Clinton Supporters Can’t Count To Two (aka “Clinton Supporters Count Too”)

Cynthia Ruccia: Pinhead

By now a lot of you may have seen this utterly pathetic and hysterical appearance by Mary Kay Cosmetics rep (no joke!) and take-ball-go-homer Cynthia Ruccia, co-founder of “Clinton Supporters Count Too,” and Kimberly Myers, owner of Shitty Hand-Written Signs Emporium, on The O’Loofah Factor. If you haven’t seen it, make sure you check it out:

As the very funny Wonk said about Myers:

I think she’s blinking a message in Morse Code.

T.H.E.Y. A.R.E. F.O.R.C.I.N.G. M.E. T.O. S.A.Y. T.H.I.S.

H.A.A.A.A.AL.L.L.L.L.L.L.L.L.L.P. ! ! !

Steve M. from No More Mister Nice Blog first became aware of Ruccia when he read the following at Jake Tapper’s ABC blog Political Punch:

Just talked to a 55-year-old Columbus, Ohio resident named Cynthia Ruccia, a spokesperson and organizer for a group calling itself “Clinton Supporters Count Too.” She said the group—numbering in the hundreds, and organized in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Michigan—stands ready to boycott the Democratic Party if Clinton doesn’t win the nomination, and will work against superdelegates who support Obama over Clinton as a means of registering their displeasure with the party.

“We have a plan to campaign against the Democratic nominee,” the group said in a press release Thursday. “We have the (wo)manpower and the money to make our threat real. And there are millions of supporters who will back us up in the swing states. If you don’t listen to our voice now, you will hear from us later.”

Ruccia tells ABC News that she believes “millions” of women share her group’s views, though they have only begun to make contact with like-minded women. [...]

(Direct link to the article here, but be careful.  Some ad-based code currently present there kept crippling my Firefox browser.)

Steve wisely pointed out that “the notion that this group ‘numbering in the hundreds’ represents ‘‘millions’ of women’ is a crock” and then laid out some interesting info from Ruccia’s past:

For almost 14 years it had passed without comment that the local Congressman, John Kasich, the powerful chairman of the House Budget Committee, stretches his paycheck by sharing a Virginia town house for the two or three nights a week that Congress is in session. His housemate? His male chief of staff. Last month Cynthia Ruccia, Kasich’s Democratic challenger, called for a Justice Department investigation of what she said was “a serious appearance of impropriety” because Kasich, who is divorced, lived with someone whose government salary he controls.

That was the official question. What it unofficially implied was that the two men might be otherwise involved. Though Ruccia denies that she intended to leave that impression, Kasich’s office inevitably found itself having to deny that either man is gay. No federal investigation is likely. (To begin with, the Justice Department does not examine “appearances.’‘) As it happens, Ruccia had long been a high-profile supporter of gay rights and Kasich an occasional ally at best. (He voted yes on AIDS funding, no on gay marriage.) But by raising the issue, she stands to benefit from whatever doubt she creates in the minds of voters hostile to gays.

Even Democrats were crying foul. “It was the worst sort of gutter politics and gay baiting,” says Bob Fitrakis, Kasich’s 1992 Democratic opponent. And the gay community in Kasich’s congressional district also sensed an invitation to gay baiting. “It’s disappointing to see it from a party that has been the most progressive on the issues,” says Phil Martin, president of Stonewall Union, Ohio’s largest gay-rights organization, which counts Ruccia as a member.

This was in 1996 and it was the second time Ruccia had run against Kasich (she lost to him in ‘04). So as a Democrat and a supposed “high-profile supporter of gay rights,” she scurried for the gutter and tried gay-baiting her opponent. Charming. She was soundly defeated again, even after shamelessly stooping to wingnut-like and unethical douchebaggery. And then she lost again two years later running locally for an Ohio House seat. [source]

Which is why, ladies and gents, she decided to start giving (hold the laughter) “Wanna Win?” seminars. Wanna win?  Seriously? I can see her conducting “Wanna Gay Bait?” or “Wanna Have Mary Kay Make Your Day?” or “Wanna Be A Petulant Pinhead?” seminars, but nothing having to do with “winning” elections.

Here’s a sample of the well-crafted wisdom Ruccia has rolled out for a fee:

Brilliant, huh? Her strategy was so complex she had to consult her notes.  “Let’s see, did I mention that we can raise money yet?” Does Hillary have a winner in her corner or what?

Now let’s get back to the beginning where I introduced Ruccia as being a co-founder of “Clinton Supporters Count Too.”  The other founder is Jamie Dixey and, you guessed it, she’s a winner, too!:

[...] All winter, the heart of Hillary Clinton’s campaign in central Ohio was Jamie Dixey’s apartment in the affluent Columbus suburb of New Albany. She started by inviting nine friends over to listen in on a national conference call with Clinton. She organized two monthly meetings, both of which attracted about 10 people. “It was very hard to get people interested because it was so early,” Dixey says. In the world of traditional Democratic Party campaigns, this was enough to qualify Dixey as a star volunteer. She won an invitation to Governor Ted Strickland’s rally on Jan. 19 formally kicking off Clinton’s grassroots campaign in Ohio.

Dixey’s counterpart on the Obama campaign, Valli Frausto, signed up to volunteer for Obama on Feb. 11, 2007, the day after he announced his candidacy. Immediately she found the social networking section of Obama’s website, my.barackobama.com, which campaign insiders affectionately call “MyBO.” Frausto posted a personal profile, just as she would on MySpace, and met other supporters online. Within six months, her group of three women had grown to over 200 members. Together they used the website’s event planning tools to organize Obama for President picnics, neighborhood cleanups, phone banks and a 5K fund-raiser run.

Ten people?  Really?  Ten? I could get ten people over to my house to watch ants carry crumbs across my back patio. I guess in Clinton Supporters Count Too World O’ Math ten really means thousands! Look out DNC! Board up the windows, you’ve got a shitstorm of epic proportions approaching! These gals got it going on.

Too. fucking. funny.

And what’s even sadder than this foot-stomping, sore-loser fiasco is that a once-proud news program like Nightline has fallen for this over-hyped malarkey:

“Democrat” Taylor Marsh, who uploaded this video, wrote in the description on YouTube: “Not a good sign for Democrats.”

Yeah, no fucking shit.  Who let a petty, self-involved dolt like Ruccia into our party in the first place?  We’ve really gotta get a doorman.

MORE: Hey, for the fun of it, let’s jump into the time machine and venture back to the exciting world of 1996 web design and development to visit the “Clinton Supporters Count Too” official web site*! Remember, you saw it here first!

* p.s. Regardless of how eye-rottingly bad Ruccia’s “Wanna Win” web site and logo are, even I don’t believe she’s this lame. I suspect this is a parody site, but, then again, I never thought I’d see my fellow (and hopefully ex-) Democrats praising Fox News, favorably quoting Mark “Wolfboy” Steyn or proudly sourcing Little Green Footballs, so what the hell do I know?

UPDATE: A must see. Apparently Cynthia Ruccia was on Fox again with Shep “Diamond Eyes” Smith. What a loon. (with video)

UPDATE (5/23): Via Wonk I see that I was kinda right about my disclaimer about the “Clinton Supporters Count Too” web site.  It’s, amazingly enough, not a parody site, but it wasn’t created by Ruccia.  It was created by a guy named Ed from Texas and he makes videos (warning: graphic wingnut-style 9/11 and terrorist imagery)! Judging from the videos, he supports both Hillary and McCain for President, but he doesn’t seem to like Obama much.  Hmmmm (rubbing chin), I can’t imagine why…

Posted by Kevin K. on 05/22/08 at 11:06 AM • Permalink

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