Madfloridian's Journal - FL and MI are now being used as tools by the Clinton campaign.

It is a shameful thing for her to do. It is shameful for the two states to go along with it. It is an effort to undermine the party, the DNC, the rules, Howard Dean, Barack Obama, and anyone else who stands in her way.

Large donors for Hillary have been calling Howard Dean and taking him out to lunch...to threaten him that their money is gone if Hillary does not get her way. It is called bribing the referee.

However you view the situation, the implication couldn’t be clearer: “If you want the money to keep coming in, you had better do what we say.” I guess they haven’t noticed all the money pooring in to the Obama campaign. I’m also guessing Howard Dean, who knows a thing or two about grassroots organizing himself, probably has. If I was heading up the DNC, I would be more concerned with keeping the 1,000,000 Obama contributors happy than a handful of venture capitalists.

Maybe they can just hit Obama in the knee with a pipe instead.

We found out months ago from TNR that the Clinton campaign was not using the resources of the DNC, not using the tools of the 50 State campaign. She was building her own party.

I have said for a long time that there was already a third party, that it was called the DLC. I am more and more thinking I was right.

About the DLC leadership

From left to right: Harold Ford, Jr. is chairman of the DLC. U.S. Sen. Tom Carper is vice chair of the DLC; U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is chair of the DLC's American Dream Initiative; Al From is founder and CEO of the DLC. (Not pictured: Bruce Reed is DLC president; Pennsylvania State Representative Jennifer Mann is chair of the DLC's Legislative Advisory Board (LAB); Columbus (OH) Mayor Michael Coleman is chair of the DLC's Local Elected Officials Network(LEON).)

More about the shadow DNC

Has Hillary begun her own shadow DNC

A few months earlier, The New Republic had reported that Clinton's camp was "laying the groundwork to circumvent the DNC in the event that Clinton wins the nomination." This shadow DNC had a number of integral parts: adviser Harold Ickes would develop state-of-the-art technology to help Clinton reach prospective voters; EMILY's List and Clinton's allies in organized labor would launch an unprecedented effort to turn out supporters, especially women voters; former DNC chair Terry McAuliffe would raise untold sums from wealthy donors and the business community; and communications honcho Howard Wolfson would direct an unrelenting war room. Ever since 1992 the Clintons had used the DNC as an outpost for raising money from big donors, and funding candidates had taken precedence over nurturing progressive organizers. That model would continue into '08. Dean could remain at the DNC as a figurehead but only if he stayed in line.

She went further. She even said the rules of the DNC for delegates are NOT the rules of her campaign. Some of us were hoping she did not mean it, but I am pretty sure she did.

Hillary campaign says DNC delegates rules are not the rules of her campaign.

The rules the party has put in place to choose its nominee are not the rules of the Clinton campaign and, just like the Obama campaign, we are doing what we can under those rules to secure the requisite number of delegates for the nomination. One way to avoid the situation described above is to figure out some way to honor the votes of Michigan and Florida, where there was record turnout. Counting the delegates in Florida and Michigan is a civil rights issue, and a solution needs to be figured out before the convention.

The Democrats in both states have loudly complained that they kept trying to contact the DNC, they say no one would work with them. I have so many articles that show that not to be true, that is is lie,...but this is the most damning.

Dean says FL and MI would not negotiate with the DNC...took it public instead.

Here is an 8 minute interview he gave on NPR. I knew how they treated the DNC and Dean early on in the process, but apparently the two states made this latest public move while refusing to deal with the DNC. That is a low blow and disrespectful.

NPR interview with Dean

There is no transcript of the interview with NPR, and it is about 8 minutes long. Near the end he says the two states took it public while refusing to have discussions with the DNC.

Michigan and Florida have a lot of good people who have not been told the truth about what happened. Their state's Democratic political leaders are responsible for this mess. They all knew the consequences, but now they are allowing themselves to become pawns in this game for the White House.

Some grown-ups in both states need to step in.