Nevada Teacher Union Fights Obama

Last week, the Nevada State Education Association did what unhappy Democrats do best - it filed a lawsuit. The target of the Teachers' federal suit is the Nevada Democratic Party. The lawsuit challenges Nevada Democratic Party rules designed to make it easier for Las Vegas Strip shift workers to attend precinct meetings during Saturday's Caucuses.

The suit claims that the rules, which allow shift workers employed within 2.5 miles of the Strip to attend one of nine "at-large" precinct meetings in casinos, rather than return to their home precinct, violate the principle of "one person, one vote:"

The party has "violated the principle of 'one person, one vote' by creating 'at-large' precincts for certain caucus participants, based solely on the employment of such participants," the suit, filed in U.S. District Court, said.

The Nevada Democratic party argues its rules, agreed to last March when Hillary was the "inevitable nominee," are an attempt to encourage participation among the state's largest work force.

"We have taken unprecedented steps to include as many Nevadans as possible in this historic caucus day," Democratic party deputy executive director Kirsten Searer said in a statement. "The 'at-large' precincts were included to increase participation in the highest concentration of shift workers — many of whom are minorities."

Everyone was fine with the new rules until Obama won Iowa and the Culinary Workers Union, the largest union in Nevada, endorsed Barack Obama. Three days after the endorsement, the teachers' union sued. The Associated Press reports "no direct connections to the Clinton campaign were immediately clear." But Culinary union secretary-treasurer D. Taylor, suggested the suit was driven by supporters of Hillary.

Bill Clinton's antics yesterday provide support for Taylor's suggestion.

Bill is so concerned about Obama's union endorsement that he offered up another quote worthy of defining chutzpah. The former president tried "painting Obama as the 'establishment' candidate." That should go done about as well as Bill's "fairy tail" comment that helped fuel the accusations the Clintons were playing the race card.

Not satisfied with merely defining chutzpah, Bill launched one of his calculated anger moments, like when he "lost it" in the Chris Wallace interview. This time, as you can see in the following video, Bill attacked television reporter, Mark Matthews:

According to the Sun, the exchange became so tense that Oakland mayor, Ronald Dellums, tried to pull the former president away.

In case you want to review the whole sorry Clinton meltdown during the Chris Wallace interview, a YouTube video of the Wallace interview can be watched here and the FoxNews transcript is available here. My post refuting Clinton's Clarke Defense is here. A post about Chris Wallace's reaction to Clinton's temper tantrum is here.

No matter how many times I watch the video of the wallace interview, it always make me think of Clinton getting on national television, pointing his finger at the camera and saying "I did not have sexual relations with that woman..."

Back to the Nevada Teachers' lawsuit.
Amanda Carpenter reports the Democratic National Committee has joined the battle, supporting the Nevada Democratic Party over the Nevada teacher unions.

The Las Vegas Sun reports that U.S. District Court Judge James C. Mahan is expected to rule on the lawsuit today. According to Rick Hasen, the Court may throw out the teacher's suit because the teachers waited so long to sue. That makes sense to this lawyer. This is just politics. If the teachers were truly offended by the new rules they would have sued months ago when the new rules were adopted, instead of waiting until the Culinary union endorsed Obama.

Comments

[Jim Rose]

Bill is going to be the Theresa Heinz of this campaign--the spouse with an opinion the candidate may not share.

[Jim Rose]

Bill is going to be the Theresa Heinz of this campaign--the spouse with an opinion the candidate may not share.

[fouse, gary c]

Notwithstanding the recent debate in Las Vegas, in which Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton tried to smooth over the perceived racial overtones of their campaign for the Democratic nomination, the contest in Nevada has again turned ugly. Subsequent to the endorsement of Obama by the Culinary Wokers Union, the state teacher's union and a handful of Clinton supporters have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Democratic party establishment of 9 Las Vegas resorts as at-large voting precincts for the upcoming caucus. The obvious intent of the lawsuit is to limit the impact of the resort culinary union's votes for Obama, claiming that it gives them unfair advantage over other voters. (A judge threw out the lawsuit today.)

The second story behind all this was Bill Clinton's standard reaction to a San Francisco TV reporter asking him about the lawsuit brought by Clinton supporters. Once again, Bill lost his increasingly-famous temper. "You have asked the question in an accusatory way. If you want to take that position, get on the television and take it. Don't be accusatory with me. I had nothing to do with this lawsuit", Clinton fumed as he got in the reporter's face. (If you haven't noticed by now, Bill Clinton does not like unfriendly questions.)

Well, there you have it straight from the horse's mouth. If Bill Clinton says he had nothing to do with it-then by golly, it must be true. Or is this another example of Clinton's parsing of words? "It wasn't me, but it could have been Hillary or her campaign." Let me put it this way. If you think the Clinton campaign had nothing to do with this lawsuit, I have a nice bridge that would look great in your back yard. This is just another example of how the Clintons react to an upstart (Obama) standing in the way of what is Hillary's rightful entitlement. They get mean; they get tough; they crush anyone who stands in their way.

As I said before, it's fun sitting back and watching the Democrats tear each other to pieces over race and gender and now unions, showing the nation just how important those issues are to them. I would like to see Obama really take off the gloves and go after the corruption and shallowness of the Clintons.

Which leads me to my final point, which I think would be a great campaign strategy for Obama: Keep pushing Bill's buttons.

gary fouse
fousesquawk