But Kucinich twice filed incorrect paperwork with the Michigan secretary of state's office, and had not filed a notice of withdrawal with his notarized signature by Tuesday's 4 p.m. deadline, said the office's spokesman, Ken Silfven.
I disagreed with Levin when he said:
As a practical matter, no Democratic nominee wants a floor fight over Florida and Michigan delegates, state officials say.
"The Democratic candidates are too smart not to find a way to campaign in Michigan and Florida," Levin said, "and they're not that self-destructive."
My comment:
I must disagree with Levin, if these reports are true and if someone doesn't give, then yes, they might just be that self-destructive.
Time will tell if this will hurt them or not, but Florida and Michigan are important for the Democrats and I think this will hurt them.
We shall see.
Time huh? Well it is just a day later and there is already talk.
Now we see, hat tip to RCP Blogs, some reactions from the Michigan voters.
(Hint: They aren't happy)
Michigan Liberal:
Leave it to the disorganized Democrats to make a mess of their own presidential primary process.
[...]
The RNC told Michigan Republicans that they would lose half of their nominating delegates at their convention. Despite the penalty, all of the Republicans came to Michigan to debate last night, and all of them continue to campaign here.
As usual, the Democrats can’t seem to make up their minds. The Republicans roll on as if everything were normal regardless of how abnormal things are actually going. The Democrats find ways to hobble themselves by alienating their core supporters. Sounds a lot like the Democratic Party I’ve come to know.
[...]
Until the primary process is reformed to make it more equitable for all states, we’re stuck with this hodgepodge mess. Meanwhile, Michigan has been rendered irrelevant on the Democratic side. Even if the state Democratic party does (as has been suggested) cancel the primary, change to a caucus, and move the date back to February, that puts us back where we started: largely ignored except for fundraising and taken for granted.
From Blogging for Michigan we see that Hillary Clinton doesn't even need to remove her name from the ballot because:
"It's unnecessary" to remove her name from the ballot, spokesman Mo Elleithee said, because she has already signed a pledge not to campaign in Michigan or other states violating the national party's scheduling rules.
Democratic national committeewoman and wife of U.S. Rep. John Dingell calls it a "cheap political trick".
A leading Michigan Democrat called the decision by four presidential contenders to pull their names off the state ballot “a cheap political trick,” but said there will be a Jan. 15 primary regardless of who is left to run.
“I’m livid,” said Debbie Dingell, a Democratic national committeewoman and wife of U.S. Rep. John Dingell. “What they don’t realize is they’re not running for president of Iowa, they’re running for president of the United States.”
From the comment section of Blogging from Michigan:
there are two options - Michigan can cave in and move it's primary back behind Iowa, and all those candidates will put their names back on the ballot, but why would we want to vote for any of them? They are off my list. Or, we could stay with the early date, and what candidates are left, and if we choose Hillary, we will just be rubberstamping Iowa, from the sounds of it, so why bother, and if we pick Kucinich, just because he's there, he won't win anyway, so why bother. Right now I am so disappointed in the Democratic party, I am not sure I even consider myself a Democrat anymore. I will never donate money to a candidate again, that is for certain, however this is resolved. I could never vote Republican, I'm really not liberal enough to be Green - maybe I just won't vote.
The next comment:
I unsubscribed from their e-mailing lists today. Never was on a Biden one (does he even have one?)
If they're not coming here, I no longer care what happens to them. Good riddance.
And if we end up having a caucus and they participate, I'm not voting for them.
Those are a small sample of the early reactions to this issue and it is only one day after the reports of the four withdrawing their names.
The comment I posted from the GOP state representative applies even more today than it did yesterday:
Meanwhile, Republican contenders are campaigning actively in a state in which their race looks wide open.
"We couldn't have planned it better ourselves," said Bill Nowling, the state GOP spokesman. "While they're busy shooting themselves in the foot, I'm not going to disturb them."
Yes, by all means, let us not disturb them. In fact, I am willing to even donate to buy them the bullets to continue shooting themselves.
Bigger picture:
Remember the other day she showed you the Democratic, liberal website, Huffington Post, calling the Democratic leadership weak.
If there was any doubt before, which there wasn't, it's gone now. Watching Nancy Pelosi on The View yesterday morning provided the final proof that the backbone of the House is only as strong as its speaker. Her body language said it all. There she sat in the center of the table, sandwiched between Elizabeth Hasselbeck and the "Is the world flat? I don't know" lady, looking anxious and devoid of stately confidence.
Moving right we showed you how the Democratic supporters have started eating their own:
Note to Tom Cole: Quit smiling, it is too early, but at least we, the GOP supporters, are not calling for the ouster of our party leaders, like the Democratic blogs are..
If they keep eating their own like this, then the GOP sure will be smiling by November 2008 with you Mr. Cole.
Example of what I mean by "eating their own":Back in August Matt Stoller first floated the idea of a "Bush Dog" campaign against Democratic members of Congress who enable the right-wing through their support of Bush's policies on core progressive values at key moments.Now the campaign is in full flight. If you type "Bush Dog Democrat" you now get thousands of results. Profiles of all 38 House Bush Dogs have been completed. Among critics are the DLC, DSCC and insider news source National Jornal.
However it has been primarily focused on House Bush Dogs. However with a little research I found that Senate Bush Dogs are a much bigger problem.
They are right, a search for Bush Dog Democrats shows they are, indeed, eating their own and saving the GOP the trouble of having to do it for them....LOLOLOL
So, Mr. Levin, would you like to repeat your comment about the Democrats not being that self-destructive?
.