This story begins on October 15th, 2007, in Brooklyn. Then-frontrunner Hillary Rodham Clinton spent some time that day, as her hosts made it out, paying her respects to the Brooklyn machine, as represented and headed by one Vito Lopez, Assemblyman in the 53d District.

But for Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez, the Brooklyn Democratic Party leader, Mrs. Clinton’s visit to Brooklyn apparently represents far more than that. He said it was a sign of newfound respect for the party organization.

Now we learn how Vito decided to acknowledge that respect - by costing Hillary votes for her delegates. Here's the palm card for Hillary distributed in the 53d District: The full palm card distributed in the part of the 12th Congressional District outside of Vito's immediate grip, and some distribution details, after the jump. It appears that the altered palm card - and if you look at that, this was done by hand with scissors and magic marker, probably thousands of times - was distributed exclusively in the parts of the 12th CD represented by Lopez; similar alterations were apparently made for the customized palm card in the 10th CD. Part of what was cut off was, ironically, the Paid for by Hillary Clinton for President, which is of course required by the FEC. But that's gravy. Hillary's campaign should be asking itself why it paid good money to have these cards produced, when they can be cut down and have names of her delegates crossed out at the whim of a local Tammanyite. If there's one thing the New York Democrats don't like, it's disloyalty to Hillary Clinton. Well, here's a clear case of it. Brooklyn machine pols are tolerated by the party because they reliably deliver votes; it stands to reason, however, that Luis Garden-Acosta didn't receive quite as many as he might have. After all, his name was crossed out on the campaign's own palm cards.