St Pete Times: "Dems say 'not us', but Dean knows better"

[madfloridian]

This is an interesting column by Adam C.Smith of the Times. Things are not always as they seem.

Dean lobbied early on against FL primary bill

And the Florida Democrats rudely blew him off. I have several examples in other articles, but this is enough.

As Florida Democrats try to escape punishment from the national party for busting the established primary schedule, a sob story is emerging:

How can the mean ol' Democratic National Committee punish beleaguered Florida Democrats for the Republican-controlled legislature and governor deciding to move the presidential primary so early in violation of committee rules?

Puh-lease.

Party chairman Howard Dean might swallow that if a Democratic state senator, Jeremy Ring, hadn't sponsored the original bill moving the primary to Jan. 29. Besides, Dean knows he lobbied early on to get Democrats to back off the bill and folks like House Democratic leader Dan Gelber blew him off publicly.

From another article, Gelber was rude and so were others. Dean called him in February and tried to talk with him.

Dean, the party leader and 2004 presidential candidate, phoned Miami Beach Rep. Dan Gelber, the House Democratic leader, who backs an earlier primary.

"I didn't want to get in a game of chicken with the national Democratic Party, but candidly, I don't represent Howard Dean," Gelber said. "I represent a lot of people who would like to be in the primary journey as more than just potential contributors."
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/02/09/State/Primary_move_upsets_D.shtml

There's a history in my state of not paying attention to rules.

The rules are different in Florida

"Florida—The Rules Are Different Here” was a state promotional slogan that began in 1986. It is still used derisively, whenever someone wants to break the rules.

[flyarm]

1. i hate to say it..but the DLC came into fla before the 2006 election and totally dissed Dean..and

DNC candidates,.at least they did in my county..and it thought something bigger than we can see is going on..

now i think it was to put Hillary on the top of the heap by taking away many of our delegates.

could i be wrong..well yes..

but something was stinking pretty bad..

we saw great democratic candidates who had no primary races ..have candidates trhown up at the last minute forcing great DNC candidates into primaries they didn't need to have and should not have had.

We saw the DLC not back any of our good steady candidates..they got no money and no support from the state FDP..

One DLC type candidate switched party just days before announcing as a dem candidate for primary against a wonderful progressive DNC candidate ..and this newbie to the party (ahhhh!) got all the DLC money against someone who had been in the running for over a year..with no opposition.

I did not like what i saw..in fact it made me sick to my stomach.

It was like the state FDP did everything they could to shit on progressive candidates.

Ones i thought could win ..if they had gotten any support from the state party.

something smells in gatorland.


oh and the writer of this story is a shit stirrer..i can not tolerate!!..and he is in my county in Fla..he is always stirring shit for the dems! He does his best to always show fla dems in a bad light.

fly
2004 delegate for a county in fla.

[madfloridian]

2. I know which candidates you mean.

I pretty much see your point on a lot of what you wrote.

It's rough here. It's discouraging. For a while it seemed like the party was reaching out, but now I notice we don't get mailings from the Florida party lately. For a while after the political directors came we got encouraging mail. Not much anymore.

[madfloridian]

3. Smith has also written some good stuff as well.

He was quite fair in this interview with Dean on BayNews9

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/12/07/Worldandnation/Dean__Dems_should_kee.shtml

Howard Dean says the Democratic-controlled Congress should not seat Buchanan without another election.

"Absolutely not," Dean said in a taped Political Connections interview scheduled to air Sunday on Bay News 9. "You cannot seat someone if you don't have an election that's valid.

"This election is not valid. There are 18,000 people who may have voted, and we don't know what happened to their votes," Dean said. "You can bet that if the Republicans were 500 votes short they'd be calling for a new election, and they'd be right."

http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/28333

Martinez said his piece and watched

13 May 2007 // Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean has taken some heat in Florida for pressuring Democrats to abide by the national party rules and not schedule a primary before Feb. 5. Hardly anyone has mentioned Dean's counterpart with the Republican National Committee, who also has been unable to control Florida lawmakers bent on violating the his committee's schedule, too.

Considering he is Florida Sen. Mel Martinez and his party controls the Legislature, you might think he'd have a bit more sway than Dean. But unlike Dean, Martinez has been virtually silent on the matter, except to remind Florida Republicans that they would lose half of their delegates to the national convention by scheduling such an early primary.

"Once I made sure they knew they couldn't come to me and say 'Gee, Mel, but you're the chairman' ... then that's all I did, " Martinez said. "The party's rules are inflexible, but the party also understands that the states are free to do what they will. They just need to know the consequences of what they do."

[Morgana LaFey]

7. Ah, the DLC

"The best way to control the opposition is to lead it ourselves." -- Lenin



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x173238

[nashville_brook]

4. i'm a recently returned native floridian -- question...

i'm completely intrigued by the comment that the existing party machine has mostly disappeared from the radar -- whoa! what a great opportunity. sounds like there's a vacuum here. what a perfect time to step in and fill the void.

so, i'm wondering what progressive democratic orgs there are here. i'm aware of lots of special interests (preservation groups, anti-sprawl, etc). but, i haven't come across any sort of general interest organization.

it would be a great to knit our special interests under one umbrella -- at least in terms of communications (newsletters, email, web sites, etc).

we would start with collecting contacts -- just build mailing lists -- email and snail mail. then, get the information out there, networking the different interests. build the community thru plain old human activity. if all us progressives have a sense of what other progressives are doing, people are more likely to spread their efforts among the groups, making the whole stronger.

i just love the idea of filling a vacuum.

[madfloridian]

5. Missed the "vacuum" part.

Not a vacuum, just not activist friendly in our area at least.

DFA is very active in some parts of the state, I think, esp. South Florida.

Florida is very much in control of Republican Democrats, don't mean that to be insulting...just the way it is here. They have all switched parties so much, they don't know what they are. DLC had/has a firm grip here over all, in power and policy. That is, what is not in Republican control.

Scarlet letter mentality among Florida Democrats

[nashville_brook]

8. i'm very familiar with it -- tennessee was that way

momentum from the last election, especially DFA, has done a lot (there) to bring balance to the "discussion."

[madfloridian]

6. Point made.

http://cbs4.com/topstories/local_story_168092640.html