Harvey Weinstein Wielding Wealth and Power to Back Hillary Clinton

Harvey Weinstein, the former founder of film distribution company Miramax and a successful movie producer, is a strong backer and a personal friend of the Clintons. According to CNN, in a heated conversation last month, he threatened Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker with withdrawal or of monetary support to the House Democrats if she did not move to fund do-over primaries in Michigan and Florida which have been stripped of their delegates for breaking party rules and conducting their primaries too early. He is reported to have been influential in raising several hundreds of thousand dollars for the party over the last decade. He is now pulling his weight to buy Clinton more time and a chance to win the Democratic nomination.

Weinstein was also opposed to Clinton's portrayal as the secon- highest recipient of funds from the health-care industry in Michael Moore's movie Sicko. In March 2008, when Pelosi argued that super-delegates align with the candidate who has the lead in the delegate count, he raised his voice in support of Clinton. In a separate incident, Pelosi was also pressurized to withdraw this statement on super-delegates by 20 of Clinton's prominent fund-raisers who had donated $24 million to the Democratic party.

Weinstein's argument makes Clinton supporters look hypocritical. On one hand, they do not like Pelosi changing the rules of the game when it comes to super-delegates voting - according to the books, the super-delegates may vote for whosoever they choose. The choice does not have to depend on the delegate-count of the candidates. On the other hand, they want to break the rules themselves and have a revote in Michigan and Florida. Even worse, they are also talking about seating the delegates from their disqualified primaries.

In fact Clinton has exhibited antithetical stances throughout her campaign. One example is her criticism of Obama for being untried and untested but her willingness to share a ticket with him. Another instance is when her campaign's senior strategist Mark Penn pushed for a bilateral trade agreement with Colombian officials in return for a $300,000 payment to his lobbying firm when Clinton was touting her plans for keeping jobs inside the country. Penn quit his position on her campaign when he was exposed but he continues to advice Clinton on her trail.

All this reflects poorly not only on the Clinton campaign but also on the Democratic party as a whole. Particularly in the context of Weinstein's threat, if Pelosi and others give in to the pressure, the long drawn battle for the Democrats will not end in time for the party to come together to face McCain. Already polls show that many Obama voters are opposed to Clinton and many Clinton backers plan not to vote for Obama in the Presidential elections. Such tactics will continue the existing divide between the candidates' supporters. If the party does not realize this, they are bound to lose even their loyal supporters.