Bruzilla

8. 8/2007 The DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee holds its meeting to discuss stripping FL of all its delegates. Testifying before the committee, Florida Democratic Party chair Karen Thurman blamed her state's Republican-led legislature for setting the January 29th primary in state law and warns the committee they will be disenfranchising millions of Democratic voters. "I find the word 'disenfranchisement' to be an overstatement," David McDonald, a committee member from Washington State, tells Thurman. Donna Brazile, Democratic strategist and member of the party’s rules and bylaws committee, says “The nominating system should not be determined by a state’s economic development plan or a desire to have candidates focus on parochial issues. I understand Florida's dilemma, but this is not about states' rights; this is about a process we're trying to keep some control over." Many on the committee expressed sympathy that Florida Democrats would likely have to undertake a huge expense to set up a separate caucus, to be held after the primary, but none seemed willing to budge and make exceptions. "It's important that we establish the precedent of a punishment", committee member Ralph Dawson, of New York, said.

9. 8/2007 IA, NH, SC, and NV Democrat chairs coax pledges from all the major candidates that they will not participate in any of the rogue primaries. Howard Dean disassociated the DNC from this pledge saying “what the candidates do is their business.” In order to honor the pledge to the four DNC-sanctioned early states, four candidates remove their names from the MI ballot. Hillary Clinton and Mike Gravel do not.

“It’s clear, this election (Michigan’s) they’re having is not going to count for anything,” Clinton said Thursday during an interview on New Hampshire Public Radio’s call-in program, “The Exchange.” “But I just personally did not want to set up a situation where the Republicans are going to be campaigning between now and whenever, and then after the nomination, we have to go in and repair the damage to be ready to win Michigan in 2008.” NH senator Sen. Peter Burling responds: “Having left her name on, having signed a pledge saying she would not participate, it is Mrs. Clinton’s intention to campaign in Michigan once the New Hampshire primary is over. Again, I ask the question: When you sign a pledge that says ’I will not participate,’ certainly I, as an ordinary man ... have the right to assume that ’participate’ means ’participate.’”

The Dem nominees decide that Clinton’s breaking of her pledge to not participate in the MI primary means she’ll also break the pledge to not participate in the FL primary, so they leave their names on the ballot.

10. 9/2007 Edwards changes his mind about MI and says "Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina need to be first because in these states ideas count, not just money," Edwards said. "This tried-and-true nominating system is the only way for voters to judge the field based on the quality of the candidate, not the depth of their war chest."

11. 9/2007 "There will be no other primary. Florida Democrats absolutely must vote on Jan. 29." Karen Thurman, Florida Democratic chair, makes her decision to stick with the state's decision to move up the state's primary despite DNC threats to strip Florida Democrats of their delegates as a result. The CW is that as heated tempers are now, they will have cooled considerably by the time the convention rolls around in August of 2008. And the credentials committee for the convention, whose membership will be packed by the presumptive nominee, can overrule anything the rules committee decides now. In the interest of party unity and because withholding delegates from a candidate who has already won the nomination would be meaningless, the delegates...would probably be seated.

So... how does all this shake out? First, Howard Dean did not make the rule or the decision to strip the delegates. The DNC Rules Committee did. Dean threatened to take 50% of the delgates, just as McAulliffe did, but the rules commitee upped the ante. The states were aware of this and decided to go ahead anyway. The feeling was that the candidate controls the creditialing committee at the convention, and whoever the candidate is will ensure that the delgates get seated. Oops! No one considers the possibility there won't be a candidate.

Second, the four early states (IA/NH/SC/NV) form their own little cabal and get the candidates to sign a pledge, which has nothing to do with the DNC, saying they won't participate in any rogue elections. This benefits the early states as their predominance is no longer threatened, and benefits the candidates as that will mean two less states they have to worry about at the front end of the primary process. Hillary does a "depends on what the meaning of 'is' is" and decides not participating means leaving your name on the ballot and sending your hubby to campaign. This breaks the pledge and the Dems are all on the ballot in FL, but not campaiging. Apparently, there's was never any DNC sanctions against the candidates for campaigning in the states, although that's been the echo chamber story in the media all along. The campaigning issue was all tied to the non-DNC pledge that the candidates worked out with the four early states.

So, I think there's a lot of blame to go around on this, and lumping it all on Dean's narrow shoulders is just a means to let a lot of others off the hook. The legislatures and governors of MI and FL both had their own self-interests at heart when they moved the primaries. The DNC Rules Committee had their rules to protect, so they acted in their best interests in order to ensure their power. The FL Dem leadership made a bad assumption and gambled that the Dem nominee would swing things their way... and lost that gamble. The early states pushed their pledge plan through out of their own self interest, and the candidates all supported in out of their own self-interests... and Hillary went a step further by breaking the pledge out of her self-interests.

Seems to me like Howard Dean, remarkably, is the only one in this whole mess who's been acting with any sense of honor.