This is in large part why the Democratic leaders here so knowingly went along with the GOP to move up the primary. Few said it out loud, but most just sort of winked and nodded...hey, we can handle losing only half. Don't worry about it.
Howard Dean was at a fundraiser in Miami today for the party. As usual, there are Democrats who want to announce loudly that they are not going, will not go, unless they get their way. Most really think he has his nerve to come to Florida anyway. Here is what one person said to tell him because she refused to go to the fundraiser.
Not in attendance: former state Rep. Elaine Bloom, a Miami Democrat who say's she's "very upset" with the state's outsider status and has told friends to remind Dean that when the state Legislature was looking at moving up the primary, that the threat on the table from the DNC was the loss of half the state's delegates.
"And that's what we ought to go back to," she said, noting that the national Republican party punished Florida in that fashion, stripping the state of just half its delegates. Florida lost all its delegates for participating in the early primary, which violated the national party's rules.
Miami Herald blog Remind him that you thought you would only lose half. That is amazing. The party has been nearly broken as you guys have put Governor Dean up to scorn and ridicule....the irony is that he was not even at that rules committee meeting. They did their job, and he backs them up. That is how a party should work.
Other party leaders felt that way back then. Disrupting the system meant nothing to them, they felt they would only lose half, and they wanted to be in the media spotlight the week before Super Tuesday.
Florida was not your usual case that came before the rules committee of the DNC. Sure, there have been other states that tried, but none so blatantly. They made no pretense of even being honest about it. The party leaders went before the rules committee in August 2007, and they pretended they had been victims of the GOP here in this state.
The sad part is that the DNC rules committee had done its homework. They had a lot of information on how Florida had pulled some pretty bad stuff. They had transcripts of some exchanges on the floor of the legislature. They knew the state had made no effort to stand up to the Republicans in the legislature. That was all that was required for Democrats in an Republican controlled state to keep their delegates....stand up to them and oppose the bill.
Florida chose to go before the committee and pretend. They were caught in the act.
Laughter and sarcasm on the senate floorSenator Geller presented an amendment to keep the senate from moving the primary ahead of February 5th. Here is the partial floor transcript of how it was done.
The DNC members had handouts that included quotes by House Minority leader Dan Gelber brushing off Howard Dean, and the following transcript of Steve Geller making the motion to move the primary to Feb. 5:
Geller: "...So the Democratic leader and the Democratic leader pro tem are jointly making this motion, which we will duly show them later, that we tried not to have the election on, um, before (Feb. 5).
President: "And so Sen. Geller are you urging a negative vote or would you like us to pass this vote?"
Geller: "Oh no sir. We really, really want this. Don't we senator? (sarcasm and audible laughter in chamber).
Did you see that? Geller said it was just to be able to show the DNC they made an effort. The wink wink nod nod did not work because the DNC knew they had been working with Jeb's buddy, House Speaker Marco Rubio since early 2006.
Here is the video about that meeting where the sanctions were given. There is an article accompanying the video. It is from August 2007.
DNC Panel: Florida's Primary Is Too SoonIgnoring an impassioned plea from Florida Democrats — and the fact that their party's eventual presidential nominee could render their effort moot — a Democratic National Committee panel voted to strip Florida of all its delegates to the party's 2008 national convention unless it backs away from a plan to hold a presidential primary on Jan. 29 in violation of DNC rules.
Here is the sad part, where they pretended they had tried.
A three-person delegation representing Florida's Democratic Party said Republicans had forced the primary on them, despite their taking "provable, positive steps" to block the legislation.
Unfortunately the rules committee was prepared with transcripts.
They had been reaching out to Florida leaders for months, and they had been ignored and even ridiculed.
Now we have a
lawsuit pending Monday, which the plaintiff has said he will take to the Supreme Court in the expectation of deciding the election.
There is division among us here. We have had friends get angry because we questioned what Florida did. The offer by Dean to have a revote is being met by flips and flops and more demands from state leaders.
It has angered the other 48 states, and it has caused the supporters of the candidates to be filled with bitterness toward each other.
Yesterday would have been the original primary date for Florida. The sniping got worse then and continues. I think they realize the enormity of what they did, and they don't know how to fix it.
Tell Governor Dean we only thought we would lose half the delegates? That statement says it all.
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