Ickes’ Thump
In an explanation similar to the flip-flop of another famous Democrat, Harold Ickes told reporters on Monday that he voted to strip Florida and Michigan of their delegates at the Democratic National Convention — before he came out against it.
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At a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, the former Clinton White House aide and consultant to Hillary Clinton’s campaign noted that as a member of the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee, he voted last year to strip the two states of their delegates as punishment for moving their primaries up too early on the calendar. He said the move was designed “to prevent the gaming of the system.”
Now that Senator Clinton has won those states, however, he supports seating the delegates. “When I voted on the Rules and Bylaws Committee, I did that as a member of the Rules and Bylaws Committee, not as a member of the Hillary Clinton campaign,” he explained.
“There are always competing impulses,” he added when pressed about his change of heart. “At that time, we were worried about the calendar. That time is over; the calendar is what it is.”
The “that was then, this is now” theme was repeated again later, when he was reminded that in a pre-Super Tuesday prediction, he said Clinton was about to cement her hold on the nomination. “As we all know in this city, I have a very short memory,” he joked.
“There’s a sort of rush to judgment by Senator Barack [Obama] to shut this process down,” said Ickes, who is also a superdelegate. “We’re only two months into a five-month process. There is no compelling reason to shut this process down.”
Ickes then launched into the argument that Clinton makes a more formidable general election candidate: “Hillary Clinton is fully vetted. There is nothing left to vet.” Obama, by contrast, “has never been vetted.”
For instance, he pointed to the Friday news report in The Politco that uncovered ties between Obama and former Weather Underground members Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.
Ickes referred to Ayres and Dohrn as “unrepentant figures” of the 1960s radical left, before quickly emphasizing that he wasn’t “passing judgment.”
As the assembled press began giggling and guffawing, he protested, “You can laugh. But I consider it serious business. You consider it serious business; you devote your lives to it.”
When asked about the campaign’s larger strategy, Ickes wouldn’t go into detail. “I’m not the chief strategist — I’m the assistant sanitation commissioner,” he said. “I’m not in the high realms.”
