Tom Perez Edges Keith Ellison for DNC ChairThe Establishment candidate narrowly defeated the insurgent favorite of Sanders campaign veterans, then began to immediately seek party unity.
Howard Dean: I Am Not a ShillDon’t accuse him of taking positions for money just because he happens to have a job that consists of taking positions for money.
Superdelegates Making Howard Dean Just Want to ScreamNo mere man can control the will of the superdelegates, a rogue and fractious species if ever there was one. Especially because, as a group, they really have no idea what to do.
early and often
Facing the Facts on Florida and MichiganIt’s been one thing after another in the Democratic primaries, from hand-wringing over superdelegates to confusion over the Texas “primacaucus” process. Another headache is now moving to the forefront: With the race so tight, what to do about Florida and Michigan, whose delegates the DNC refused to seat after the states were warned not to schedule their primaries so early? Yesterday, DNC chair Howard Dean laid out two ideas: The states can submit a plan for a new selection process or they can wait until the summer and ask the party’s Convention Credentials Committee to resolve the dispute. And so the wrangling begins in earnest.
gossipmonger
Ba Ba Ba, Ba BarbaraleeHollywood players like Ben Stiller, Toby Maguire, and Steven Spielberg can’t figure out which Democrat to support for president, so they’re donating to multiple ones. (Tom Hanks, Will Smith, and Jennifer Aniston, however, are firmly in Camp Obama.) Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel was passed over for appointment as executive director of New York State Council of the Arts, perhaps because she has donated money to Spitzer, who’s now trying to look ethically pure. Gwen Stefani loves breast-feeding even though she’s been getting bitten. Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz refused to be photographed with their KY Intimacy Kit swag bags at Lollapalooza because they were scared of Joe Simpson. Tracy Morgan wants to get his SCRAM ankle bracelet “blinged out” at Jacob the Jeweler.
