Democratic National Committee:Press

The Democratic National Committee's Rules & Bylaws Committee will meet on Saturday May 31, 2008 in Washington, DC. The Rules and Bylaws Committee will consider the two challenges that have been filed pursuant to Rule 20.B of the 2008 Delegate Selection Rules and Regulation 3 of the Regulations of the Rules and Bylaws Committee concerning the seating of delegations from Florida and Michigan.

Pursuant to Section 3.4(N) of the Committee's Regulations, each challenger will be entitled to present an Oral Argument before the RBC prior to Committee consideration for a period of 15 minutes each. A representative from each state party and from each presidential campaign will also have an opportunity to address the committee regarding each of the challenges. Oral arguments from the parties will be heard during the committee's morning session. Following a lunch break, committee members will consider and debate the challenges.

What: DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee Meeting
When: May 31, 2008 - 9:30 AM

• Morning Session: Oral Arguments
• Afternoon Session: Consideration and Debate

Where: Marriott Wardman Park Hotel - Salon I
2660 Woodley Road NW, Washington, DC

Note: Members of the media must contact Michael Czin at czinm@dnc.org by noon Friday, May ...   more »

Democratic National Committee:Press

When rejecting John Hagee's endorsement yesterday, John McCain said he found certain remarks made by Hagee "deeply offensive and indefensible" and that he did not know of them before actively pursuing Reverend Hagee's endorsement. Yet the comments that finally spurred McCain's rejection of Hagee, where Hagee "suggested that Hitler as a hunter, and as a result of the Holocaust, Jews had been brought back to the land God gave unto their fathers," were readily available on the Internet. And once the controversy over Hagee's endorsement heated up this year, The Jewish Week, a well-read Jewish publication, reported months ago that Hagee had made statements "that seem to blame the Jews for their own persecution over the centuries." [New York Times, 5/23/08; ABC News Blog, 5/22/08; The Jewish Week, 3/12/08]

John McCain's disregard for Hagee's controversial and offensive comments even when actively seeking his endorsement shows that McCain is willing do or say anything to win, no matter who it offends.

McCain Rejects Hagee Endorsement, Claiming He Had No Idea About Hagee's Comments… "'Obviously, I find these remarks and others deeply offensive and indefensible. I did not know of them before Reverend Hagee's endorsement, and ...   more »

Democratic National Committee:Press

The Politico reports this morning on the DNC's state-of-the-art voter file and field plans noting that "[a]fter years of struggling to catch up to the Republican Party's sophisticated microtargeting efforts, the Democratic National Committee appears to have come close to parity." The DNC has made significant investments in its voter file, infrastructure, and microtargeting efforts and now has a national voter file with comprehensive data on voters around the country that will be an invaluable asset come November.

The following are excerpts of today's story:

DNC blunts GOP voter targeting efforts
By David Paul Kuhn
The Politico
May 23, 2008

"After years of struggling to catch up to the Republican Party's sophisticated microtargeting efforts, the Democratic National Committee appears to have come close to parity. The DNC has now reorganized its data banks into one centralized file that goes a long way toward neutralizing the GOP's advantage in drilling down and identifying crucial constituencies of voters.

"In the last two presidential cycles, the Republican national voter file allowed them to more efficiently locate, communicate with, and galvanize voters. Democrats, by comparison, relied on a disjointed compilation of national and state party data files that varied widely in ...   more »

Democratic National Committee:Press

The Politico reports this morning on the DNC's state-of-the-art voter file and field plans noting that "[a]fter years of struggling to catch up to the Republican Party's sophisticated microtargeting efforts, the Democratic National Committee appears to have come close to parity." The DNC has made significant investments in its voter file, infrastructure, and microtargeting efforts and now has a national voter file with comprehensive data on voters around the country that will be an invaluable asset come November.

The following are excerpts of today's story:

DNC blunts GOP voter targeting efforts
By David Paul Kuhn
The Politico
May 23, 2008

"After years of struggling to catch up to the Republican Party's sophisticated microtargeting efforts, the Democratic National Committee appears to have come close to parity. The DNC has now reorganized its data banks into one centralized file that goes a long way toward neutralizing the GOP's advantage in drilling down and identifying crucial constituencies of voters.

"In the last two presidential cycles, the Republican national voter file allowed them to more efficiently locate, communicate with, and galvanize voters. Democrats, by comparison, relied on a disjointed compilation of national and state party data files that varied widely in ...   more »

Democratic National Committee:Press

John McCain says "[e]thics and transparency are not election year buzz words; they are the obligations of democracy and the duties of honorable public service." Yet his top campaign advisors have no problem lying about their lobbying records. Their excuse? Americans don't care--something McCain has yet to say if he agrees with. [johnmccain.com, accessed 5/19/08]

In fact just yesterday senior advisor Charlie Black told reporters, according to the Wall Street Journal, that he complied with the new campaign ethics rules "before there even was a rule" even though he lobbied from the back of the Straight Talk Express last year. Black's opinion on if any of this matters to America's voters? "Hell no. This is complete inside-the-beltway nonsense." When asked if he agreed with Black's assessment, McCain refused to directly answer the question and instead spouted rhetoric, saying "we wanted to make sure there was an effective and comprehensive and transparent policy towards lobbyist…" [Wall Street Journal, 5/19/08; foxnews.com, 5/19/08]

After all of John McCain's talk about corruption in Washington, now he isn't practicing what he preached. Ethics and transparency seem to be just buzz words for McCain, who clearly will do or say ...   more »

Democratic National Committee:Press

Today in the Wall Street Journal Asia, John McCain writes that "American leadership is also needed on North Korea." Yet he goes on to describe a method for action that would bring us back to Bush Administration policies that didn't work with North Korea for six years and made America less safe. As the Washington Post described it, McCain's "language concerning North Korea in the article…is remarkably similar to President Bush's first-term rhetoric, which the White House has largely dropped in recent months." [Wall Street Journal Asia, 5/27/08; The Trail Blog, Washingtonpost.com, 5/26/2008]

John McCain says he understands the threats facing America, but if he's willing to go back to the disastrous policies of President Bush that failed to produce the desired results how can Americans trust him to do what's in the best interest of America?

McCain's North Korea Policy "Remarkably Similar" To Bush's First-Term Rhetoric. "Sen. John McCain broke today with President Bush's new policy on North Korea, co-authoring an opinion article with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) in which he called for a return to Bush's original demand of a complete, verifiable, irreversible disarmament of North Korea's nuclear programs. With the prodding ...   more »