If You're Desperate and Your Name is Hillary Clinton, How Do You Get Endorsements from Indiana Officials Wishing to Remain Neutral?

Relucant to Endorse, Indiana's Democratic County Chairs Were Subjected to Acrimony, Arm-Twisting, Negative Emails and Threats to Re-Election Campaigns as the desperation of gutter politics reared its ugly head in Indiana. Obama support has been met with swift retribution from Clinton's Indiana Machine.

Clintonian (Soprano-Rovian) politics stand in harsh contrast to Barack Obama, who has been steady, poised and calm throughout the long campaign. Dignity or Desperation? Threats or Cool Logic? The Superdelegates, and the people, have made their choice - a choice that Clinton's sliming, smearing, obfuscating, distracting, shrieking, crying, threatening, retribution, name-calling, bullying and spinning will never change. She is the Desperate Past. He represents the Shining Future. We are moving on and away from the ugliness and acrimony that Clinton and her surrogates offer. We are taking back our country and our party.

Yes. We. Can.

Bayh and Parker Pressure Dem Chairs in Indiana

KOKOMO - Yesterday�s announcement from the Clinton Campaign that it had secured the endorsements of 40 Indiana Democratic Party county chairs was the result of a months-long effort by Sen. Evan Bayh and state party officials to mobilize the party�s grassroots machinery in support of the New York senator. The Clinton camp has relied primarily on Bayh and state party chairman Dan Parker to secure endorsements from legislators, mayors, and county chairs in an effort that has encompassed personal phone calls, dinner dates, and sometimes acrimonious arm-twisting. The covert organizing has miffed Obama supporters and impartial party leaders hoping that neutrality will mitigate post-primary fractures in the party.

Yet in recent weeks, the work has paid off for Senator Clinton, who has even welcomed a rash of once-neutral leaders who are succumbing to private pressure in increasing numbers. Parker began the recruitment effort for Clinton when Bayh announced his endorsement of her nine months after abandoning his own presidential ambitions in 2006. A month later, Parker had enlisted 17 others, including the chairs of five of Indiana�s nine congressional districts and two other superdelegates (Parker himself is one).

"Behind the scenes it�s been interesting," said Tim Southworth, the chair of Indiana�s sixth congressional district, who remained neutral until yesterday. He received a call from Parker the week Bayh endorsed, but withheld his support so that he could "hear both sides of the story." He acknowledged that party pressure since played a part in his decision to go public.

John Bonecutter, the Clinton County chairman, last month expressed bewilderment at the endorsements of other officials. "I don�t know why they would do that before the primary," he said. "I wouldn�t want to favor one or the other in my position. I would not presume to endorse in a public forum of any kind." Yesterday, Bonecutter endorsed Clinton.

"If you endorse somebody, then you�re saying, �This is my candidate, and we�re not even going to work for you,�" said Sandra Tyler, chair of the Fulton County Democratic Party. "I don�t think that�s the way it should be. We never have endorsed and it�s been my policy for the last eight years that we do not endorse anybody in the primary. Everybody has a chance . . . that�s basically closing the door to the other candidate." Tyler, too, has since endorsed Hillary Clinton.

The other capricious chairs have acknowledged the pressure they�ve come under. The state party is supporting Hillary, formerly neutral Clay County Chairman Joseph Broyles said, adding at the time, "I feel that pressure."

Bayh has implicitly cast his conversations in personal terms, arguing � without arguing � that Clinton�s nomination could earn him the vice presidential nomination. "There�s been the message sent out that Bayh is on the short list if Hillary wins," Mike Adkins, the chair of the Hancock Democratic Party, said. And as the de facto leader of the Indiana Democratic Party, Bayh�s circle, with Parker in the lead on the ground, controls the purse strings of the party accounts that vulnerable mayors and legislators (of which there are many) perennially count on for re-election in increasingly expensive contests. Adkins characterized Clinton�s Indiana operation as "top-bottom," Obama�s as "bottom-up."

The ninth district has become especially volatile. District Chairman Mike Jones sought permission to endorse Clinton from his district�s county chairs at three organizational meetings in a row, getting rebuffed each time, according to Jefferson County Chair Jim Melton. Finally Jones endorsed yesterday anyway, departing on the same day from Baron Hill, the congressman whose interests Jones is primarily tasked with looking after, but who bucked Bayh to announce his endorsement of Obama.

Bayh fundraiser Dean Boerste immediately began the retribution against Hill, distributing a mass e-mail to party insiders that angrily accused Hill of "defying all political logic" and threatening "damage to Congressman Hill�s re-election efforts." The message encouraged recipients to call Hill�s office and express their "concerns of making any endorsements," advising the congressman to "stay focused on his re-election."

The pressure generated by Bayh, in particular, has weighed heaviest on the chairs of Indiana�s largest counties, whose support he sought first and most aggressively. One chair was invited by Clinton to lunch with Senator Bayh and Chairman Parker. Later Bayh and second district chairman Butch Morgan met with the district�s chairs on behalf of the Clintons.

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The Future is Bright. The Future is Barack Obama.

"It's not enough to change political parties in Washington. We've got to change the way politics works." - Barack Obama