From the Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star:

Thousands of people statewide overflowed school gyms, sat in traffic and stood in groups on Saturday to be counted as part of Nebraska’s first Democratic presidential caucus.

Sen. Barack Obama was in tight race with Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, with 24 delegates at stake in Nebraska.

In Douglas County, the state’s most populous county, an average of 1,000 people turned out at each of 15 caucus sites, said Eric Fought, spokesman for the state party.

Sarpy County had one caucus site for 28,000 registered Democrats, triggering traffic backups for miles and complaints from voters while changing the way officials conducted the caucus. …

Law enforcement shut down Highway 370 and the intersection leading into the site — a school cafeteria — because the area was packed with cars.

The influx of people was so massive that volunteers began collecting preference cards for people who preferred Obama or Clinton, then allowing them to leave. Traditional caucus procedures allow for more interaction, with supporters standing on either side of a room trying to persuade the undecided and not-so-sure supporters of other candidates to join them. …

The turnout was so high that officials in Douglas and Sarpy counties announced that they would delay the announcement of their results at least one-and-a-half hours.

Thanks to TPM Reader TH for the link.

Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry called Mike Huckabee on Friday and asked him to drop out of the presidential race. Huckabee declined. Perry initially endorsed Rudy Giuliani but switched to John McCain after Rudy dropped out.

Hillary ratchets up the pressure on MSNBC over David Shuster’s pimpin’ comment: “no temporary suspension or half-hearted apology is sufficient.”

The nets are calling Nebraska for Obama.

With 73% of the vote reporting, Obama is pushing 70% of the vote.

Obama looks to be winning big in Washington State, too.

CNN just called it . . .

TPM Reader RH chimes in on the Shuster story …

I won’t defend the comment, though I will say it certainly wasn’t as bad as some of the things I’ve heard Chris Matthews or any of the “pundits” on Faux News say. However, this letter, given to reporters,
strikes me as a purely political move. It’s much more about controlling the news than any real offense taken by Hillary or Chelsea themselves. If I were MSNBC I would put Keith Olberman on the air tonight and have him say, “Hillary, he said he was sorry, twice, and we regret that it happened, but we’ll keep our own council on who we hire and fire, thanks.”

A number of readers have written in to question, or much more than question, our latest headline on the Clinton/Shuster story — namely that Hillary Clinton is demanding that Shuster be fired.

First of all, some have criticized Greg Sargent’s reporting. But let me make this crystal clear. I personally signed off on the post and I wrote the front page headline myself.

Some have said that Clinton’s letter to NBC wasn’t written clearly or that she was saying that suspensions and apologies were not enough, that what was needed was a broader reevaluation on the network’s part of its attitude to women and Hillary Clinton in particular.

Simply read the key passage …

Nothing justifies the kind of debasing language that David Shuster used and no temporary suspension or half-hearted apology is sufficient.

I would urge you to look at the pattern of behavior on your network that seems to repeatedly lead to this sort of degrading language.

Some readers seem to believe that Clinton is saying that it’s not about suspensions or apologies. It’s about MSNBC’s need to reevaluate its pattern of behavior.

But there’s a fatal flaw with this strained interpretation. Look at the actual words. If that’s the case, why does she qualify ‘suspension’ with the adjective ‘temporary’? That tells the tale right there. The alternative to a temporary suspension is a permanent one, which is clear English we call ‘firing’.

I give the Clinton campaign the respect of knowing that they’re no slouches with the written word. And the words in this letter were clearly chosen with great care. The point of that passage was that merely suspending Shuster was insufficient — that he needs to be fired. That’s what they meant. And I have little doubt that Shuster and the MSNBC execs understood the meaning the moment they read it. I think it would be wrong to shy away from making that clear.

The big political story of the night isn’t the Clinton/Shuster brouhaha or Obama’s victories. It’s on the Republican side of the race. Results are still coming in. And the particular rules of the Republican primary in Louisiana make the delegate allocation completed. But as of right now, of three Republican contests held today, it looks likely that Mike Huckabee will win all three.

We already know about Kansas, which was a blowout for Huckabee. With 62% of precincts reporting Huckabee is up by 8 point over McCain in Louisiana. And Huckabee is ahead of McCain by 3 points in Washington state with 37% of the caucuses there reporting.

There’s still time for McCain to pull ahead in Washington. But even if that happens it would not do much to change the overall picture. There’s something seriously wrong when the de facto nominee of the party loses three races in one day in three different regions of the country.

With 89% of the votes counted in Louisiana, it’s 43% Huck and 42% for McCain; in Washington state, with 78% reporting, it’s McCain up over Huckabee by 25% to 24%.

McCain will do himself a real favor if he can come from behind in both states and make Kansas the fluke of the day. But the larger picture will not, I think, be that much different.

Late Update: With 98% of the vote counted, it looks pretty clear that Huckabee’s going to come in first in Louisiana. In Washington state, the state party site has been lagging so bad we’re half wondering if they just can’t bring themselves to report a Huck win. Huckabee led for most of the evening. But McCain pulled one point ahead with 78% of caucuses reporting.

Starting to look like McCain will pull it out in Washington state, with a whopping 26% of the vote. It’s not much. But if McCain’s margin holds up it will be enough for him to avert a complete shut out at the hands of Huckabee.