Adding Insult to Stupidity

11:17 pm, 8/26/07

Adding Insult to Stupidity

Both parties are unhappy with the idea of primaries being moved, since it means that they can't depend on New Hampshire and Iowa to set the pace as they have in the past. However, the DNC is taking it further, nearly creating a war with Florida Democrats:

"You now see the end of a system that we've been living with since the 1970s," said Donna Brazile, who managed Al Gore's campaign in 2000 and is a member of the DNC rules committee. "It fell apart in the last cycle, but we kept it together with very interesting glue and duct tape. Unfortunately, this is really out of control."

Holy cow. This process has been used for generation.

As Christopher Kallini rightly notes, this means the tradition has been with us as long as pet rocks and Billy Beer.

Nelson and other Florida Democrats yesterday laid the blame for the standoff squarely at Dean's feet. They noted Democrats are following the lead of a Republican legislature and governor who moved the state's primary to Jan. 29 by law, but vowed to stand up for their state's right to have a say in the nominating process.

"There is no elected official that is going to allow their voters to become irrelevant," said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.).

But national party officials shot back, accusing Florida Democrats of standing by idly while the state's Republican legislature acted. Stacie Paxton, a spokeswoman for Dean, said Florida Democratic leaders are to blame for their own bleak situation.

"They could have done something. They have made this decision for their voters," Paxton said. "Did these leaders do anything to prevent passage of legislation they knew was in violation of the rules?"

Putting aside momentarily that it's ridiculous for this kind of intra-party nonsense to be written into law, is Paxton contending that Democratic Party policy should be used as a binding guideline for elected lawmakers?

Apparently so, because today they decided to punish Florida.

The state party has 30 days to comply by moving its contest back at least seven days from the current Jan. 29 plan or lose its 210 delegates to the nominating convention in Denver next summer.

The state party chairwoman, Karen Thurman, said she would confer with officials about the ultimatum. Elected officials in Florida have said they would consider legal action and a protest at the convention if the national party barred the state's delegates....Florida Democratic leaders now are committed to the state-run election because voter participation would drop drastically if Democrats held an alternative contest after Jan. 29.

...Every member voted against Florida except for the state's representative on the panel, Allan Katz.

Several DNC officials said before the vote that they wanted to take the strong action against Florida to discourage Michigan, New Hampshire and other states that were considering advancing their contests in violation of party rules.

Remember: This is the party that thinks it's tantamount to treason if a liberal can't find their polling place. They are now prepared to exclude entire states from the Democratic Party's decision-making process should elected lawmakers defy the party machine, a non-governmental entity that wields no political power or right, even if the Constitution of that state explicitly gives power to regulate party functions to the state. (Florida's, from a quick read, does.)

Apparently, the fear is that a future in which the primaries aren't conducted as the national party decrees, the future will look like Def-Con 4, complete with cannibalism and terrible acting:

Garry Shay, a rules committee member from California, said allowing Florida to move forward "would open the door to chaos."

DNC committee member Donna Brazile also argued for a strong penalty, saying, "I hesitate to see what happens if we show somehow some wiggle room in our process."

The process that brought the national Democrats... What, exactly? Dukakis?

It isn't their process, it's Florida's. Florida ought to use approval voting this year just to spite them. Either way, somehow I don't think this tone-deaf charge by Howard "Mad Dog" Dean's crew is exactly going to build enthusiasm among Florida Democrats.