Stories

Here’s the latest from the Center for Independent Media:
The Associated Press is reporting that James Carabelli, the chair of the Macomb County Republican party, is suing the Michigan Messenger and its parent organization, the non-profit Center for Independent Media, over the Messenger’s report last month in which Carabelli was quoted as saying the party planned [...]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) introduced legislation today to bar political parties from challenging the eligibility of voters whose homes have been foreclosed.

A 2012 nomination calendar that could help keep Iowa first in the nation was one of the few items that quietly passed during Monday’s abbreviated session of the Republican National Convention.

The Republican National Convention’s rules committee voted Wednesday to approve a 2012 nomination calendar that could help keep Iowa first. The proposed calendar goes to the full convention on Monday.

In the end, the Michigan and Florida delegate seating that was at the center of the political universe at the end of May sailed through without notice, on a quick credentials vote Monday before the delegates were even through the security lines.

“Unity,” it seems, mattered more than loyalty, and the Michigan and Florida pols who heaped vitriol on Barack Obama for standing by the rules, and for taking his name off the Michigan ballot, mattered more than the Iowans who actually caucused for him.

The rules? Never mind.
The DNC’s credentials committee made it official yesterday: The two states that broke the rules on the nomination calendar and caused delegate count turmoil until days before the primaries ended, Florida and Michigan, will get full seating and full votes at this week’s convention.
Michigan Senator Carl Levin, Public Enemy Number One of [...]

“The creation of this commission is a clear sellout to Hillary Clinton,” said Dave Nagle, who chaired the Iowa Democratic Party during the 1984 caucuses and served in Congress from 1986 to 1992.

Remember that all-important Democratic Rules and Nominations committee meeting at the end of May, that finally, definitively punished Florida and Michigan for violating the primary calendar? Well, forget it. Barack Obama is, now that it doesn’t matter to the nomination math, recommending seating the two states at full strength.

Marc Arbinder, The Atlantic:
“Sen. Carl Levin will be speaking on behalf of Michigan; he wants the entire delegation seated and given full votes, and if he does not get his way, he will likely challenge the RBC’s ruling when the credentials committee convenes unless the rules and bylaws committee promises to strip Iowa and New [...]

In a conference call Friday, Hillary Clinton campaign officials acknowledged for the first time in months that Florida and Michigan broke Democratic Party rules by moving up their primaries, and thus cannot receive more than a half share of delegates.

Also, in a brief, Clinton attorneys wrote: “Rule 20(C)(7) allows the (Rules and Bylaws Committee) to [...]