By Big Tent Democrat

Some good news:

The House Dem leadership's surveillance bill just cleared the House by a vote of 213-197 with 1 vote of present. 12 Dems crossed the aisle to vote against it.

The bill has stricter privacy safeguards than the Senate's version -- and of course does not contain a provision granting retroactive immunity for the telecoms' participation in the administration's warrantless wiretapping program.

Good show.

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

The estimable Mark Schmitt (Ezra Klein endorses Schmitt's faulty thinking) questions my argument that Hillary Clinton's candidacy for the nomination requires revotes in Florida and Michigan. While Mark wrongly identifies me as a Clinton supporter (see this for my reasons for supporting Obama), Mark makes an interesting but flawed argument:

Yesterday's Rasmussen poll shows Hillary Clinton leading Barack Obama 51% to 38%.

Clinton now leads by twenty-five percentage points among women and is essentially even among men. She attracts votes from 69% of white women while also leading among voters over 40 and those with incomes under $75,000 a year. Obama leads 79% to 13% among African-American voters.

Also yesterday, Rasmussen did a PA poll that showed McCain ahead by a statistically insignificant margin against both Obama and Hillary. But,

In Pennsylvania, McCain leads both Democrats by double digits among men and trails both by double digits among women. The gap is wider if Clinton is the Democratic nominee.

McCain is viewed favorably by 55% of voters in the state, Obama by 53%, and Clinton by 45%. For Obama, that figure reflects a ten-point decline from last month. In that previous poll, conducted at the height of Obamamania, the Senator from Illinois had a ten-point lead over McCain.

More...

Update: Change of DNC email contact address. I just got an email from the DNC. They are getting the e-mails, particularly from TalkLeft readers. They ask if you want to register your opinion, please use this email address. The address is delegates-at-dnc.org. The DNC says the other email box is overwhelmed by emails, and this will allow better coordination and filtering. The emails will also be accessible to more DNC staffers and constitutent services.

Greg Sergeant at TPM writes an agreement for a re-do primary is imminent in Michigan. No mail-in voting primary, no 50/50.

I also hear the 50/50 won't be accepted and a redo primary is more likely.

Big Tent Democrat will be very happy. And if it's a firehouse primary, he was right weeks ago. Obama previously rejected a firehouse promary.

I'm okay with a re-vote in Michigan. It's not my first choice, but so long as it's not the 50/50 proposal, I can get behind it.

A few times I've mentioned that media commentators at the time said Obama (and Edward's) decision to withdraw their names from the MI ballot was strategic since they were unlikely to win the state and thought it would diminish the value of a Hillary win. Here's a report from the Iowa Independent at the time saying five sources told them it was a consideration, but denied it was the main one.

Update: Obama supporters are holding a meeting tomorrow on how to become a Michigan delegate.

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

I favor Barack Obama in this contest because I see no substantive differences on the issues meaningful to me (others see such differences, it is due to their taking meaning in differences I do not find meaning in) and because I find Obama more electable than Clinton (mostly because of how each is perceived and treated by the Media and existing negative baggage (unfair baggage no doubt) for Clinton.) Obama is also an electoral map changer in the West, where Democrats can make real short and medium term gains (as opposed to the South.) The one worry on that front is his weakness with Latinos.

Ron Brownstein reports on these electoral differences:

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

If, like me, you favor a revote in Florida, or if like Jeralyn, you oppose a revote in Florida, and you are a Florida Dem, here is your chance to tell the Florida Democratic Party what you think:

Please read the memo from Chairwoman Thurman about a suggested solution, and submit your input by Friday, 3/14/08, at 6:00 PM EST. No decision will be made until we hear from Florida Democrats. Thank you.

You can download the memo here: PDF Link

You can read the press release here: Link

Let's make this an Open Thread.

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only.

What is the status of the revote processes in Florida and Michigan? In Florida, because of recalcitrant and foolish Democrats in that state, coupled with a lack of fight from the Clinton campaign, the FL revote plan is near dead on arrival:

The Democratic Party's unprecedented plan to conduct a do-over presidential primary by mail sustained several potentially fatal blows Thursday, leaving state party leaders with few remaining options. The entire Democratic House delegation opposed the plan, Barack Obama and representatives of Hillary Clinton expressed concerns, and state officials said Florida law would prohibit them from authenticating voters' signatures.

(Emphasis supplied.) The "can't do" spirit did not infect all Dems. Some looked for solutions to the problems raised:

On January 15, 2008, 594,398 Democrats went to their polling places and voted in their state's primary. The official Michigan election results are here.

328,309 Democrats in Michigan voted for Hillary Clinton. She won all but two counties, Washtenaw and Emmet. 238,168 voted uncommitted. 21,715 voted for Dennis Kucinich. 3,845 voted for Chris Dodd. 2,361 voted for Mike Gravel.

Hillary got 55% of the vote. The uncommitted, who either were truly uncommitted or for Obama, Edwards or Biden, all three of whom voluntarily withdrew their names from the ballot, got 40%. Kucinich, Dodd and Gravel won 5% of the vote.

Barack Obama now proposes he get 50% of the state's delegates. That would be vote-stealing. It would be disenfranchising 5% of Hillary's voters. It would be assuming that every uncommitted voter and every voter for Kucinich, Dodd and Gravel now want their vote to go to Obama.

That's called stealing an election.

Obama prevails in this crazy theory at his peril. There will be hundreds of thousands of Democrats across the country who will refuse to vote for him in November, thinking better a Republican than a cheat. [More...]

As TalkLeft noted here, the Justice Department's IG issued a report today on the FBI's use and abuse of national security letters. Also noteworthy is this:

The department’s inspector general, Glenn A. Fine, said his office’s interviews with F.B.I. Director Robert S. Mueller III and his top aides had shown a commitment in “energy, time and resources” to fixing deficiencies, and that “significant progress” had been shown since the abuses were first disclosed a year ago.

However, Mr. Fine’s report cautioned, “we believe it is too early to definitively state whether the new systems and controls developed by the F.B.I. and the department will fully eliminate the problems” uncovered in 2007.

In simple English for the legalese impaired: the nation's top law enforcement agency is doing a better job of obeying the law now that it has been caught taking shortcuts, but will probably continue to disobey it this year, just less often.

There will be yet another presidential debate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton -- in Pennsylvania before the primary.

There may even be one more, in North Carolina. Obama has agreed and Hillary has not yet responded.

Update: The AP says Obama has not responded to repeated requests to release his earmark legislation for six of his eightyears in the Illinois Senate. Yet, he's criticizing Hillary on this score:

While silent about Obama's spending in Illinois, his campaign has criticized Democratic presidential rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for withholding similar information about her years in the U.S. Senate.

Obama communications director Robert Gibbs said Thursday that her position should prompt voters to "ask why she doesn't believe they have the right to know she wants to spend their tax dollars."

***

Sen. Barack Obama released his list of 2006 legislation with earmarks today. He has the list on his website here.

Among them, an $8 million request for the "High Explosive Air Burst Technology Program." Ultimately, $1.3 million in funding was awarded for the program. [More...]

By Big Tent Democrat

So Michigan getting it done, but Florida Dems say no to their own plan?

Michigan Democrats are close to an agreement with presidential candidates Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama to hold a do-over primary. Party officials and the campaigns negotiated on Thursday, and state Democratic leaders were hopeful that an agreement could be reached on Friday, said Democratic officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.

As for the great compromise, Bill Nelson tried it on Obama and he said no: