Madfloridian's Journal - Two Florida lawsuits against DNC pending...two already dismissed. Enough.

Makes one wonder how long this will go on. In addition to the Florida effort to crash the DNC fundraising for months on end...the lawsuits are taking time and money from the DNC that they need to prepare for the general election.

Yesterday we learned that Florida Senate Minority leader Steve Geller had filed a lawsuit against the DNC.

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL -- Three Florida delegates, including the state's Senate Democratic leader have filed a federal lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee claiming the DNC violated their constitutional rights by barring them from the party's national convention.

"This litigation addresses the view of Howard Dean and the Democratic National Committee that 1.75 million Democrats can be ignored at will,” said Geller. “We believe we’ve found a winning legal strategy that will once and for all force the DNC to not only obey its own rules but to listen to the voices of millions of Democrats in one of the most influential states in the nation.”

There is yet another suit pending, due to be heard on May 28.

Two Florida Lawsuits Pending Over Democratic Delegates

Two federal courts in Florida are dealing with lawsuits by Florida Democrats, against the Democratic National Committee, over Florida’s lack of representation at the national convention. DiMaio v Democratic National Committee, which had been filed in August 2007, has a hearing in U.S. District Court, Middle District, on May 28. The plaintiff is a Florida Democratic voter. The case has already been to the 11th circuit, which found a procedural error, so technically this is the new DiMaio case, not the original case. 8:08cv-672T.

The other case was filed May 22 by three delegates to the national convention, State Senator Steve Geller (who is an uncommitted superdelegate), Barbara Effman (who is for Hillary Clinton) and Percy Johnson (who is for Barack Obama). It is Geller v Democratic National Committee, 08-cv-60774, southern district, in Miami.

They can play the "I am uncommitted therefore I can sue" game all they want...but the lawsuits do nothing but push the agenda of the Clinton campaign.

The Dimaio lawsuit due to be heard on May 28 accuses the DNC of discriminating against white people in Florida

What an interesting turn of the worm. Sometime next week, we may have democrats suing democrats for carrying out a very democratic policy of advancing minorities. Steinberg and DiMaio acknowledge with a grin that their reverse racism accusation will ruffle feathers, but hope the conservative judiciary will be delighted to strike a blow against affirmative action and rule in their favor. Their only objective, they claim, is to see all of Florida's delegates seated based on the January 31st primary election.

Steve Geller has a history of threatening words toward the DNC and Dean. He not long ago assured them of .."mutually assured destruction."

Here is his defense of the almost 100% yes vote by Democrats in Florida.

Florida's Democrats argue that it was not their fault. They say that the law bringing the primary date forward was passed by a Republican-majority legislature. Even if they had wanted to protest, they did not have enough votes. (FALSE ARGUMENT: they did not have to win, they just had to try.)

"Florida is one of the two biggest swing states in the country," an angry Steve Geller told me, in his law firm's offices in Fort Lauderdale.

"I have polling data which suggests that at least a quarter of Democrats will stay at home in the general election - or vote for the republican candidate - if their votes are not counted in the nominating process.

"We are being given the death penalty by the Democratic National Committee, which - I have to say - will mean mutually assured destruction."

He himself is back up on You Tube in the famous video in which he mocks his own amendment on the floor of the Florida Senate.

Geller caught on video mocking his own amendment

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).

These lawsuits are not the first either. There was one filed against the state by DNC delegate Jon Ausman, which was filed too late to have an effect.

But also Senator Bill Nelson joined Alcee Hastings and Corinne Brown to file a suit also based on civil rights.

Bill Nelson lost his suit on the civil rights basis.

Hinkle said the Democratic National Committee has a right to set its schedule for primaries. The national party penalized Florida because it broke party rules by jumping the state's primary date ahead to Jan. 29.

To rule otherwise would be a free-for-all with all 50 states, Hinkle said. He gave the plaintiffs the choice to re-file under the voting rights act against the state of Florida if they choose."

One has to wonder just how many lawsuits can be filed on the same issue before they might be considered of an harassing nature.