Madfloridian's Journal - On national TV Terry McAuliffe misleads about DNC rules. A former chairman should not do that.

It is not honest, and it is not fair to the party.

Terry McAuliffe was on Face the Nation last Sunday. While on there he did not tell the truth about the party rules.

Here is the video from Red Lasso, a short clip of the interview.

McAuliffe discusses DNC rules with Bob Schieffer.

Terry McAuliffe on Face The Nation makes some very interesting comments about the DNC rules. Ironic, since he was chairman just before Howard Dean.

He says the DNC controls the delegates, they don't control the "popular vote"...there he goes again. He says these people voted, they were certified at the county level, and at the state level. He totally ignores the fact that there is a national level to the our party. What a shameful thing for him to do.

Schieffer reminds him that when he was chairman, he threatened Carl Levin if Michigan moved its primary up.

Expletives were flying. The head of the Democratic National Committee was having it out with Sen. Carl Levin because Michigan wanted to crash the rarefied club of early presidential primary states.

Move your primary too early, Terry McAuliffe warned, and Michigan will lose half its delegates to the 2004 Democratic convention.

"The closest they'll get to Boston will be watching it on television," McAuliffe vowed. "I will not let you break this entire nominating process for one state. The rules are the rules."

He brushed Schieffer's statement off. Just shrugged it off. Then he flat out lied on national TV. He said the rules only said 50% of the delegates can be stripped. That is just not true. He knows it is not true.

Florida knew the rules when they voted 115 to 1 with the Republican in the legislature. They knew what they were doing.

The 50% strip of delegates is automatic without a vote of the rules committee. Since Florida openly defied and went before the comittee and said they acted in good faith...they were stripped 100%...well within the rules.

Under the DNC delegate selection rules, if a state party’s plan violates the rule with respect to timing, the number of its pledged delegates—those delegates awarded proportionally to candidates based on the primary or caucus results—is automatically reduced 50%(without any action by the RBC or DNC); no member of the DNC can attend the Convention as a delegate; no Member of Congress can attend the Convention as a delegate; and if applicable, the state’s Democratic governor can not attend the Convention as a delegate. In addition, any presidential candidate who campaigns in the state for the event in violation of the rules cannot receive any pledged delegates from that state. In addition to these automatic sanctions, the DNC RBC has authority under the rules to impose additional sanctions, including further reductions in the state’s delegation.

Terry did not tell the truth about the party rules, and he was on national TV. That is not being honest, and it hurts the party, it hurts her campaign's credibility, and it is harmful to Howard Dean as chairman. Many people do not realize he is not telling the truth.

Unfortunately, this scheme has worked quite well. The Florida bloggers fell down on the job of holding the state Democrats accountable for their actions. The media followed suit.

It worked.

He had another glorious outing on Meet the Press Sunday as well. He warned Democrats not to "alienate" Clinton voters

Some people have been looking for signs of a graceful exit from the Democratic presidential race by Hillary Clinton. But Terry McAuliffe, her campaign chairman, made it clear on the Sunday morning talk shows today that that isn't happening any time soon.

McAuliffe was in there swinging on both Face the Nation and Meet the Press, arguing that Clinton still has a chance to win the party nomination. And if they're smart, he suggested, superdelegates will hold out and not do anything that might turn off the many people who have voted for her this primary season.

"Most of the superdelegates will wait til the end til everybody's voted," McAuliffe said. Clinton will be ahead in the popular vote, he predicted, and ahead in delegates.

"They understand we're in a fragile time in our party," he said. "Let's let the process finish. People need to be careful not to alienate" the Clinton supporters.

Sometimes several people in her inner circle have forgotten that total honesty matters...that politics has changed since the internet. They have stuck with the old ways of using highly paid strategists with other loyalties...the gravy train strategists.