So on Saturday I dipped my toe into state party politics for the first time, and I got to see how the sausage gets made.
There is more to this democracy thing than just showing up at the polls to vote, you know...a whole hell of a lot more.
The state convention is where we select the members of the DNC who will represent Missouri's issues to the national party, and it is where the at-large delegates are selected who will attend the national convention in Denver in August in support of either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. It also serves as a launching point to get us energized and fired up and ready to unite behind the eventual nominee and take on McSame and the republican fear machine that is rolling at us, preaching doom and gloom and the necessity of ever more war, drilling for oil in ANWR and of course, the gospel of tax cuts. They are going to pay for their folly with yet more tax cuts. Fortunately, the vehicle they like to think of as a Mack truck is actually more akin to a Ford Pinto, and reality is coming up on 'em fast from behind.
Technical issues with my firewall prevented me from doing the live-blogging from the convention that I intended, so I shifted gears. I took a lot of pictures and talked to a lot of people and tried to learn something.
I had the opportunity to speak with Leila Medley, a member of the Democratic National Committee, at the Missouri State Democratic Convention in Columbia on Saturday during a break in the activities as we waited for ballot results:
Hi, I just got the below letter from the impressive spontaneous group formed to protest Schlafly's being awarded with an honorary doctorate from WashU . If true, this letter is even more embarrassing for the university than the degree, since it suggests that "The selection process was ineffective in providing a complete picture of the nominees, and the environment was hostile to dissent." From third hand accounts, it sounds like at least one person on the panel had a pretty strong agenda.
This doesn't sound very cool to me:
May 9, 2008
Chancellor Mark Wrighton
1 Brookings Drive
Campus Box 1192
St. Louis, MO 63130
Dear Chancellor Wrighton:
As the undergraduate members of the Board of Trustees Honorary Degree Committee, we want to express our disappointment with the choice to award Phyllis Schlafly an honorary degree at the 2008 commencement ceremony. The selection process was ineffective in providing a complete picture of the nominees, and the environment was hostile to dissent. We recognize our role in representing our peers, and we accept partial responsibility for the insufficient scrutiny of all nominees. However, throughout the two meetings of the Honorary Degree Committee and discussion of Ms. Schlafly, her prejudice views were never brought to light.
The committee's recommendation of Ms. Schlafly was based on a complicated voting system. Voting occurred in two stages. In our first meeting, we ranked our preferences from approximately thirty names. The nominees were ranked based on the first balloting, and the top five were collected in a slate. We voted yes or no on the entire slate. An
objection by one student was met with hostile opposition. The block of five names was then approved unanimously. We implore you to clarify the University's official statement on the nomination Ms. Schlafly. The explanation of the selection process suggests a unanimous vote on each nominee and disregards the balloting process. It endorses the widely held misconception that every member of the committee voted in favor of Ms. Schlafly.
Ms. Schlafly's views, specifically those opposing a woman's place in academia, are contradictory to the mission of Washington University and inappropriate for recognition at the commencement ceremony. We believe the selection of Phyllis Schlafly was a mistake. The undersigned students have reversed their decisions and urge you to do the same.
Sincerely,
The undergraduate members of the Board of Trustees Honorary Degree Committee
Hui Amy Chen
Amelia D. Keiser
Neil K. Patel
Aaron Robinson
Rachel L. Tucker
State delegates gather on the floor prior to the start of the official proceedings.
It may seem that everything in politics is organized from the top down, but there is is a glorious and sometimes unpredictable element in the mix - the people who participate in the process.
As our little group drove home from the convention late last night I asked everyone to describe their experience in one sentence. One individual replied, "What the hell just happened?" We all laughed. But we understood.
Having attended the state Democratic conventions in 1996 and 2000 I was fully aware of and prepared for the process and progress of the day's events. It's always going to be a very long day. This time around I wore several hats - as a voting state delegate (in the 4th Congressional District), as a participant on the Resolutions Committee, and as a blogger covering the event.
Never having attended a state convention before, I wouldn't know: do the bigwigs who speak while the delegates are being counted always stress unity? Of the seven who spoke--Robin Carnahan, Susan Montee, Lacy Clay, Dick Gephardt, Claire McCaskill, Ike Skelton, and Russ Carnahan, only one strayed from that theme. And even she--Robin Carnahan--after berating the voter I.D. proposal, mentioned the need for party unity once a nominee is picked.
Gephardt made it clear he had backed Hillary, but that he was also proud of Obama--of both our fine nominees. Montee said "they" keep trying to stress our divisions, not only between Clinton and Obama, but between genders, age groups, educational level, what have you. Enough already, she thinks. We're going to unite because we must.
Just to add on to what hotflash wrote, as a first-time attendee, the State Democratic Convention is surreal. Nobody had giant sequined Uncle Sam-style top hats, as far as I could tell, but most everyone had stickers and buttons for the statewide candidates covering their lapels, sleeves, and in some cases, their backs. Nixon and Page stickers were omnipresent, Jeff Harris and Andria Simckes stickers were also in abundance, and Koster had some representation, too. And you couldn't walk 10 feet without a flier or sticker for a delegate candidate. The actual candidates for office were shy by comparison.
I spent time talking to Ken Jacob about how splitting logs keeps him in shape. Judy Baker told me that there's nothing interesting about her (interesting campaign strategy, but she's wrong - she's fabulous) and Steve Gaw and I swapped stories about riding horses. I shared an elevator ride with the president of MNEA, who pressed me for a DNC at-large delegate vote, and told me that despite their differences on some pieces of education policy, she really likes Jeff Smith.
I met people from all corners of the state, including a state rep candidate from KC who's a big George Jones fan and a Springfield at-large delegate candidate who shared his poem about Barack Obama with me. I also finally met Bill Monroe face to face, and although I didn't get to talk to him as much as I liked, he did vent some about the Obama delegate slate, because he had committed to voting for local grassroots activists who had worked hard for Obama. An official slate would probably cut them out of a shot at Denver.
I forget whether Friday evening was billed as a banquet. Whatever they called it, I wouldn't call it a banquet. The food, which was strictly incidental, was a rubber chicken buffet--without the chicken. Cold roast beef, sandwiches three times the size of a postage stamp, dice made of cheese, and sliced veggies.
Also incidental were any speeches that were made. Somebody spoke to himself on the microphone for five minutes. I couldn't decipher a word of it at the back of the "banquet" room. No one paid the least attention to him. They were there for the main attraction: each other. It was a chance to network, trade war stories, briefly make the acquaintance of like minded people you'll never see again. Everybody nibbled fried mushrooms from their five inch plates and circulated. In fact, I dropped a fried mushroom and the woman I was talking to--we'll allow her to remain nameless--smiled, picked it up and popped it in her mouth. She was efficient and unembarrassed. I hadda love it.
Jay Nixon spoke for five minutes or so to rally the troops. Maybe three fourths of the people in the room quit talking for that. As soon as he stopped, a couple of hundred conversations resumed. So did the band. Hearing what was said was problematic.
I talked to Ken Jacob and Judy Baker, both vying for Hulshof's seat in the Ninth. Ken likes to split wood. "Like Bush," I said, but Ken explained that he himself chops wood. Bush saws it. OK. Judy's excited about the year and her campaign. But she does moan that she's got to find a way to be less ... "boring." Not that she is. All she means is that she's no fun to gossip about. She should start a rumor that she has ties to organized crime. That'll jazz up her image.
Steve Gaw was there, too, but I didn't get a chance to meet him. Saturday, maybe.
WASHINGTON - Cindy McCain says she will never make her tax returns public even if her husband wins the White House and she becomes the first lady.
"You know, my husband and I have been married 28 years and we have filed separate tax returns for 28 years. This is a privacy issue. My husband is the candidate," Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting John McCain, said in an interview aired on NBC's "Today" on Thursday.
Asked if she would release her tax returns if she was first lady, Cindy McCain said: "No."
The power went off at Blue Girl's house just as she was about to post the piece below, but since it was up on her own site already, I'm copying and pasting it for her to this one.
Section 2. All citizens of the United States, including occupants of soldiers' and sailors' homes, over the age of eighteen who are residents of this state and of the political subdivision in which they offer to vote are entitled to vote at all elections by the people...
[emphasis added]
That's a pretty strong endorsement of the right to vote. Too bad they don't have that "problem" in Indiana.
About 12 Indiana nuns were turned away Tuesday from a polling place by a fellow bride of Christ because they didn't have state or federal identification bearing a photograph.
Sister Julie McGuire said she was forced to turn away her fellow sisters at Saint Mary's Convent in South Bend, across the street from the University of Notre Dame, because they had been told earlier that they would need such an ID to vote.
The nuns, all in their 80s or 90s, didn't get one but came to the precinct anyway.
"One came down this morning, and she was 98, and she said, 'I don't want to go do that,'" Sister McGuire said. Some showed up with outdated passports. None of them drives.
They weren't given provisional ballots because it would be impossible to get them to a motor vehicle branch and back in the 10-day time frame allotted by the law, Sister McGuire said. "You have to remember that some of these ladies don't walk well. They're in wheelchairs or on walkers or electric carts..."
Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan issued a press release today:
Apparently piqued at Harris' support for the Sunshine Law, Matt Blunt asked Attorney General candidate (and current State Rep.) Jeff Harris to turn over all correspondence sent to or from Harris' office.
Interesting how Blunt's chief of staff Trish Vincent started the letter:
"In your campaign for attorney general," the letter began, "you have announced your ardent support for Missouri's Sunshine Act. I wanted to provide you with the opportunity to demonstrate that commitment by fulfilling the below open records request." [emphasis mine]
So now Jeff Harris gets to prove his personal commitment to an issue he talks about quite a bit. In fact, on that first blogger conference call last fall, Harris talked at length about the possible interactions between an Attorney General Harris' office and the Sunshine Law.
Harris didn't waste any time in responding, either:
"I am a strong believer in the Sunshine Law, and that's why I've sponsored legislation to make sure that records are open to the public and that Missouri's public officials govern openly," said Harris. "Whether they are on a town council or they are the governor of the state, public officials must understand that government records belong to the people, and not to them."
Harris, a Democratic candidate for Attorney General, said he will comply with Blunt's request, but he questioned obvious political motives behind the request. Blunt's request came just one day after Harris, in a speech on the House floor, commended two state employees for standing up to the governor, whose office investigators allege made an illegal request to destroy public documents.
The state convention is where we select the members of the DNC who will represent Missouri's issues to the national party, and it is where the at-large delegates are selected who will attend the national convention in Denver in August in support of either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. It also serves as a launching point to get us energized and fired up and ready to 
