I don't know about you, but I am getting sick and tired of those top donors who are constantly attacking Dean and the DNC for taking a stand on the issue of FL and MI delegates. They are becoming whiny and annoying. They have been doing this way too much.
From TPM
Top Hillary Fundraisers Rip Into Howard DeanTwo of Hillary Clinton's most prominent fundraisers tore into Howard Dean in interviews with me today, sharply criticizing the DNC chair for saying yesterday that super-delegates should say which Dem candidate they support "starting now."
"Governor Dean should do what he has said he will do -- refrain from injecting himself into the primary process, as millions of Democrats have yet to cast their votes," Hillary national finance chair Hassan Nemazee, one of the most influential fundraisers in the Democratic Party, told me today.
"If he wishes to do something productive," Nemazee continued, "he should exhibit the leadership necessary to resolve the Florida and Michigan impasse, which has disenfranchised millions of Democratic voters."
A second prominent Democratic fundraiser, Robert Zimmerman, a Democratic National Committeeman and key Hillary fundraiser, sounded a similar note in an interview with me today.
"Howard Dean is more committed to pressuring the super delegates to make up their minds before the voting is done than he is to ensuring that Michigan and Florida's votes are counted," Zimmerman charged.
Bad attitude, guys.
You know what's funny? I had just posted a likely scenario that FL and MI delegates would be used by the Clinton campaign
to make Obama sound like an illegitimate nominee.I should have known they would be after Dean again today. And this is far from the first time these big money guys have gotten into it with him. One was at a major event with both campaigns. The Clinton donors used the event to attack Dean over FL and MI, and the Obama big donors mostly sat silently. Two of the Clinton donors got up and left the event because they did not get their way.
Threats toward Howard Dean by Clinton's big donors should alarm us greatly.At that point Clinton campaign finance chair Hassan Nemazee spoke up. He said Dean's response sounded to him as if the DNC chairman were "essentially trying to kick the can down the road" and that the chairman was not exhibiting the type of leadership one would expect. Nemazee said that since the campaigns obviously could not reach a solution on their own before June, Dean's argument amounted to passing the buck.
Dean then responded, heatedly, that in his experience, those who sought the intervention of party leadership were motivated by their own particular agendas. And that was not the sort of leadership he intended to provide.
I hate to say I told you so, but I did. They will use this issue as a battering ram against Dean and the DNC, and as a result, against Obama.
They are already putting out talking points saying there are no rules covering FL and MI. They are already putting out talking points making FL and MI sound like victims instead of purposeful rulebreakers.
Win any old way you can....that is the new mantra of that campaign.
DU Donor
