The Barack Obama campaign decided to replace so already designated delegates with Obama backers, which has created a very nasty exchange between Democratic National Committee (DNC) member Jon Ausman and Obama's Florida finance chair Kirk Wagar.
Think again.
Ausman emailed Democrats and reporters on Thursday, show some highlights of emails sent to him by Obama's Florida finance chair Kirk Wagar.
Those highlights include, "You f&^%ed us. We are dealing with it. You need to accept the fact that you f*&^ed us."
Wagar had some choice words for Senator Bill nelson (D-FL.) as well, saying, "I am getting very sick of Nelson making a bad situation worse."
Ausman, obviously upset and playing this whole exchange up, publicly, asks Wagar, "We are at a point in time when we need to heal and come together. Help me understand how these messages, which you have sent to me in writing, help Senator Obama's campaign."
All this is occurring as the Florida Democrats are preparing for the Jefferson-Jackson dinner to be held on Saturday, with the purpose of bringing the party "together once and for all.
After Ausman sent out those choice segments of Wagar's emails, Wagar sent out another email apologizing for his profanity and accusing Ausman of using "out of context snippets from some ongoing and sometimes heated arguments we have had over the course of this campaign."
He continued by saying, "I apologize for the profanity that you were subjected to. It is a vice of mine that I try to minimize but seems to rear it’s head with more frequency when I deal with Jon."
Wagar also accuses Ausman of trying to twist the whole thing into more than it really is.
Florida isn't the only place that Barack Obama is having a problem with Democratic delegates either.
Recently it was reported that Representative Dan Boren (D-OK.) has refused to endorse Barack Obama, saying he was "too liberal" and saying that he is not known for working with people across the aisle, despite his claims.
Boren says that although he will not endorse Barack Obama before the Democratic Convention in August, but that he will vote for him at the convention and in the November election.
Not so for the other Democratic Representative in the previous report, Tim Mahoney (D-Fl.), who says he will not endorse Obama and he might not even attend the convention, saying he was voted in to represent his "constituents, all of them: Democrats, Republicans and independents."
There are number of other Democratic superdelegates being added to the list, including but not limited to, Representative Jim Marshall (D-GA.), who didn't endorse John Kerry in 2004, Representative Charlie Melancon (D-LA.), and Representative Don Cazayoux also a Democrat from Louisiana.
Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.), a longtime Obama backer, said that he harbors no ill will for Democrats who stay on the sidelines.
“People’s responsibility, first and foremost, is to get reelected,” Davis said.
These are Democratic politicians who were elected into conservative districts because of their centrist stances.
They vote with the Democratic caucus on a range of issues, but not all. They are known to vote with the Republican caucus on issues where their constituency, the people that elected them, do not agree with the progressive portion of the Democratic party.
They are known as "Blue Dog Democrats" and some are the "New Democrat Caucus".
Far left liberal progressive websites have been targeting these Democrats, calling them "Bush Dog Democrats" and in some cases, far left liberal supporters have been actively campaigning to force them to vote with party instead of what their district constituents want or actively setting up ads against them to be shown in their own districts to get them replaced with Democratic representatives that will vote with party instead of by issue according to how they feel they should vote.
And so, you may have noticed a lot of chatter about 'Bush Dog' Democrats over the past few days. That's not an accident. We've been working to identify the group of conservative Democrats in the House who are holding back progressives from being able to effectively govern. These are concentrated in two main caucuses, the Blue Dog Caucus and the New Democrat caucuses. Blue Dogs consider themselves heirs to the Southern conservative wing of the party, and tend to vote for socially restrictive policies and a hawkish foreign policy. The New Democrats tend to be more partisan, but often are key to passing important pieces of right-wing legislation, such as the Bankruptcy Bill. In the last few years, these two caucuses have expanded their numbers, and the Blue Dogs have become the swing vote in the House allowing for effective conservative control of the Congress. We want to put a stop to the embrace of conservative values among House Democrats, and make sure that when Democrats are elected, they act like Democrats.
Jim Marshall, mentioned above as one of the Democratic superdelegates that will not endorse Barack Obama is one of those that were targeted by supporters of the Democratic party, via an ad, run in his home town paper.
In some cases they have been actively trying to see to it these "Bush Dog Democrats" are not reelected, which has had many describing them as "eating their own".
Although that project by the far left liberal websites started late into 2007, it is not old news because they have been working at it since then and are still working that campaign.
The only real prospect for changing any of that is to attach a political price, some form of meaningful punishment, when they do things such as vote to abolish habeas corpus or to vest new warrantless eavesdropping powers in the President or to grant amnesty to telecoms. That needs to be done even if it means weakening the bad Democrat in question.
Many of these Blue Dog Democrats are coming up for reelection and since they were elected for their centrist stances, this type of dog eat dog metality could harm them as well as the chances of Democrats keeping those particular seats in conservative districts.
Add that with the latest CBS report showing that while Barack obama leads McCain by 6 percentage points, John McCain leads by 8 percentage points in the Independent vote and that 12 percent of Democrats say they will support McCain in the general election, which according to CBS is 4 percent more than what defected to Bush in 2004.
Then we have the diehard Hillary Clinton supporters that are actively working to bring more people to the John McCain camp.
There has also been over 95 blogs that have sprung up, or joined in, that say, "We are a coalition of millions with one thing in common: NObama."
Despite claims that the Democratic party is unifying, there are large portions fractured and actually battling with each other and Florida is only the tip of the iceberg.
What is really amazing is that finally something came along that untied some conservative voters with a large number of Clinton supporters.... Barack Obama.
At least he managed to unify something.
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