Posted on 07/10/2008 4:48:56 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
(Wisconsin woman writes that denying her a seat would be undemocratic)
Washington - Fighting an attempt by the state Democratic Party to unseat her from next month's national convention, Clinton delegate Debra Bartoshevich said that to "strip me of my status is undemocratic."
That plea is part of a letter Bartoshevich sent this week to the Democratic National Committee — her formal response to the credentials challenge.
The state party moved to strip Bartoshevich of her delegate status after she told the Journal Sentinel last month that she will support Republican John McCain over Democrat Barack Obama if Obama is the party’s nominee.
Bartoshevich is believed to be the only Hillary Rodham Clinton delegate nationally who has publicly taken that position. The state party says she is violating party rules requiring convention delegates to back the nominee.
The credentials challenge is now before the DNC.
“We just sit and wait, and we’ll see if they strip my status. At least I know I did my best to tell them how I felt through this whole process,” Bartoshevich said Wednesday.
The response she filed with the DNC is more of a personal statement than a legal brief. In it, the emergency room nurse from Racine County declares, “I have voted Democrat throughout my life,” dedicated “countless hours” inside and outside the state to the Clinton campaign, and “my only job as I understand it was to be a committed delegate to Senator Hillary Clinton only and represent her supporters in my district.”
Writes Bartoshevich:
“I am one voice of 18 million voters (who backed Clinton). I am a hard working Hispanic nurse who cares for the most vulnerable population in a city hospital. My grandfather immigrated here from Mexico and supported his family by being a laborer. My grandfather taught me to never just ‘go along with the crowd.’ ”
Reservations over Obama
Bartoshevich asks to retain her delegate status as a “sign of unity” and contends that unseating her — “to be challenged on my right to freedom of choice, freedom of speech and the democratic process” — contradicts what she thought “was at the core of this party.”
State party chair Joe Wineke said Wednesday that he expects a ruling from the DNC within a few weeks.
“The bottom line is this,” said Wineke. “When she filed an intent for delegate status (form), which every single person . . . had to do, it says right on there she would support our Democratic nominee. What is the issue here? Hillary is not the Democratic nominee. In fact, she’s out campaigning with Obama!”
Clinton planned to attend a “Women for Obama” finance breakfast with Obama in New York today after several joint fund-raising appearances Wednesday night.
Bartoshevich does not mention McCain in the letter, though she told the Journal Sentinel last month she had signed up with Citizens for McCain and would support him over Obama because of her reservations about his inexperience and her belief that Clinton was treated unfairly in the nominating process.
Her name also appeared on a list circulated by the McCain campaign of Clinton supporters backing McCain.
‘Part of the media circus’
Bartoshevich complains in the letter to the DNC that Wineke made threatening remarks when, upon first hearing that one of his Wisconsin delegates planned to support McCain in the fall, he told the Journal Sentinel that “my suspicion is she doesn’t know what she’s getting into” because “the delegates to this convention will be very upset.”
Wineke said Wednesday that those comments were not a threat. “I just said I think she’s being used, and she’ll find a lot of people are not going to be happy with her,” said Wineke, who said the whole story was an effort by the McCain campaign to embarrass the party on the eve of its state convention last month.
Wineke said that if Bartoshevich serves as a delegate, “it becomes part of the media circus at the national convention. She winds up going on Hannity, Limbaugh, all that stuff.”
Bartoshevich said Wednesday she might go to the Denver convention in late August, no matter what her status is, to join other Clinton supporters in paying tribute to her historic run.
Bartoshevich said she had tried to contact the Clinton campaign recently for help in how to respond to the credentials challenge but had not yet discussed the matter with anyone from that campaign.
This is going to be fun. ;)
This needs to be said so the ratmedia types who happen to stray onto FR will be reminded of it: If this were reversed, if jackson was a White Evangelical pastor it would fill page one of every paper still printing in America today tomorrow and Sunday. They would skip Saturday - that’s where the ratmedia prints damaging stuff about rats so no one sees it.
There is no way the DNC will allow any dissent at its convention.
Did I miss where it said illegal immigrant! Where did your parents come from? It seems that freepers are getting a bit hateful at times. STOP IT!
Remember folks, this is the same DNC that claimed in 2000 that Republicans “disenfranchised” African-American voters in many states to try to rig the election so that Bush would win!!
The heavily biased Civil Rights Commission conducted a year-long investigation and could not locate a single voter whose vote was dismissed or obstructed for illegitimate reasons.
This is delicious and will be fun to watch!!
“My grandfather immigrated here from Mexico and supported his family by being a laborer. My grandfather taught me to never just ‘go along with the crowd.’”
You do the math. This is Wisconsin, a state that pretty much invented Cheap Illegal Labor for our whopping ag industry.
“Remember never get into an argument with an idiot, They drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience”.
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