Hillary Clinton today promised Puerto Ricans she would "would vigorously advance plans that would enable Puerto Rico to decide if it wants to remain a commonwealth or become a U.S. state or an independent nation."

Puerto Rico has been a commonwealth since 1952. Its residents are almost equally divided on whether it should change its status:

Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens but cannot vote for president, and their representation in Congress is restricted to a single nonvoting member. National party conventions provide islanders a rare chance to have a direct say in Washington.

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First Barack Obama was for decriminalization of marijuana. Then he was against it. Then he said he was for it, explaining he raised his hand by mistake at a debate.

Now he's clear: he opposes decriminalization of marijuana.

What accounts for this latest switch? His campaign says he didn't understand what decriminalization meant.

A spokesman for Obama’s campaign blamed confusion over the meaning of decriminalization for the inconsistencies, and said that while Obama does not support decriminalization, "we are sending far too many first-time, nonviolent drug users to prison for very long periods of time, and that we should rethink those laws."

More on Obama and his limited progressive crime positions here.

Hillary Clinton's campaign received 2,000 complaints from Texas voters about the states' caucuses. Her campaign asked Texas to double-check the signatures to make sure those who participated were entitled to do so.

Today, the Texas Democratic Party refused her request.

Hillary won the primary vote but with 41% of caucus results counted, Obama led 56 percent to 44 percent.

Obama campaign response:

"Our campaign agrees that the best way to capitalize on the incredible enthusiasm and hundreds of thousands of new voters who participated in the precinct conventions on March 4th is to count their votes promptly and accurately. We look forward to continuing to work with the Texas Democratic Party to ensure that happens."

As for transparency, forget about it. The State Party says:

There is no plan at this time for the party to provide a statewide count of those regional convention results.

Barack Obama today told war veterans he won't lower the drinking age.

Army veteran Ernest Johnson, 23, of Connecticut, said one of the things that peeved him before he turned 21 was that he couldn't come home and drink a beer _ even though he was old enough to serve in the armed services and die for his country.

Obama told Johnson he sympathized, but that setting the legal drinking age at 21 had helped reduce drunken driving incidents and should remain.

As I noted here, more states are considering lowering the drinking age. Sounds like Obama has fallen for the myths about underage drinking.

The issue of what will happen with Florida's Democratic primary voters has not been settled by the decision not to hold a new election.

Attempts are still underway to have Florida delegates seated in accord with the Jan. 29 primary results.

Clinton’s spokesman Singer responds: “Today’s announcement brings us no closer to counting the votes of the nearly 1.7 million people who voted in January. We hope the Obama campaign shares our belief that Florida’s voters must be counted and cannot be disenfranchised.”

On the Fox News Channel, Gov. Crist once again calls for the party to “do the right thing” and seat the delegation as-is in Denver — voted in by a record-breaking turnout.

That's the right solution. Also, on CNN an hour or so ago, before the spin doctors came on, a reporter who had spoken with Florida Democratic Party Chair and Congresswoman Karen Thurman said she told him that all options had not been exhausted -- or even explored yet-- and that efforts were ongoing to find a solution acceptable to both campaigns.

From Ms. Thurman's letter today: [More...]

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

At Open Left, Tremayne does a study of the so called bias in the respective blogs. He tracked posts on controversial and supposedly unfavorable stories for particular candidates. His study is illuminating:

The Florida Democratic Party has rejected a plan for a new primary.

In an e-mail sent to Florida Democrats late Monday afternoon, state party Chairwoman Karen Thurman said, "We researched every potential alternative process -- from caucuses to county conventions to mail-in elections -- but no plan could come anywhere close to being viable in Florida."
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Thurman said the decision now falls to the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee, which is scheduled to meet again next month.

Thurman says the consenus of the thousands of e-mails was that Floridians don't want to vote again.

Of course they don't. More than 1.7 million Democrats already voted and they chose Hillary. They want their vote to count. And it should. The DNC is the culprit here. They need to retract the penalty and award and seat the delegates in accordance with the January 29 vote.

Update: A must-read primer on the Florida primary battle by Mary Beth at Wampum.

Update: Comments now closed, new Florida thread here.

Huffington Post writer and political commentator Cliff Schecter and I did a segment today on MSNBC on the heated nature of the discourse in the blogosphere between bloggers supporting Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Skippy has an excellent summary and take on it.

Both Cliff and I opined the blogosphere will come together to support whichever Democrat is nominated. It was a very friendly segment. I'm sure the producers were disappointed. They were hoping for fireworks between an "Obama blogger" and a "Hillary blogger" and they got a unified front.

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By Big Tent Democrat

(Speaking for me only)

Via Ben Smith, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm puts Obama on the spot - proposes legislation for the Michigan revote.

It is basically a carbon copy of the existing primary legislation with dates changed to accomodate the proposed June 3 revote date. The one major exception is the amendment to Section 613(a)(2). It provides that on April 17, the State Treasurer will certify the amount of funds raised for the primary and if that amount is less than 12 million dollars, then the primary will be cancelled. That should satisfy any concerns about Michigan having to pay for the primary. Proposed Section 624(h) provides the authority for the State Of Michigan to receive contributions to pay for the revote. Apparently, no new entity was deemed necessary to receive such funds. One last section of particular interest, Section 615 would require voters to affirm that they did not vote in the Republican primary. According to exit polls, 7% of the participants in the Republican primary identified themselves as Democrats. McCain won those Dems by 41-33.

Florida Dems blow it:

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed the insider trading convictions of former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio. The panel voted two to one for reversal and ordered that a different judge preside over a re-trial.

The reason: The judge's exclusion of Nacchio's expert witness.

"Mr. Nacchio appeals, arguing that the evidence was insufficient to convict him, that the jury was improperly instructed, and that the trial judge incorrectly excluded evidence — expert testimony and classified information — important to his defense," the decision states. "We agree that the improper exclusion of his expert witness merits a new trial, but we conclude that the evidence before the District Court was sufficient for the government to try him again without violating the double jeopardy clause."

The Court did not agree with Nacchio he should have been able to present his classified information defense. Nor did it agree with him that the jury instruction on materiality was fatally flawed. It also found that a properly instructed jury could have found him guilty of insider trading.

You can read the opinion here (pdf.) [More...]

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

Last week, I exchanged views with Mark Schmitt on my view that Clinton needs MI/FL revotes to win the nomination.

Today, we discover that Obama is blocking the MI revote plan and Clinton has embraced revotes in FL and MI. Perhaps Mark Schmitt is right that revotes end the uncertainty and thus Clinton's chances for the nomination. But it seems clear that neither Clinton or Obama seem to believe that.

Don't get me wrong. Pols are pols, and if their situations were reversed, I feel confident their positions would be reversed on revotes for Michigan and Florida. But there is no doubt that revotes favor the Democratic Party and its chances in November. And that is what I care about. Not to mention the principle of enfranchising the voters of Florida and Michigan. Not a small thing either.

The controversy over Barack Obama's pastor is not dying down yet. As I write this, Google News has more than 1,200 articles on it.

Conservative writer Bill Kristol got his facts wrong this morning.

Rev. Jeremiah Wright's church has issued a strong statement condemning the media's characterization of his entire career by using a few soundbites. It compares the media treatment of Wright to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. [More...]