Hillary's Crazy Crew, Frenzied Fans Bashing Obama!

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June 2, 2008 -- WE'D heard a lot about Barack Obama's fanatical sup porters, but little about Hillary Clinton's frenzied following - until this past weekend's meeting of the Democratic National Committee's Rules and Bylaws Committee.

Yet that passion is teetering on the brink of morphing into a raging anti-Obama force.

Clinton's supporters turned out in droves to make their voices heard on whether to seat the delegations of Michigan and Florida. Both were sanctioned for violating the party-set nominating calendar; the committee gathered to rule on their status.

The Clinton campaign has been beating the drum for full seating of the delegations. Instead, both states lost half their convention votes. And committee members' frequent pleas for "party unity" didn't sit well with the pro-Hillary mob, which numbered in the hundreds.

To avoid clashes between the camps, the Obama campaign urged its supporters not to show up. They mostly obliged, but there were a few scuffles.

As voting was taking place, a woman wearing a "Team Hillary" shirt shoved a man wearing a small Obama button on his lapel, The New York Times reported. Another woman yelled, "McCain in '08! McCain in '08! No-bama! No-bama!"

The proceedings were often interrupted by boos and hisses when support for anything less than full seating was expressed. At one point, a childish exchange in the audience - "Shut up!" answered by "You shut up!" - brought things to a stop.

Longtime Clintonite Harold Ickes played the hero for Hillary's camp, showing enormous intellectual dexterity by blasting the committee for disenfranchising Michigan and Florida voters when he himself had voted in favor of the sanctions back when the party first set those rules.

Ickes won sustained applause, cheers and stomping when he closed his remarks by ominously warning that "Mrs. Clinton has instructed me to reserve her rights to take this to the Credentials Committee."

That was no doubt a salve to a group of Hillary supporters found by Sam Stein of The Huffington Post. They accused the Obama campaign of being an "anti-woman cult" and "socialist," he wrote. They complained that "Obama's going to win South Dakota because he's buying it and rigging it." Said one, "I will actively campaign against him."

YouTube has several disturbing video clips of such Clinton supporters, including a tirade by a New York woman who claims, "The Democrats are throwing the election away . . . for an inadequate black male who would not have been running had it not been a white woman who was running for president."

At a rally a few blocks from the DNC meeting, a New Republic reporter witnessed Clinton supporters fawning over Larry Sinclair, a Minnesotan peddling fliers titled, "Obama's Dirty Little Secrets: Murder, Drugs, Gay Sex." Sinclair has posted YouTube videos alleging he used cocaine with Obama and performed a sex act on him in 1999. One Hillary supporter advised Sinclair, "You could improve your credibility if you downplayed the gay sex and focused on the drugs."

If this is the best try at unity, Democrats are in trouble.

Anyone who has worked on a campaign has seen fanatical (and often emotionally unstable) supporters who embarrass the candidate. Those people obviously aren't representative. But the anger and resentment seems to run deep for many Clinton backers, and shows little sign of receding.

Polls confirm the impression left by anecdotal evidence. Roughly 30 percent of Clinton supporters say they'll vote for John McCain over Obama. Initial exit polls for yesterday's Puerto Rico primary asked Clinton voters if they'd be satisfied if Obama clinches the nomination. Seventy-two percent said no; only 26 percent said yes.

Clinton supporters have found solace online. Facebook, the social networking site, has spawned groups such as "Is Obama qualified? No, but he did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night" where Hillary supporters can vent. Other popular pages include, "Hillary, don't let them tell you to quit" and "Women and Men Leaving the DNC if HRC isn't the nominee."

Let's just say Obama has his work cut out for him.

HILLARY'S CRAZY CREW - New York Post