Is Bill Nelson going to take the DNC all the way to the Supreme Court?

madfloridian

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Thu Sep-13-07 12:35 PM
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Is Bill Nelson going to take the DNC all the way to the Supreme Court?

Well, to be fair he doesn't exactly say that...but his email yesterday says he will not back down. So either he doesn't know that a 1981 Supreme Court ruling favors the DNC's position....or he will destroy the party to be first in line.

I call it a bad case of the "me firsties".

Here is the Supreme Court ruling:

The DNC Can Refuse To Allow Florida To Have Delegates

The 1981 Supreme Court decision for the case Democratic Party of U.S. v. Wisconsin, 450 U.S. 107

The State has a substantial interest in the manner in which its elections are conducted, and the National Party has a substantial interest in the manner in which the delegates to its National Convention are selected. But these interests are not incompatible, and to the limited extent they clash in this case, both interests can be preserved. The National Party rules do not forbid Wisconsin to conduct an open primary. But if Wisconsin does open its primary, it cannot require that Wisconsin delegates to the National Party Convention vote there in accordance with the primary results, if to do so would violate Party rules. Since the Wisconsin Supreme Court has declared that the National Party cannot disqualify delegates who are bound to vote in accordance with the results of the Wisconsin open primary, its judgment is reversed.

It is so ordered.

But Senator Bill Nelson says he won't give up. His email yesterday indicates this is his life passion. He will not back down. Indicators are the state party itself would work to compromise, but Nelson appears to be keeping up the anger toward the DNC and Governor Dean.

From his email:

The DNC says that Florida's earlier primary would alter the sequence of contests in Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina, and they are threatening to penalize us by stripping our 210 delegates to the national convention. This would essentially take away our right to pick a Democratic presidential nominee.

This is a case of fundamental rights vs. the rules of a political party. We have a right to vote, and to have that vote count, and there is no debating that. We've put the party on notice that if they strip away any of Florida's delegates to the national convention, we're prepared to ask appropriate legal officials whether this could violate any state or federal civil rights laws.

Take a stand today. I need your help. Demand that the DNC allow Florida a fair say. I'm not backing down from this fight.

Maybe he just does not understand the implications of what he and Levin and the 16 other congressional people are doing. My take is that they fully understand it. I believe they want a compliant DNC, compliant to Congress more than the people of the party.

They continued the war yesterday. Florida and Michigan sent a letter asking the DNC why they were not condemning the fact that New Hampshire was talking about moving the primary up. WHY was NH talking about it? Because Michigan just jumped ahead of them.

Now Michigan and Florida are asking the DNC to bully NH because Michigan already bullied that state by moving up ahead of them. Think about that. Michigan broke the primary rules and moved up ahead of New Hampshire, who has not officially moved. Then the good Senator from Michigan tells the DNC they had better punish New Hampshire.

Letter: DNC Silent on N.H. Primary Move

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Democratic congressmen from Florida and Michigan asked national party chairman Howard Dean on Tuesday why he has been silent about punishing New Hampshire if it moves up its presidential primary while their states may lose all their delegates. A letter sent to the Democratic National Committee chairman said Florida had been receiving threats months before state Democrats said they would choose their presidential delegates during the Jan. 29 primary that was set by a Republican-led Legislature and GOP governor.

But New Hampshire is talking about moving its Jan. 22 primary to stay ahead of Michigan's Jan. 15 primary and South Carolina Republicans' Jan. 19 primary, and the DNC is saying nothing, the letter said.

"Will the DNC now tell New Hampshire Democrats that they risk losing 100 percent of their pledged and unpledged delegates, in the same way Florida was threatened?" the letter asked.

...""We are proud Democrats, insisting on fairness, and we will fight the selective enforcement of our party's Delegate Selection Rules," said the letter. It was signed by Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, Michigan Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow and most of the states' Democratic House members.

All Florida had to do to keep its delegates was to put up a fight when the vote was taken to move the primary up to January. But they did not fight. They helped introduce the bill and they laughed their own amendments off the floor. They ridiculed the DNC rules in public.

Florida's Geller joked about his amendment: "sarcasm and audible laughter in chamber"

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).

And a state representative, Dan Gelber, the one who publicly denounced Howard Dean early this year....admitted they did not fight.

Gelber admits they did not fight the GOP about the primary.

In his letter to Governor Dean:

Much of the back and forth and criticism of Florida by the DNC has been focused on the conduct of the Democratic legislators who – some argue – did not fight against the early primary bill. Yes, there is gambling in Casablanca. Of course we didn't fight against the bill. When the Republican leadership made it clear that this was their priority, Democrats had two choices: support something their constituents support and that was going to become law anyway; or support the DNC Rules Committee enforcement of a primary system that our constituents revile. For me, this decision was easy.

He has no way of knowing who reviles what rule, as most people don't even know the rules anyway. They had a mission, and they are still on it.

People really should care about this since Florida is trying to hurt the fundraising for the DNC and it's funding of the state parties. Most though have fallen for the "Dean is stealing our votes" mantra...it was just as easy as the argument for the WMDs in 2002.

As easy as falling off a log. Propaganda works. Truth and integrity suffer.

Bill's threat to take this to the court when there is already a Supreme Court precedent is really upsetting. The worst thing is, he does not care about the party. He cares about not being crossed.