Division among TN Clinton delegates

Betsy Reid, the whip for the TN Clinton delegate caucus, caused a minor stir on Wednesday when she announced to the group that she had changed her mind about voting for the Senator from New York, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.

"She just lost her clout," said Sylvia Woods, chairwoman of the Knox County Democratic Party. "She should have kept her mouth shut, or she should step down." Woods' husband, Harold, also a pledged Clinton delegate, said he came to the convention promising to vote for the New York senator, "and that's what I'm going to do."

Woods, of course, just recently emerged from another controversy involving the possible disciplining of a 19-year-old party official who was seen at the victory party of a Republican family friend.

In a remark ironically destined for public consumption, Memphis delegate Rudi Scheidt said, "Vote your conscience," he told his fellow Clinton delegates. "Vote for whoever you want to vote for. But remember, this never took place. Because if they hear we're divisive … you do nothing but demean the Democratic Party and put (John) McCain in office."

Meanwhile, the Governor has been playing the reluctant chaplain of unity:

"Everywhere I'm going, I'm preaching - for lack of a better word - to people that this is the way it works in America," he said. "You have elections, and somebody wins, and when it's in a primary, you pull behind the primary victor."

See also Ken Whitehouse.