The "appropriate legal official" to "investigate" Dean and the DNC...is...Gonzales.

[madfloridian]

Florida has threatened to have the DNC investigated in a letter addressed to Governor Dean....if the party doesn't back down and let Florida have its way about the primary.

Bill Nelson and others use the words "appropriate legal officials", and indicate both state and national level.

Before I post more, let that sink in. It very well could be that Alberto Gonzales's department could at the request of the Florida Democrats...end up investigating the chairman of the DNC for obeying the party rules. And let this sink in....a major Democratic forum is pulling for Florida to win.

I think when I read this today, it was just about the tipping point for me. My husband agrees.

Talks with several offices of the names listed on the letter verified it for me....though the aides sounded pretty doggoned sheepish when I pinned then down about Gonzales.

Here is the letter.

Congressional delegation threatens Dean

The Honorable Howard Dean
Chairman
Democratic National Committee
430 S. Capitol St. SE
Washington, DC 20003

Dear Chairman Dean:

It has been our understanding the Democratic National Committee intended to satisfactorily resolve any potential rules problems arising from the decision by several states to move up their 2008 primary dates.

Florida - as directed by the state Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Charlie Crist - advanced its primary to Jan 29. Our goal now is to protect the right of every citizen to vote and to have that vote count.

Yet it was reported just today the DNC still appears poised to assault this basic right. According to ABC News and other news publications, the DNC may sanction Florida if the state's Democratic Party doesn't make the new primary a nonbinding straw poll - or in effect, a "meaningless . . . beauty contest."

If true - and, if the DNC strips Florida of all or some of its delegates to the national convention - we would ask the appropriate legal officials to determine whether this could violate any state or federal laws governing and protecting individual voting rights.

Furthermore, we would recommend to the chairman and leadership of the Florida Democratic Party that they send the party's entire delegation to the national convention in Denver next year anyway.

It always has been a priority of our party to protect the right of every eligible American to vote. We would hope the DNC will continue to honor this right, when the Rules and Bylaws Committee meets Saturday in Washington.

As has been discussed privately on a couple of previous occasions, there is an easy compromise to resolve this situation: the states with administrative officers legally empowered to do so can move their primaries up seven days from when they were originally planned. This would keep the same sequence and timing for all the states in the presidential selection process.

Sincerely,

Sen. Bill Nelson
Rep. Alcee L. Hastings, Democratic Chair, Florida Congressional Delegation
Rep. Kendrick Meek
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Rep. Kathy Castor

Howard Dean was right once again. He said not long ago that the drama in Florida was not yet over.

This is a power play by the Florida Democrats against Howard Dean and the DNC. It seems most ironic that they would do this after expanding Bush's authority with wiretapping and speaking out this week that the surge is working.

Ah, our state Democrats sure have their priorities straight.

[saracat]

1. My thoughts on this cannot be published they are too vile.

[madfloridian]

2. Well, then...perhaps..

you might want to head over and let Kos know how you feel. He is celebrating our wonderful Florida Dems.

[saracat]

3. Really Damn.

[saracat]

4. Talk about missing the BIG picture!

[madfloridian]

7. I see a diary was deleted there.

I saw it earlier today, remember being surprised that is was just expressing surprise that the Dems here would do that. And being surprised how many there were hostile to the poster.

I went back to look...it is no longer there. It was really quite nice compared to what I am writing here.

That is surprising not to be able to question there.

[AtomicKitten]

5. The Dems would be remiss if they don't impeach Gonzales.

It would greatly increase their approval rating because it's the right thing to do.

A two-fer so to speak.

[madfloridian]

6. Good response from the DNC spokesperson at MSNBC

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/08/23/330749.aspx

"And then they said this, a reminder of the 2000 voting chaos in the state: "It always has been a priority of our party to protect the right of every eligible American to vote. We would hope the DNC will continue to honor this right, when the Rules and Bylaws Committee meets Saturday in Washington."

In response to this letter, a DNC spokeswoman said, “We will wait and see what the Rules and Bylaws Committee decides on Saturday. We hope Florida will do the right thing and work with the DNC to comply with the rules they voted for."

Yes, it is Florida's decision to make.

[MaineDem]

8. And remember, Dean has nothing to do with the decision

Automatic sanctions were included in the rules passed by the entire DNC for states which violate the "window". Automatic.

It's the "superdelegates" that would be the first to go and this includes the elected officials who signed the letter.

[madfloridian]

9. I discussed this with the aides at 3 of the offices today.

They were very uncomfortable with this issue. They know this is a terrible way to go about it.

No, the rules are done.

Hey, won't be boring.

:hi:

[MaineDem]

10. It's anything but boring

I agree with you there. ;)

[madfloridian]

12. Comment from the MSNBC First Read...

Three of the signees have already endorsed Hillary...Nelson is going to for sure..not sure about Kathy Castor.

"Interestingly, three of these Florida Democrats -- Hastings, Meeks, and Wasserman Schultz -- have endorsed Clinton; Nelson and Castor have yet to make an endorsement. "

[madfloridian]

23. Wow, mainedem. read this. Florida wants this to go to court, I think.

From comments at Kos from the Florida party.

"Remember, the Democratic Congressional members fired this warning shot in the hopes that they would never actually have to ask for a voting rights probe.

And know that if the DNC sanctions Florida, the Republican Party will no doubt file for an investigation. How terrible would it be for the GOP to be the Party to stand up for the voting rights of minorities?
-FDP Staff"

They think we are stupid.

[MaineDem]

26. I don't know what Karen Thurman is doing

I've been told she's been meeting with Dean to work this out.

But it isn't just Florida now. I read that Michigan is moving, too.

[madfloridian]

29. Michigan said they would if the DNC did not hold the line.

I read they were moving anyway. I think the senate approved but not the house yet.

[Totally Committed]

11. My response would make the Rude Pundit blush...

I'll leave it at that.

:grr:


TC

[Cha]

21. That's Mission Impossible!

:grr:

[madfloridian]

13. I was going to email Castor....

We long supported her mother, Betty, in every way we could.

But guess what...only her zip code can email her.

Her votes her actions affect us just as much as they do her constituents, but we can not email her. They have a service now that filters out everyone who doesn't count.

http://castor.house.gov/Contact/

Federal votes and actions affect the whole country, and I very much resent this. Her office was not very responsive.

They are planning on starting an investigation of the party chairman because they did not get their way.

I should be able to email her.

[madfloridian]

14. They are really getting to be ugly on this.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/state/epaper/2007/08/23/0823FLdems.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=0

"He said that Florida Democrats who are told their votes won't count may lose interest when it counts most. "They may say: 'You know what? You didn't respect me, so why should I help your nominee?'" Korge said. "I could see that happening."

"Florida is near the top of the agenda Saturday, when the DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee meets in Washington, D.C., to decide how to respond to the Jan. 29 date - a week before the sanctioned Feb. 5 start date for all states other than the four official "early primary" states. Florida Democrats argue they should not be punished for actions taken by the Republican legislature and Republican governor, who pushed hard for the early date to increase the state's influence in choosing the next president." (That pure BS...the Democrats started it, and Dean and the DNC and all of us know it.)

(If the DNC rules committee gives in to this bullying Saturday, it will have a big impact on our opinion of the party and our role in it.)

"the nominees would be known by mid-February, at which time the question of delegates would become moot. That is the same theory Michigan Democrats who support an earlier primary - including Michigan's Democratic governor, Jennifer Granholm - believe will make that swing state matter on both a possible Jan. 15 primary date as well as in November.

"If a Democrat doesn't win Michigan, they're not going to win the presidency," said Michigan Democratic Party spokesman Jason Moon. "We're not concerned with the penalties."

"Allan Katz, a Tallahassee city commissioner and a member of the DNC's rules committee, said he understands the points of view of both the state and national parties.

"There isn't a bad guy here. The question is: What do you do about it?"

Thurman, for her part, said that she has done all she can to prevent the disenfranchisement of the state's Democrats. If the DNC insists on stripping Florida's delegates on Saturday: "It'll be on their hands, and not mine," she said. "

No, Thurman, we wonder if your lobbying job with Al Cardenas, Republican extraordinaire...perhaps took up time and had influence.

We wonder about a lot.

[karynnj]

15. The Democrats need to resolve this

They really need to work out a solution on there own. Every other way they lose.

1) If the state and Federal government are found to have no jurisdiction and they say the DNC can do anything they want and either FL backs down pouting or their votes don't count - we could lose Democrats in FL. Without Bush this is still a winnable state.

2) If Gonzales or a FL state person tries this, they will do there best to make Dean and the FL Democrats look bad.

Dean has to find someone who can arbitrate a solution quietly.

[madfloridian]

16. Florida wants to do it openly and loudly. That has been the goal.

I wish it had not been this way.

[karynnj]

17. This is beyond stuped - I completely agree with your anger on this

The way it is seems to only lead to unnesessary hard feeling on part of Floridians. I would imagine that this really infuriates and pains Dean, who has been working so hard (and well) to fix a troubled party structure.

[madfloridian]

18. I have made calls all day, getting nowhere.

I wrote Karen Thurman tonight. Will get nowhere there.

Yes, it does pain. Even worse was to see Markos post in support of the Florida Democrats. Then a very nice diary saying they disagreed with Florida was doing....deleted. Gone.

There is not a word at the blogs taking up for the DNC.

I have felt all week like Democrats did not care about what any of us thought about FISA or Iraq. Now this.

Every blogger should be speaking up about this power play. I appear to be the only one posting.

[karynnj]

31. You may be the only one - I haven't seen anyone else either

It is shocking that Markos is backing the Florida Democrats. I think the entire move to compress 2008 is unDemocratic. What is stupid is that it works against allowing second thoughts. It puts even more control in the hands of the media and party. Dean deserves better given all he has done.

[madfloridian]

32. Well, Markos quoted Jerome Armstrong...and he was even worse.

There is something going on about this that I can not get a handle on.

A threat to file a lawsuit against the chairman and the party is being praised at lefty blogs. Even Chris was going along with it at Open Left.

It is like suddenly the DNC is the enemy, and Florida is our friend.

Amazing, and confusing.

Kind of scary.

In fact, here is Jerome's post.

Kos was mostly quoting him and adding to it. Theme? Stand up to the bad DNC. This is amazing, the sudden attacks on Dean by the major bloggers. Not many dared to disagree with either, but a few did.

http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/8/22/10242/9136

I smell....NDN and Rosenberg? Or Ford? Naw....

[madfloridian]

24. Read this...I think Florida wants it to go to court. Wow.

From Daily Kos tonight by the FDP staff.

"Remember, the Democratic Congressional members fired this warning shot in the hopes that they would never actually have to ask for a voting rights probe.

And know that if the DNC sanctions Florida, the Republican Party will no doubt file for an investigation. How terrible would it be for the GOP to be the Party to stand up for the voting rights of minorities?
-FDP Staff"

They are going to push it hard, I think.

More:

"And to be clear, it would be the DNC that would put itself in the position of being in a court venue. Again, Florida has several counties covered under the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Would you rather Democrats bring up the potential for legal action now? Or let the Republicans come up with that idea later? It would be terribly unfortunate if the DNC issued the sanctions, and the Republican Party ended up being the one to stand up for the Voting Rights Act. This is a very serious concern that the FDP is not comfortable with.

-FDP Staff"

That is a direct threat. They appear to working with the Republican party here.

They want it to go to court.

[Cameron27]

19. I'll give a kick.

The FL state Dems are acting like complete asses. I have to stand with Dean on this.

[madfloridian]

20. Appreciated.

It is hard to see them being so openly calling for an investigation. I don't think they see the dangers if the government does get involved.

I feel so discouraged, like all the work the last few years is for nothing.

I am writing our DEC chairman to say how we feel. My husband is refusing to go back to meetings now. It's a sad feeling with all the enthusiasm we used to have.

[Cameron27]

22. I understand your frustration.

They're resorting to pretty vile tactics just to try move the primary forward. I think Dean can handle them, but it's getting nasty.

[tbyg52]

25. Thank you for explaining this to me so I can understand it.

Now I will throw up. Oh, I haven't had breakfast yet. Good.

[MaineDem]

27. I don't think there's any law being broken

The Parties are legally within their jurisdiction to nominate their candidates under their own rules. The Rules say there are automatic penalties for going early. THose rules were approved by the DNC, which is comprised of members elected by each state.

I'm not a lawyer but this is my take on it.

[demoleft]

28. K&R

:hi:

[madfloridian]

30. Two of the 5 signers are co-chairs for Hillary...one other endorsed her.

Sen. Bill Nelson (no endorsement, likely leaning Hillary)

Rep. Alcee L. Hastings, Democratic Chair, Florida Congressional Delegation (Hillary co-chair)

Rep. Kendrick Meek (endorsed Hillary)

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Hillary co-chair)

Rep. Kathy Castor (no endorsement yet...disappointed she signed this.)

So what am I saying? I don't know. Just an observation.

Still so angry today.