This is the picture that keeps coming into my mind whenever I hear about Hillary Clinton’s self-proclaimed battle for the Michigan/Florida delegates. A Google search on the combined terms “hillary pugnacious” yields over 35,700 results, so I guess I’m in good company.

What she’s doing now is worse than pugnacious. How is it that we try to teach our kids to tell the truth and treat others the way we want to be treated, and then turn on cable news so that we can be treated to snippets like this:

The men and women who knew their Constitutional right to vote meant little when poll taxes and literacy tests, violence, and intimidation made it impossible to exercise their right, so they marched and protested, faced dogs and tear gas, knelt down on that bridge in Selma to pray and were beaten within an inch of their lives.

Yes, Hillary Clinton is now equating herself with abolitionists, suffragettes, and civil rights leaders. The woman who made an agreement with regard to the Michigan and Florida delegations, yet left her name on the ballot in Michigan when the other leading candidates removed theirs, now has the unmitigated gall to stand before voters in these states and claim equality with abolitionists and civil rights leaders?

While she gives lofty speeches about the foundation of democracy, she is willing to exclude 237,762 voters who chose to vote “uncommitted” in Michigan, and countless others who demonstrated their uncommittedness by not casting a ballot at all.

In Florida, many Democrats simply stayed home. I know this because I had conversations with friends in Florida where I encouraged them to go vote because I’d heard rumors there would be efforts to seat their delegations later. (These voters, by the way, were Hillary voters).

Yet, in her arrogant, pugnacious, incredibly dishonest fashion, she stands before the Florida voters and dares to compare the self-created problems of the Florida and Michigan delegations to the recent debacle in Zimbabwe?

Further, she suggests that because there has been no resolution to the question of seating those delegations, the Democrats are hurt because “We have allowed ours to go on” while the Republicans wrapped their primaries up early.

EXCUSE ME? WHO has “allowed” the Democrats to go on? WHO stood before the Kentucky voters just last night and said she was in it until the end? WHO has dug herself deeper and deeper into debt, and is now digging deeper and deeper into division, claiming that EVERY VOTE HAS TO BE COUNTED?

To be clear here, the only way that Hillary Clinton gets to her specious claim that she’s ahead in the popular vote (despite Nancy Pelosi’s reiteration that the currency of the realm at the DNCC is delegates and only delegates) is to exclude the caucus states and credit ZERO VOTES in Michigan to Barack Obama.

Let me summarize the arguments that have spilled from Hillary and Bill Clinton’s lying mouths about these delegates and I’ll leave it to you to decide if these are representative of someone who purports to call themselves a Democrat, if they’re representative of a LEADER, if they’re intended to serve voters or serve Hillary, if they’re worthy of giving her even ONE IOTA of credibility within the party. I have my opinion. Let’s hear yours, after the highlights:

• “It’s clear this election [Michigan is] having is not going to count for anything.” – Link
• “And we believe the DNC’s rules and its calendar provide the necessary structure to respect and honor that role. Thus, we will be signing the pledge to adhere to the DNC approved nominating calendar.” – Link
• “More people voted for me.” – Link
• “If we were under the Republican system, which is more like the Electoral College, she’d have a 300-delegate lead here,” he said. “I mean, Senator McCain is already the nominee because they chose a system to produce that result, and we don’t have a nominee here, because the Democrats chose a system that prevents that result.” – Link
• The people of Michigan must be counted and their voices finally heard. What the people of Michigan need now is just action, not just words. – Link
• “I’m more electable” – Link
• “I’ll exercise the nuclear option” – Link

There are many more, but these are representative of the talking points. I’ve listed other examples of similar comments here.

Is this REALLY leadership?