Showing posts with label Donna Brazile. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Donna Brazile. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 08, 2017

I will just leave this here. Update!

We shall know them by the company that they keep.

In her book Brazile also accused President Obama of having a "Titanic ego," and referred to the Clinton campaign as a "cult." 

When you become a darling of the Right, and they make up the largest audience for your book, you really have to evaluate your priorities as a self described progressive.

I'm just saying.

Update: Now complaining about the Clinton Campaign on Fox News. 

Tuesday, November 07, 2017

Donna Braziles' new book has some serious problems.

One of the charges in Brazile's book is that an agreement which the DNC signed with the Clinton campaign gave the campaign control over who the DNC hired.

However Sam Stein with the Daily Beast sees a problem with that contention.

Courtesy of the Daily Beast:  

From early June 2015 until mid-September of that year, the Democratic National Committee operated without a communications director. 

In normal years, this would have been a problematic, perhaps embarrassing, staffing failure—and nothing more. But the timing of this particular vacancy made it operationally catastrophic. Just as the presidential campaign was heating up, the party’s main political arm was understaffed in a key department. 

When the committee finally filled the void, it settled on Luis Miranda. 

Miranda had served in the Obama administration’s communications shop and was well liked among his peers. One thing he was not, however, was the first, second, or even third choice of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. 

In fact, he hadn’t really been on the campaign’s radar at all. Clinton’s team had sent the DNC several other options for the post, top among them Jess McIntosh, who had been serving at the time as the communications director of Emily's List. But according to half a dozen sources, their requests were ultimately set aside by then Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was won over by Miranda’s pitch to emphasize her as the election year ramped up.

In other words Wasserman Schultz hired whoever the hell she wanted, and seemingly did not give two shits what the Clinton campaign recommended.

This does not sound as if the Clinton campaign had final say over anything.

But that is nothing compared to this.

Courtesy of Yahoo: 

Axios reported on Sunday that the book's dedication reads, “In loving memory of my father, Lionel Brazile Sr.; my beloved sister, Sheila Brazioutlanle; my fearless uncles Nat, Floyd, and Douglas; Harlem’s finest, my aunt Lucille; my friend and mentor, David Kaufmann; my DNC colleague and patriot, Seth Rich; and my beloved Pomeranian, Chip Joshua Marvin Brazile (Booty Wipes). I miss y’all.”

Now if the name "Seth Rich" leaps out at you it is likely because his death was part of the conspiracy theory pushed by Russian trolls, Alex Jones, and even Fox News, which claimed that Rich was the true source of those emails that Wikileaks was releasing and not Russian hackers, and that the Clintons had him killed in order to cover that up.

There was also this later in the book: 

Rich also appears elsewhere in Brazile’s book, as the Post reported earlier in the weekend. She wrote that Rich’s murder haunted her and that she installed surveillance cameras at her home and would keep the blinds in her office window closed so she could not be seen by snipers, according to the Post.

Now if Brazile accepted the official police report that Seth Rich's death was the result of an attempted robbery gone bad then why would she be so paranoid?

Look I know that people have great respect for Donna Brazile, and I have certainly come to her defense in the past, but there is something really off about all of this.

Sunday, November 05, 2017

Okay let's talk Donna Brazile. Update!

By now most of you have probably heard something about Donna Brazile's new book which makes the explosive allegation that the Hillary Clinton campaign made a deal with the DNC to bail them out financially in exchange for essentially commandeering the primary process.

I have not written anything about this before, because to be honest I was not sure exactly what was going on.

I read the initial article in Politico and felt that the evidence provided did not really support the allegations that Brazile was making.

And I think my initial hesitancy to accept the validity of these charges was warranted.

Here is the latest from NBC News: 

The Democratic National Committee struck a deal with Hillary Clinton in 2015 that gave her campaign input on some party hiring and spending decisions, but required they be related only to preparations for the general election, according to a memo obtained by NBC News. It also left the door open for other candidates to make similar arrangements. 

The document provides more context to the explosive claims made by former DNC Interim Chair Donna Brazile in a forthcoming book, an excerpt of which was published this week. 

The August 26, 2015, memorandum of understanding from Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook to DNC CEO Amy Dacey details the relationship between Clinton's campaign and the DNC long before she won her party's nomination.

Essentially the Clinton campaign offered up an initial 1.2 million up front and then offered to provide a monthly allowance as well as some additional funding moving forward.

However since the DNC had clearly mismanaged its funds the Clinton campaign wanted a say in how the money was spent. Which if you think about it makes pretty good sense.

But here is what was laid out in the memo that seems to have upset Donna Brazile so thoroughly:

However, the memo also made clear that the arrangement pertained to only the general election, not the primary season, and it left open the possibility that it would sign similar agreements with other candidates.

"Nothing in this agreement shall be construed to violate the DNC's obligation of impartiality and neutrality through the Nominating process. All activities performed under this agreement will be focused exclusively on preparations for the General Election and not the Democratic Primary," the memo states. 

"Further we understand you may enter into similar agreements with other candidates," it continues.

In fact the DNC did enter into a similar agreement with the Sanders campaign, but they decided not to use it as they felt they could do better on their own encouraging smaller donations from their pool of supporters.

The contention is that this agreement allowed the Clinton campaign to have a say on who the DNC hired, and how some of the money was spent, which Brazile charges gave them undo influence.

The evidence that such influence took place appears to be mostly in Brazile's head, but her allegation received some support when Elizabeth Warren chimed in with this.

Seriously?

Well that certainly complicated things, because Warren makes it much harder to simply dismiss this as a DNC operative gone rogue.

And just to make this entire story even more surreal Brazile reveals that she considered replacing Hillary on the ticket with Joe Biden: 

Brazile writes that she considered a dozen combinations to replace the nominees and settled on Biden and Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.), the duo she felt most certain would win over enough working-class voters to defeat Republican Donald Trump. But then, she writes, “I thought of Hillary, and all the women in the country who were so proud of and excited about her. I could not do this to them.”

Well gee how gracious of Brazile to allow the Democrats to keep the candidate that they had selected on the ticket.

As you might imagine the response from Hillary supporters has been less than supportive:  

We were shocked to learn the news that Donna Brazile actively considered overturning the will of the Democratic voters by attempting to replace Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine as the Democratic Presidential and Vice Presidential nominees. It is particularly troubling and puzzling that she would seemingly buy into false Russian-fueled propaganda, spread by both the Russians and our opponent, about our candidate’s health. 

Donna came in to take over the DNC at a very difficult time. We were grateful to her for doing so. She is a longtime friend and colleague of many of us and has been an important leader in our party. But we do not recognize the campaign she portrays in the book. 

That is from a letter signed by nearly 100 campaign staffers who certainly do not agree with Brazile's interpretation of their efforts.

A number of pundits have offered opinions on what motivated Brazile to set fire to so many bridges, she was frustrated by not getting the recognition she felt she deserved, she is positioning herself to have a place on the Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign, who knows?

All I know is that anything that allows Trump to tweet stuff like this...

....is bullshit.

I realize that I will NEVER convince those Bernie supporters that the nomination was not stolen from them, especially after this.

However keep in mind that the Republicans are seriously concerned about their ability to win elections moving forward, and their only real hope lies with the Democrats sabotaging themselves with infighting and rampant mistrust within their ranks.

Donna Brazile just gave them an early Christmas present all wrapped up in a shiny bow.

So I hope her fucking book tanks, and she never finds a job working with any Democrats ever again.

I assume at some point we will see her on Fox News, where all progressive traitors seem to eventually find themselves.

And good riddance to her.

Update: Donna Brazile now says she found "no evidence" that the primaries were rigged in Hillary's favor.
WTF?