March 10, 2008 -- With the two Democratic presidential candidates seemingly poised for a duel to the death, and one of the two being Sen. Hillary Clinton, you can be sure of one thing: The stage is set for some world-class skullduggery.
Indeed, the procedural funny stuff is no doubt already under way.
Take last Thursday's decision in Puerto Rico to switch from a caucus - a format that so far has favored Sen Barack Obama - to an outright primary, Clinton's stronger suit.
And wouldn't you just know it? The party chairman in Puerto Rico is an ardent Clinton backer. Hmm . . .
Now, that contest won't be held until June 1. Meanwhile, the next big battleground is Pennsylvania, with some 188 delegates (including superdelegates) up for grabs. It's slated for April 22.
And it's ripe for shenanigans.
Indeed, Gov. Ed Rendell - a diehard Hillary loyalist whose wife owes her job as a federal appellate judge to Bill Clinton - is the kind of guy who, as Carrie Budoff Brown wrote on Politico.com, "knows where to find votes."
Rendell has ardently opposed all efforts to fight voter fraud.
Last month, citing bad weather, he extended the deadline for filing delegate slates. That unilaterally helped Hillary, whose delegates hadn't all filed yet; Obama's folks, by contrast, completed all their filings on time.
Then, of course, there's the monster fight over whether to redo the primaries in Michigan and Florida. The Dems' national bosses banned delegates from those states because they broke party rules and held their primaries too early. But then (as we noted last week), rules don't really mean much to Democrats, particularly those like Clinton.
As these - and other - matters are hammered out, Obama would be wise to beware of ceding any advantage.
That can happen not only in determining what to do about Michigan and Florida but also in any new attempt to change the rules in remaining contests.
And, of course, in the race for superdelegates, who are free to vote as they like.
Beyond that, there are the cheap shots and the low blows - as, for example, when Clinton hedged on whether Obama is a Muslim, acknowledging that he isn't one "as far as I know."
Let's face it: The Hill-and-Bill machine has a record of scandal and sneakiness that runs all the way back to Arkansas. And the potential for dirty tricks is huge.
In the end, the outcome of the Democratic race may depend on the meaning of the word "is" or, say, on the whereabouts of the Rose Law Firm billing records . . . (Hey, don't blame us for dredging down that deep. It was Clinton flack Howard Wolfson who was talking about special prosecutor Ken Starr last week.)
Fortunately for Obama, he's a veteran of Chicago's seedy politics, and so he's likely prepared for what may be in store.
But far better if everyone just played fair from the start.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/03102008/postopinion/editorials/hills_scheme_machine_101191.htm
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