By Big Tent Democrat

Like Move On, Speaker Pelosi's daughter, Christine Pelosi, seems not to care who wins the most votes in this nomination process:

"Many of us are elected by the grassroots of the party," she said, "And I cannot imagine going home in November to those people and try to phone bank for someone who did not capture the [pledged delegate] vote... We were all galvanized by what happened to Al Gore in Florida."

Apparently Ms. Pelosi does not at ALL remember what happened to Al Gore, he won the POPULAR VOTE, and lost the vote of the "delegates" to the Electoral College. Ms. Pelosi has it exactly backwards. I for one would be dismayed if the Popular Vote winner were denied the nomination due to the undemocratic pledged delegate process - with its undemocratic caucus and apportionment processes. That would be a travesty.

By Big Tent Democrat

This horse has long been beaten to death, but this thoughtful diary about the MI/FL fiasco ignores the fact that, as commenter dhonig points out, it was the DNC that changed the rules of what the punishment would be for moving up the Mi and FL primaries. Rule 20(c)(1) of the DNC Rules on Selection of Delegates at the time the date changes were enacted by Michigan and Florida stated:

By Big Tent Democrat

As we say in Spanish, una muerte anunciada:

Sen. Barack Obama won the support Friday of the 1.9-million member Service Employees International Union, his second endorsement in as many days from large labor organizations . . . "There has never been a fight in Illinois or a fight in the nation where our members have not asked Barack Obama for assistance and he has not done everything he could to help us," Andy Stern, the union's president, told reporters in announcing the decision.

By Big Tent Democrat

Dog bites man, Joe Lieberman supports torture:

Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman reluctantly acknowledged Thursday that he does not believe waterboarding is torture, but believes the interrogation technique should be available only under the most extreme circumstances.

Lieberman was one of 45 senators who voted Wednesday in opposition to a bill that would limit the CIA to the 19 interrogation techniques outlined in the Army field manual. That manual prohibits waterboarding, a method where detainees typically are strapped to a bench and have water poured into their mouth and nose making them feel as if they will drown.

(Emphasis supplied.) It bears repeating, shame on Connecticut for reelecting Lieberman.

By Big Tent Democrat

Research 2000 says it is 47-42:

ALL MEN WOMEN

Barack Obama 47% 53% 42%

Hillary Clinton 42% 36% 47%

Undecided 11% 11% 11%

The Center for International Policy, a group whose mission is "promoting a U.S. foreign policy based on international cooperation, demilitarization and respect for basic human rights," has released two reports in the past month comparing the positions of the Republican and Democratic candidates on immigration, using their own words, statements on their websites and their votes in Congress. On the Republican side, McCain and Huckabee are included; for the Democrats, it's Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards.

The presidential candidates of the Democratic Party share a common conviction that the country badly needs comprehensive immigration reform that offers a path to legalization for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States. The policy positions of the Democratic Party candidates—Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Barack Obama—stand in sharp contrast to those offered by the Republican Party candidates, with the partial exception of John McCain.

[More...]

TalkLeft is now part of Newsweek's blog coverage, with all of our election posts appearing simultaneously as we post them here on Newsweek's group blog page, The Ruckus. Here is their press release announcing it.

Newsweek and the Media Bloggers Association (MBA) have invited three new blogs to join 'The Ruckus,' a group blog about politics published by Newsweek.com. Joining 'The Ruckus' are Brian Leubitz of Calitics, Jeralyn Merritt of TalkLeft and David Oatney of The World According to Oatney.

"The newest contributors to 'The Ruckus' represent key states in the 2008 presidential race -- California, Colorado and Tennessee," said Deidre Depke, editor of Newsweek.com. "As the campaign progresses, we'll periodically introduce new blogs to reflect the changing political landscape."

Big Tent Democrat's election posts are included as well -- his posts appear with his byline to differentiate them from mine. [More...]

Great casting, in my opinion. Via Huffington Post:

Nearly a year after Warner Brothers announced their intention to make a biopic of outed CIA agent Valerie Plame, the identity of the actress who will play her has finally been leaked to the media - and you can only find it on MTV News. "Nicole Kidman," director Doug Liman revealed. "She's perfect if you've ever met Valerie.

It will be a while before the movie starts filming, as Nicole is currently pregnant.

It's not often that the Rocky Mountain News editorial board takes President Bush to task.

Today it does just that, over his complaints about the House of Representatives' balking at the extension of his warrantless wiretapping program and his threat to veto any bill that does not include retroactive immunity for telecoms who cooperated with the National Security Agency.

The Rocky does not mince words:

Earlier this week, President Bush actually suggested that al-Qaida operatives are watching the calendar, poised to plot new attacks freely with Congress absent - and U.S. intelligence officials will be largely powerless to stop them.

Don't insult the American public, Mr. President. You'll still have the ability to wiretap suspected terrorists - and the warrantless surveillance powers in the bill are valid until August.

It also opines that we need the lawsuits against the telecoms to go forward so the public can see whether privacy rights were trampled. [More...]

By Big Tent Democrat

So sayeth Rassmussen:

The latest Rasmussen Reports polling in Texas also shows the former First Lady on top in the Lone Star State. Clinton attracts 54% of the vote in Texas while Obama earns 38% with nearly three weeks to go until Election Day.

h/t andgarden. Polling shows Clinton with large leads in Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania. This ain't over.

By Big Tent Democrat

Markos writes another post attacking the Clinton campaign, nothing new there, but I found this part deeply ironic:

So the Clinton campaign has graduated from saying that certain states don't matter, to saying certain voters don't matter, to now saying that the Democratic Party electorate doesn't matter.

I am curious if Markos would agree with me that the popular vote totals should be the most important criteria for super delegates? Do you think he would agree that ALL voters matter (including the voters of Florida and Michigan, the ones Howard Dean and Donna Brazile decided don't matter?) Or do you think he will follow the Obama mantra that only the pledged delegate count matters?

By Big Tent Democrat

If the Clinton campaign thought NBC was going to do anything to rein in the pattern of behavior of its on air personalities, Tweety quickly removed any such expectation this morning:

Chris Matthews fired a salvo at the Clinton campaign this morning after both he and his MSNBC colleague were privately and publicly rebuked for recent comments deemed misogynistic or inappropriate.

Appearing on MSNBC's Morning Joe, the Hardball host went off on the Clinton press shop, calling them "knee cappers" who were "lousy" and delve in the business of "intimidation."

Got it? NBC will do NOTHING to change the pattern of behavior of its network. It remains proudly the anti-Hillary network, sexist and misogynistic to its core. See also Bob Somerby on Tweety's continuing patttern of sexism, stuff you won't read about at the A-list blogs.