Well, I can fantasize can’t I?
By kidrob, Tuesday, 12 February , 2008 @ 7:45 am
please,please,please oh please. that would be like christmas in july!