The Note: Of Chaos and Comity

May 30, 2008 -- The marathon that has been the Democratic race is now a sprint -- and while the race may be over (and certain powerbrokers seek to set the finish line), the frontrunner is stumbling, again.

From the ice and snow of Iowa and New Hampshire to the bowling and beer of Pennsylvania and Indiana . . . the hopes and aspirations of an inspired Democratic Party lift us into the quintessence of America: a hotel function room, in our nation's capital.

(Smoking is banned at Marriott properties, but ladies and gentlemen, we bring you the smoke-filled room, circa 2008. And if you don't see enough chaos inside, if you look outside and squint, you might just see 1-9-6-8.)

And a fresh wrinkle for these party insiders (and their brethren) to consider: Yet another entry into this strange new genre of the problematic pastor, this year's version of the angry ex-shipmate.

Once again, the venue was Sen. Barack Obama's Trinity United -- and the timing will not help Democrats' efforts to heal old wounds.

"The Democratic Party is trying to unite, they're trying to come together, but that might not be easy, especially with these recent comments from a long-time friend of Sen. Obama's," ABC's Jake Tapper reported on "Good Morning America" Friday. "Horrible timing for this controversy, right before the Democratic Party ruling on Michigan and Florida."

The Rev. Michael Pfleger's bizarre, inexplicable, tin-eared mockery of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton earns a featured spot on the Obama-friend lowlight reel, alongside the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers in the loop that's going to haunt superdelegates up until (and possibly well beyond) the time that there's a nominee.

Pfleger, in his own words: "I really believe that she just always thought, 'This is mine. I'm Bill's wife, I'm white, and this is mine. I just gotta get up and step into the plate and then out of nowhere came, "Hey, I'm Barack Obama," ' and she said, 'Oh, damn. Where did you come from? I'm white. I'm entitled. There's a black man stealing my show.' "

Then comes the mockery of Clinton's tears. "She wasn't the only one crying," Pfleger said.

Obama learned the lessons of Wright, this time issuing a quick denunciation -- though one that the Clinton campaign didn't find sufficient. (This lets Clinton play party uniter, at least for a day, but it's gut-check time for Camp Clinton: How much to press this storyline?)

This is another pastor with whom Obama has had a deep relationship -- going back 20 years. Obama even won state-budget earmarks with $225,000 for programs associated with Pfleger's church while in the state senate, per the Chicago Tribune's examination last May.

"It happens that there were major supporters in my district who had been supporters before they got member initiatives," Obama told the Chicago Tribune a year ago, when those earmarks were first examined.

This is some sort of Obama nightmare -- and the venue is simply not to be believed.

"His comments threaten to resurrect the politically radioactive Rev. Jeremiah Wright as a campaign issue,"Lynn Sweet writes in the Chicago Sun-Times. "Pfleger is a longtime Obama friend and was in the audience at the National Press Club for that Wright press conference, and when we talked afterward, he realized Wright created a problem for Obama. I was told Pfleger's comments stunned some in the Obama camp because they expected him to be more politically savvy -- and not take on Clinton,especially at Trinity, of all places."

ABC's George Stephanopoulos, on "GMA," talked of the raw feelings between the campaigns and their supporters: "This is going to make that worse."

Per the Tribune's John McCormick and Manya A. Brachear: " Pfleger gave Obama's campaign $1,500 between 1995 and 2001, including $200 in April 2001, about three months after Obama announced $225,000 in grants to St. Sabina programs."

From the AP write-up (just one of dozens of data points already compiled by the good oppo folks): Pfleger "also has hosted Louis Farrakhan, the controversial leader of the Nation of Islam, at St. Sabina and has called him 'a gift from God to a sick, sick world.' "

Adds Michael Saul of the New York Daily News: "Last year, the Obama campaign brought Pfleger to Iowa to host one of several interfaith forums for the campaign."

(Anyone still wondering what's kept Clinton in the race?)

Yet with the high drama of Saturday's DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee meeting (mostly) sapped, this most-hyped meeting may serve as a reminder of the diminishing leverage the Clintons enjoy.

She still controls her own timeline -- and don't expect Obama to push unless he has to. But the campaign has progressed to a point where every passing day takes just a bit of her flexibility away from her -- the inevitable (irony alert) crowding her space.

An unmistakable signal, from the Big Three: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco Thursday, and they're banding together with DNC Chairman Howard Dean to make sure this campaign ends promptly.

"We agree there won't be a fight at the convention," said Reid, D-Nev., per ABC's Z. Byron Wolf. "The time has come to make a decision."

Said Reid, later in the day Thursday: "By this time next week, it will all be over, give or take a day."

"We cannot take this fight to the convention," Pelosi, D-Calif., told the San Francisco Chronicle. "It must be over before then."

Per The New York Times' Carl Hulse, Pelosi and Reid "had been contacting uncommitted superdelegates, encouraging them to prepare to go public and resolve any last question about the contest. . . . Given Mr. Obama's lead in the delegate race and potential support among the approximately 200 members of Congress and Democratic insiders who have yet to declare, the push to wind up the race works to his benefit."

"The push, which began this week, is damaging to Clinton, whose fading candidacy would be best-served by prolonging the contest," the Los Angeles Times' Peter Nicholas and Janet Hook report. "Clinton could use the time to press her case to superdelegates -- the elected officials and other insiders whose votes will decide the nominee -- that she is more electable than her front-running rival, Barack Obama. A delay also would improve the odds of a game-changing stumble by Obama."

The moves signal "there is little support among the party's institutional leaders for a drawn-out fight by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) to secure support from unpledged super-delegates," Paul Kane write for The Washington Post.

Two more super-D's for Obama on Friday: Boyd Richie, the chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, and his wife, Betty. (The magic number is now 41 -- though it's almost certain to grow with Saturday's DNC action.)

At least one more big endorsement is on deck: Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., is promising to endorse Tuesday morning -- and you only get one guess as to who he has in mind: "I'm not undecided, just unpledged," he told the Stamford Advocate's Alexandra Fenwick.

Per ABC's Jake Tapper: "The question is not whether Clyburn will come out for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, but how many other Representatives come off the fence."

Here's part of what has party leaders worried: "On Saturday they may have a new image problem on their hands: the specter of angry hordes of Clinton supporters showing up at the Washington meeting of the Democratic National Committee's Rules & Bylaws Committee to protest against the disenfranchisement of 2.3 million voters in Florida and Michigan," Time's Jay Newton-Small reports. "One generally doesn't protest something that one expects to win. And that should give a pretty good hint of the likely outcome on Saturday."