PUMA's Newest Martyr
Jul. 27th, 2008 08:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
patgund(Originally posted at YesToDemocracy)
It's early June. Primaries are over, tempers are still flaring. Several of Sen. Hillary Clinton's supporters are still smarting over her defeat.
Including one Debra Bartoshevich. Who publicly said she would vote for McCain, and even signed up with “Citizens for McCain", who gave her contact info to a reporter looking for an interview.
There was one little problem with this. Debra Bartoshevich was a Clinton delegate to the Democratic National convention. Ooopsie.
Needless to say, the Wisconsin Democratic Party didn't like this at all. They asked the DNC rules committee if they could challenge her credentials. The DNC rules committee said yes and bounced it back to the Wisconsin Democratic Party. And by 27 June, Ms. Bartoshevich was fighting to keep her status as a delegate.
Now here's the thing. As a delegate, Ms. Bartoshevich signed several documents expressing support for the presumptive nominee of the opposing party and pledging intent to vote for the party's presidential ticket in the fall. This is normal, standard, and not surprising. And it also means that Ms. Bartoshevich broke the rules and pledges she signed as a delegate.
By this time, Ms. Bartoshevich was framing the argument that the Wisconsin Democratic Party was being "undemocratic", saying:
"If they decide to strip me of my status, they decide to do something un-American," Bartoshevich said. "It’s not democracy. It doesn’t stand for unity, which the party wants."
Now as various Anti-PUMAs know, this is a very common refrain from them. That the Democratic party is "un-democratic" because it won't break the rules PUMA wants broken.
And about this point, PUMAs like "ClintonDems" started sending out "action alerts" to "save Debra Bartoshevich". Their spin is, predictively enough, that the evil bad nasty DNC is stifling poor Ms. Bartoshevich, and stealing her right to vote for Sen. Clinton.
Yes, they're actually saying that she had her delegate status taken away because she wouldn't vote for Obama, rather than she broke the rules.
The former Soviet Union has nothing on this attempt at revisionist history.
PUMA Riverdaughter made the comment that Ms. Bartoshevich's mistake was "She failed to get even before she got mad." PUMA SharmaJee tried to bring up the RNC case of Susan Catania, who in 1984 wouldn't make it a unanimous choice for re-nomination of Ronald Reagan, implying of course that the DNC is trying to do the same for Sen. Obama. The JSND group ClintonDems is complaining that there is a "concerted effort to flip every Clinton delegate, pledged or otherwise, to Obama to remove the possibility of Obama being upstaged at the convention", which is ironic given The Denver Group and other PUMA's attempt to flip Obama delegates to Clinton.
All this time the PUMA's are throwing a little pity party of their owns, high up on the martyr tree because all Ms. Bartoshevich wanted to do was *sniff* go to the convention and vote for Hillary. Crocodile tears much??
Well, on 25 July the Wisconsin Democratic Party had their conference call to discuss Ms. Bartoshevich's status. And the result?
Debra Bartoshevich was stripped of her status as a delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. She tried to keep her status, (no doubt to make PUMA mischief), saying she "made her statements about McCain at “an emotional time”", and that she was "truly a dedicated Democrat". But she wouldn't say who she was voting for in the fall, and kept using the phrase "Democrat Party", which several people in the conference cited as one of "Rush Limbaugh’s talking points". Ms. Bartoshevich has been replaced by Clinton delegate Marilyn Nemeth, who said "I’m happy to go because this is history".
Now let me repeat that. Ms. Bartoshevich was replaced by another Clinton delegate. No delegates were taken from Sen. Clinton, one was replaced instead. Sen. Clinton's delegate count remains the same.
But not in the magic realm of PUMAland, where up is down and pesky things like rules and logic don't matter. HillaryClinton.net had such gems as "it smacks of totalitarialism!" and "I am beginning to really hate the DNC and their 'rules'". PUMA CaffiineQueen snottly said Hail The Obama…OR ELSE! and makes the absurd statement later that "If you visit some pro-Obama blogs you’ll quickly find out that they intend to accept nothing less than their “saviour’s” status being officially changed to that of a God." HillaryGreenMountain.org chimed in with comments like "Stripping Debra Bartoshevich of her delegate status is more proof that Obama was selected by the heads of the democratic party to be the nominee." though there was an even more out there comment that I'll just post the screen shot of:
JSND blog notfallinginline.org is doing a letter campaign to protest Ms. Bartoshevich losing "her delegate status as punishment for supporting Hillary Clinton", (which of course is NOT why she lost her delegate status. She lost her delegate status for supporting John McCain!! She's been replaced by ANOTHER CLINTON DELEGATE. Obviously PUMAland is a truth-free zone.)
End result. Ms. Bartoshevich got angry because her choice for nominee didn't win, and publicly said she would vote for Sen. McCain, even going do far as to join a McCain group, (she later claimed her sister had joined her instead). She got caught. She was in violation of rules and pledges she signed and agreed to when she became a delegate. And as such, she was removed and replaced with another Clinton delegate. Clinton didn't lose any delegates, the only change was replacing a delegate that was openly undermining the DNC (and Sen. Clinton too) with a delegate that could agree to and keep the rules and pledges a delegate is supposed to keep.
If PUMA and JSND wants to make a rule-breaker into some martyr for their misguided cause, so be it. But their open support of an avowed Sen. McCain supporter speaks volumes about the real goals of PUMA/JSND and their supporters. Because by now it's blindingly obvious their only real goal is electing John McCain and destroying Barack Obama, (and Hillary Clinton, and Howard Dean, and anyone else who gets in their way).
It's early June. Primaries are over, tempers are still flaring. Several of Sen. Hillary Clinton's supporters are still smarting over her defeat.
Including one Debra Bartoshevich. Who publicly said she would vote for McCain, and even signed up with “Citizens for McCain", who gave her contact info to a reporter looking for an interview.
There was one little problem with this. Debra Bartoshevich was a Clinton delegate to the Democratic National convention. Ooopsie.
Needless to say, the Wisconsin Democratic Party didn't like this at all. They asked the DNC rules committee if they could challenge her credentials. The DNC rules committee said yes and bounced it back to the Wisconsin Democratic Party. And by 27 June, Ms. Bartoshevich was fighting to keep her status as a delegate.
Now here's the thing. As a delegate, Ms. Bartoshevich signed several documents expressing support for the presumptive nominee of the opposing party and pledging intent to vote for the party's presidential ticket in the fall. This is normal, standard, and not surprising. And it also means that Ms. Bartoshevich broke the rules and pledges she signed as a delegate.
By this time, Ms. Bartoshevich was framing the argument that the Wisconsin Democratic Party was being "undemocratic", saying:
"If they decide to strip me of my status, they decide to do something un-American," Bartoshevich said. "It’s not democracy. It doesn’t stand for unity, which the party wants."
Now as various Anti-PUMAs know, this is a very common refrain from them. That the Democratic party is "un-democratic" because it won't break the rules PUMA wants broken.
And about this point, PUMAs like "ClintonDems" started sending out "action alerts" to "save Debra Bartoshevich". Their spin is, predictively enough, that the evil bad nasty DNC is stifling poor Ms. Bartoshevich, and stealing her right to vote for Sen. Clinton.
Yes, they're actually saying that she had her delegate status taken away because she wouldn't vote for Obama, rather than she broke the rules.
The former Soviet Union has nothing on this attempt at revisionist history.
PUMA Riverdaughter made the comment that Ms. Bartoshevich's mistake was "She failed to get even before she got mad." PUMA SharmaJee tried to bring up the RNC case of Susan Catania, who in 1984 wouldn't make it a unanimous choice for re-nomination of Ronald Reagan, implying of course that the DNC is trying to do the same for Sen. Obama. The JSND group ClintonDems is complaining that there is a "concerted effort to flip every Clinton delegate, pledged or otherwise, to Obama to remove the possibility of Obama being upstaged at the convention", which is ironic given The Denver Group and other PUMA's attempt to flip Obama delegates to Clinton.
All this time the PUMA's are throwing a little pity party of their owns, high up on the martyr tree because all Ms. Bartoshevich wanted to do was *sniff* go to the convention and vote for Hillary. Crocodile tears much??
Well, on 25 July the Wisconsin Democratic Party had their conference call to discuss Ms. Bartoshevich's status. And the result?
Debra Bartoshevich was stripped of her status as a delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. She tried to keep her status, (no doubt to make PUMA mischief), saying she "made her statements about McCain at “an emotional time”", and that she was "truly a dedicated Democrat". But she wouldn't say who she was voting for in the fall, and kept using the phrase "Democrat Party", which several people in the conference cited as one of "Rush Limbaugh’s talking points". Ms. Bartoshevich has been replaced by Clinton delegate Marilyn Nemeth, who said "I’m happy to go because this is history".
Now let me repeat that. Ms. Bartoshevich was replaced by another Clinton delegate. No delegates were taken from Sen. Clinton, one was replaced instead. Sen. Clinton's delegate count remains the same.
But not in the magic realm of PUMAland, where up is down and pesky things like rules and logic don't matter. HillaryClinton.net had such gems as "it smacks of totalitarialism!" and "I am beginning to really hate the DNC and their 'rules'". PUMA CaffiineQueen snottly said Hail The Obama…OR ELSE! and makes the absurd statement later that "If you visit some pro-Obama blogs you’ll quickly find out that they intend to accept nothing less than their “saviour’s” status being officially changed to that of a God." HillaryGreenMountain.org chimed in with comments like "Stripping Debra Bartoshevich of her delegate status is more proof that Obama was selected by the heads of the democratic party to be the nominee." though there was an even more out there comment that I'll just post the screen shot of:
JSND blog notfallinginline.org is doing a letter campaign to protest Ms. Bartoshevich losing "her delegate status as punishment for supporting Hillary Clinton", (which of course is NOT why she lost her delegate status. She lost her delegate status for supporting John McCain!! She's been replaced by ANOTHER CLINTON DELEGATE. Obviously PUMAland is a truth-free zone.)
End result. Ms. Bartoshevich got angry because her choice for nominee didn't win, and publicly said she would vote for Sen. McCain, even going do far as to join a McCain group, (she later claimed her sister had joined her instead). She got caught. She was in violation of rules and pledges she signed and agreed to when she became a delegate. And as such, she was removed and replaced with another Clinton delegate. Clinton didn't lose any delegates, the only change was replacing a delegate that was openly undermining the DNC (and Sen. Clinton too) with a delegate that could agree to and keep the rules and pledges a delegate is supposed to keep.
If PUMA and JSND wants to make a rule-breaker into some martyr for their misguided cause, so be it. But their open support of an avowed Sen. McCain supporter speaks volumes about the real goals of PUMA/JSND and their supporters. Because by now it's blindingly obvious their only real goal is electing John McCain and destroying Barack Obama, (and Hillary Clinton, and Howard Dean, and anyone else who gets in their way).
