Hillary Clinton is Disenfranchising Voters in Nevada and Stooping to Karl Rove Like Tactics

Every time I begin to try and want to vote for Hillary, or at least try and get used to the fact that she might be the nominee I am reminded why we need a change in the leadership of the Democratic party and why she is just not acceptable as our nominee.

Two days after a key Nevada union of casino employees endorsed Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, allies of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, filed a lawsuit to block the special "at-large" casino precincts set up months ago for those very casino employees.

Culinary union secretary-treasurer D. Taylor told the Associated Press that the plaintiffs were using "Floridian Republican tactics to suppress cooks, housekeepers, people of color and women."

This is not an exaggeration. First, though remember Hillary's comments that caucus' are more difficult for mothers and working women (which I agree with by the way) in Iowa. Well, now the story is different in Nevada because these folks might be supporting Barack.

From ABC News:

Two days after a key Nevada union of casino employees endorsed Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, allies of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, filed a lawsuit to block the special "at-large" casino precincts set up months ago for those very casino employees.

With the stated purpose of ensuring voting participation by casino employees in the Jan. 19 Nevada caucuses, the Nevada Democratic Party created nine at-large precincts designed for the "4,000 or more shift workers per site who could not otherwise take the time off to go to their home precincts."

The sites will be located at the Bellagio, Luxor, the Mirage, the Rio, Caesar's Palace, the Paris, the Flamingo, Wynn Las Vegas, and New York, New York casinos.

But the lawsuit, filed by six Nevada Democrats and the Nevada State Education Association teachers' union -- whose deputy executive director, Debbie Cahill, is a member of Clinton’s Nevada Women’s Leadership Council -- seeks to prevent those At-Large Districts from meeting in next Saturday's caucuses.

"The Democratic Party of Nevada has violated the principle of 'one person, one vote' by creating at-large precincts for certain caucus participants, based solely on the employment of such participants," charges the lawsuit -- posted HERE by Vegas pundit and reporter Jon Ralston.
The lawsuit was filed by the firm Kummer, Kaempfer, Bonner, Renshaw, and Ferrario. Senior partners Michael Bonner and Christian Kaempfer have donated money to Clinton in the past, and Clinton ally and former Rep. James H. Bilbray, D-Nev., is an attorney at that firm.
The state party approved the at-large precincts at its Nevada State Democratic Party's State Central Committee meeting on March 31, 2007.

According to those minutes and attendance records of the obtained by ABC News (Click HERE), four plaintiffs now suing the state party to stop these "at-large" precincts from convening were in attendance: Clark Party Second Vice Chair Vicki Birkland and John Birkland, Party Third Vice Chair Dwayne Chesnut and Clark County Public Administrator John Cahill.

The "Delegation Selection Plan Review and Approval" including these "at-large" precincts was, according to minutes of the meeting reviewed by ABC News, "Passed unanimously." The plan was submitted to the Democratic National Committee for approval in August.

The lawsuit charges that changes were made to the agreement since then, however, and that the at-large precincts now unfairly give the casino precincts more weight -- "disingenuously" allocating delegates based on participation instead of based on registered voters, for example -- creating a "grossly amplified number of delegates" thus "treating each precinct as if it were a separate county."

In a statement, Nevada Democratic Party deputy executive director Kirsten Searer says, "We have taken unprecedented steps to include as many Nevadans as possible in this historic caucus day. The 'at-large' precincts were included to increase participation in the highest concentration of shift workers — many of whom are minorities."

I think this is unprecedented in democratic politics. These are exactly the people Hillary was advocating for in Iowa, now that they may be voting for Barack she (masked as the Democratic party in Nevada) file a lawsuit to shut down caucuses that are only designed to open up the process. Is that not what the democratic party has always stood for? Open up the vote to everyone and for everyone. The more folks we get voting the more progressives and democratic voters will be involved and participating. This is disgusting.

I also watched her on Meet the Press this morning and I thought her defensiveness and her desire to always be right and not self-reflect is bushlike and it scares the fuck out of me. She is stooping to rewriting the history of Barack's stance on the war. Everyone knows where he stood on the war, yet she picks and pins certain statements regarding his voting on the war. This is Karl Rove all over again.