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Jazz and I talked about this story this morning on our BTR show because the story was just breaking. (HT Ed Morrissey)
This is Chicago Machine Politics at its best (or worst depending on which side of it you are on). This is how that party bosses bought loyalty. You support me, you get the plums - you support my opponent....There is one problem with that - a problem that has long prevented this kind of politics from ever reaching the national level.
You see as Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Rangel decides the schedule. If you want a potential fiscal bill to appear before his committee (and not get tied up in bureaucratic minutia) you have to play nice with Rep. Rangel! Should Senator Obama become President, all tax bills have to get Rangel's blessing in order to come into committee, much less get out of it. If President Obama wants to get anything done through W&M, he has to make nice with Rep. Rangel. If Senator Obama loses, Rep. Rangel has enough pull in the party and in DC to make sure that the junior Senator from Illinois sees all of the crap committee assignments. If he ever wants to get out of these bad assignments he will have to make nice with Rep. Rangel. Either way, Senator Obama will have to come to Charlie Rangel, hat in hand, and publicly apologize for this very public snub.
As Jazz mentioned during the show today, there was one prime opportunity during the convention that they could have given to Rangel....one that would have soothed the ruffled feathers of Senator Clinton's supporters - introducing former President Clinton when he speaks to the convention. Giving Hillary's two most public supporters a prime time speaking opportunity at the convention would have shown to her delegates that Senator Obama was serious about respecting their opinions while still bringing them into the fold and back in time for the hard campaign that lies ahead. That would have been a prime opportunity to bring peace to the party.
The fact that the Obama campaign chose not to take this opportunity leaves people asking "is he that dumb or that arrogant?" Again, given how this is "normal" for Illinois politics, I suspect it is more a naivety - an ignorance that it is just not a good tactical move to do something this overt on a national level and that could be problematic to Senator Obama, regardless of how this election unfolds.
The Obama campaign is denying House Ways and Means Chairman Charles B. Rangel a speaking role at this month’s Democratic National Convention — a move those close to the powerhouse Harlem congressman view as a spiteful snub.
Rangel surrogates approached Obama staffers this week about the possibility of securing him a slot at the podium, making the case that it would showcase reconciliation between the nominee and Hillary Rodham Clinton’s African-American supporters.
But they were told that the 78-year-old congressman’s support for Clinton earned him a place at the end of the line behind Barack Obama’s loyalists — even if Rangel played a crucial part in prodding Clinton to abandon her presidential bid in June.
This is Chicago Machine Politics at its best (or worst depending on which side of it you are on). This is how that party bosses bought loyalty. You support me, you get the plums - you support my opponent....There is one problem with that - a problem that has long prevented this kind of politics from ever reaching the national level.
“It’s crazy. … This man [Rangel] controls tax policy in the United States. He’s a lot bigger than just a regular member of Congress. He deserves more respect than this,” said a Rangel confidant. “Basically they have told us they can’t help us, that there are too many Obama supporters ahead of Charlie on the line.”
You see as Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Rangel decides the schedule. If you want a potential fiscal bill to appear before his committee (and not get tied up in bureaucratic minutia) you have to play nice with Rep. Rangel! Should Senator Obama become President, all tax bills have to get Rangel's blessing in order to come into committee, much less get out of it. If President Obama wants to get anything done through W&M, he has to make nice with Rep. Rangel. If Senator Obama loses, Rep. Rangel has enough pull in the party and in DC to make sure that the junior Senator from Illinois sees all of the crap committee assignments. If he ever wants to get out of these bad assignments he will have to make nice with Rep. Rangel. Either way, Senator Obama will have to come to Charlie Rangel, hat in hand, and publicly apologize for this very public snub.
As Jazz mentioned during the show today, there was one prime opportunity during the convention that they could have given to Rangel....one that would have soothed the ruffled feathers of Senator Clinton's supporters - introducing former President Clinton when he speaks to the convention. Giving Hillary's two most public supporters a prime time speaking opportunity at the convention would have shown to her delegates that Senator Obama was serious about respecting their opinions while still bringing them into the fold and back in time for the hard campaign that lies ahead. That would have been a prime opportunity to bring peace to the party.
The fact that the Obama campaign chose not to take this opportunity leaves people asking "is he that dumb or that arrogant?" Again, given how this is "normal" for Illinois politics, I suspect it is more a naivety - an ignorance that it is just not a good tactical move to do something this overt on a national level and that could be problematic to Senator Obama, regardless of how this election unfolds.
posted by The Lady Logician at
8:12 PM
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