What's particularly outrageous is that the Clinton campaign supported the calendar, and the sanctions against Michigan and Florida, until Clinton won those states and needed to have their delegations seated.
Last August, when the DNC Rules Committee voted to strip Florida (and Michigan, if it persisted in clinging to its date) of its delegates, the Clinton delegates on the committee backed those sanctions. All 12 Clinton supporters on the committee supported the penalties. (The only member of the committee to vote against them was an Obama supporter from Florida.) Harold Ickes, a committee member, leading Clinton strategist and acknowledged master of the political game, said, "This committee feels very strongly that the rules ought to be enforced." Patty Solis Doyle, then Clinton's campaign manager, further affirmed the decision. "We believe Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina play a unique and special role in the nominating process," she said, referring to the four states that the committee authorized to hold the first contests. "And we believe the DNC's rules and its calendar provide the necessary structure to respect and honor that role. Thus, we will be signing the pledge to adhere to the DNC-approved nominating calendar."
Not a single Clinton campaign official or DNC Rules Committee member, much less the candidate herself, said at the time that the sanctions imposed on Florida or Michigan were in any way a patriarchal plot or an affront to democratic values. The threat that these rules posed to our fundamental beliefs was discovered only ex post facto -- the facto in question being Clinton's current need to seat the delegations whose seatings she had opposed when she thought she'd cruise to the nomination.
Is it situational ethics as Meyerson concludes? Absolutely. Is it brazen? Of course. Is it surprising? From the Clintons, sadly no, it is not. In fact this is exactly the Clinton modus operandi since 1992 if not before. When Clinton needed to look tough he went back to Arkansas to preside over a state execution. When he needed to reassure folks that he didn't owe anything to the Jesse Jackson wing he renounced Sister Souljah.
Hillary's the same way. When the political winds were in support of the Iraq war she was too. When they blew against, she turned like a weather vane. What is especially maddening is that if these typical Clintonian tactics were used against Republicans, these very same liberals and Democrats that are so up in arms would be hailing her as a master strategist able to nimbly flank her political opponents.
So please spare me the shock and horror routine. The Democratic party knew what you were getting in bed with when they permitted the clintons to lead the party throughout the nineties. It's a little late to feign disgust and outrage now. But perhaps they thought those tactics would not be used against their fellow Democrats? They thought wrong.
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