Good Lovin' Gone Bad
Outside -- on the lawn -- is a political sign that says: HILLARY and the words "for president" underneath.
Not only is it the lone show of support for Hillary Rodham Clinton's dying bid for the Democratic party's nomination for the White House on my street, but one of the precious few I see anywhere in the area.
And even though Saturday's mockery of a sham on how to allocate delegates from the inexplicably disenfranchised battleground states of Florida and Michigan pretty much gave Barack Obama the nomination, I'm not taking the sign from my lawn.
It's not even about Clinton anymore.
It's a matter of principle.
The same principles this country was supposedly founded upon.
That's why, closer to my front door, I have a big American flag permanently affixed.
I'm trying really hard to still believe in the promise of America, but make no mistake about it. Proof positive of that promise being broken came on the final day of May in the year 2008.
The will of the people, one exercised on Election Day, clearly means almost nothing.
There was a lot of talk from this Rules Committee about the sanctity of rules and the value of obeying them (even though America was founded on the premise that rules of games rigged in favor of the self-righteous were made to be bent until they are broken and used for firewood).
The extra delegates gift-wrapped for Obama in Michigan, giving his campaign strategists a free pass for never getting his name on the ballot there, were what sent the embarrassing scene into a fast descent toward chaos and anything but the party unity the Rules Committee arrogantly thought they could broker.
While the compromise for Florida -- letting the votes and delegates stand, but cutting them in half -- was probably the best the Clinton campaign could hope for and a minor victory en route to losing the war (just like Obama's pending coronation will be for him), the Michigan solution was a the kind of mess my 14-month-old daughter leaves after a meal.
The Obama people had the gall to seek half the delegates. But I guess when you're a media creation, you can ask and receive -- just about. He got just a handful less than half, an allotment that equates to roughly 600,000 votes no one even cast for him, from a committee willing to oblige his whim.
How and why anyone thinks this will heal wounds is nothing less than amazing and shows how out of touch the alleged party of the people is with the people who are probably going to now vote with their feet -- particularly in the large, swing states carried by Clinton -- come November.
What was supposed to be an exercise in democracy Saturday became one of futility.
As points were made and votes were cast, partisans in the crowd shouted at each other and applauded loudly -- albeit intermittently -- as if at a tennis match.
While Obama may have had numbers (surely bolstered by MoveOn.org), Clinton's backers were clearly more passionate.
The fact that the committee was clearly taken aback by the hostility in the room, one that symbolized the party's division that history will show was created more by Obama's arrogance than Clinton's persistence to have all the voters heard, was almost enjoyable.
A clown named Jim Roosevelt, the committee's co-chair, told the crowd "you are dishonoring your candidate ..."
In actuality, Roosevelt and friends were dishonoring the voters.
Another member explained that without rules, there would be chaos.
"What do you think this is right now, you (bleep)?" I shouted back at the television, prompting my livid wife, an even more ardent Clinton backer than I, to guffaw out loud.
Clinton supporters chanted "Denver" as the committee members took turns appeasing one another with pats on the back for what they kidded themselves into thinking was a job done well, signifying that loyal Hillaryites will not be so easily dispatched.
Harold Ickes, speaking for the Clinton campaign, added that he has been instructed to take the fight to the convention in Denver as well.
"There's been a lot of talk about party unity — let's all come together, and put our arms around each other," the former chief of staff for Bill Clinton who is also a member of the Rules Committee that approved the deal. "I submit to you ladies and gentlemen, hijacking four delegates (in Michigan) ... is not a good way to start down the path of party unity."
No, it's not.
And as much as I want the Republicans pathetically trying to wash the blood off their hands somewhere other than the White House, you are not going hear any talk of unity where I live.
And that place isn't hard to find.
Outside -- on the lawn -- is a political sign that says: HILLARY and the words "for president" underneath.
And even though this race is all but over, I'm not taking it down.
It's a matter of principle.