Democratic National Convention Countdown, No. 80

Democratic National Convention Daily Digest and Open Thread
Friday June 6, 2008--No. 80**

Headlines:
Clinton backers rally around Obama.
Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Denver) switches support as superdelegate from Clinton to Obama, stresses need to focus on November and back the Democrats' candidate.

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MSM:
The Friends of New Orleans, the fundraising focus of the new all-state delegate party, stresses that it is not a sponsor of the event, and has plans at both Republican and Democrat conventions (also includes a partial list of the state delegation parties scrapped by the financially ailing DNCC, and the venues they affect):

FONO quickly put out a news release saying it was "not now and never was a financial sponsor of the event" and had planned fundraisers at both the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul and at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

The FONO fundraisers had been scheduled since last year because both political parties wanted to mark the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

DNCC transitions to planning with Obama's team and campaign needs in mind:

DNCC Chief Executive Officer Leah Daughtry acknowledged the transition Thursday in a statement.

"As a result of our earlier- than-ever head-start last year and the tremendous amount of groundwork laid since, we are well-positioned for a seamless integration with Senator Obama's campaign," the statement said. "As we enter this final phase of preparation, we will now turn our focus toward shaping the programmatic and thematic aspects of the convention to reflect Senator Obama's vision for the country and what he will accomplish on behalf of the American people."

State Democrats and other elected party officials will be able to take advantage of the DNC's bountiful spread after all, despite Amendment 41:

Steak dinners, champagne bars and wine-and-cheese receptions will be plentiful during the Democratic National Convention in Denver Aug. 24-28.

So will state elected officials, who are expected to show up in force at the free shindigs.

They can attend with impunity because nearly two years after voters approved an amendment that bans gifts to elected officials, the law is still in limbo.

In the meantime, lawmakers are free to party on during the DNC.

The five-member Independent Ethics Commission created by Amendment 41 to investigate complaints of misconduct isn't fully operating.

It now looks as though the rules under which the commission will function won't be in place until Aug. 31, which means the law isn't in effect until then.

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Blogs:
Unknown DNC security plans for the Pepsi Center could snarl traffic, shut down light-rail transit.

Former Westminster chief of police argues that the biggest threat to the DNC won't the moonbats at Recreate '68, but the moonbats at the ACLU.

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All previous Daily Digests can be found here.

**Today we are adding a new "Headlines" section for general, quick-link DNC-related articles from the MSM. Our MSM section will feature short excerpts of the more important stories.