FL certainly has a good case on that score, but they seem to be holding the argument in reserve for some reason.

It's time they conceded their non-existence and supported the other states and THEIR voices. It's time to get behind the states that MATTER.*

He began by saying that the Democratic Party would try to work our a solution in a hotel "not far from the National Zoo."  Okaaaay, what does that do the story? Other than heap ridicule on the Dems -- and, of course, Hillary.

Then, without mentioning anything about the original, in place Party rules about moving the primary date forward (the lose 50% of the rule, which is so conveniently forgotten by any Obama supporter), Schorr said that MI and FL had broken the rules.

Then, he said that Obama had removed his name from the ballot in MI as required by the rules, but Hillary had left hers on.  OMG! The conniving woman!

I could hardly believe he had everything so wrong -- have they no editors at NPR?

Upshot was that anything which gives Hillary delegates is a gift to her.

From: GSS1 (gss1@aol.com)
Sent: Thu 5/29/08 12:17 AM

NH asked for and was granted a waiver because FL and MI jumped the gun.

I blog on Michigan Liberal and you can't believe how many people in Michigan argue with me about this. One of them said it's no different than speeding. If you get pulled over and say the other guy was speeding too, you'll get a ticket anyway, the rules are the rules.  

That's the kind of convoluted thinking going around. I had to ask the idiot if he was from Michigan, which you are supposed to be if you blog there?

I literally cannot watch either CNN (minus Lou Dobbs) or MSNBC they are so in the tank for Obama.  It's positively disgusting to watch anymore.  I'm turning to FAUX news which I never thought in my life I would be watching FAUX to try to get anything even remotely objective.  This is a joke, I just need to cancel cable.  

CNN puts on Donna Brazille, a walking Obama advertisement never mind Jack Cafferty and his very obvious misogyny and I just love the obnoxious refusal to come clean that Brazille is in the tank for Obama like anything she says in the least objective.

"Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed a bill on Tuesday approving a move to change Michigan's primary date from Feb. 26 to Jan. 15, placing the vote behind Iowa and New Hampshire's scheduled primaries." --September 4, 2007

http://www.michiganvotes.org/2007-SB-624

http://www.statenews.com/index.php/article/2007/09/primary_skip

Maybe this is the reason for the DNC denying them a waiver after the fact...

Now it was a party line vote but Michigan has repeatedly tried moving up and as recently as 2004 when McAuliffe warned Levin that his state's delegates would not be seated at the convention if Michigan moved up its date...

--------------------------------
From Clinton campaign manager Terry McAuliffe:

"I'm going outside the primary window," [Michigan Sen. Carl Levin] told me definitively.

"If I allow you to do that, the whole system collapses," I [McAuliffe] said. "We will have chaos. I let you make your case to the DNC, and we voted unanimously and you lost."

He kept insisting that they were going to move up Michigan on their own, even though if they did that, they would lose half their delegates. By that point Carl and I were leaning toward each other over a table in the middle of the room, shouting and dropping the occasional expletive.

"You won't deny us seats at the convention," he said.

"Carl, take it to the bank," I said. "They will not get a credential. The closest they'll get to Boston will be watching it on television. I will not let you break this entire nominating process for one state. The rules are the rules. If you want to call my bluff, Carl, you go ahead and do it."

We glared at each other some more, but there was nothing much left to say. I was holding all the cards and Levin knew it. [Source: McAuliffe, Terry. What A Party!, p. 325.]

----------------------------

There's really no excuse for it - none.  For starters, Howard Dean should have exerted some control over the DNC membership, such that all comments and statements and what-not about the DNC's decisions and deliberations should have been restricted to a designated spokesperson, preferably someone who is not him- or herself a DNC member, but perhaps a member of the legal staff.  Donna Brazile should have been issued a muzzle; she wants to opine about her beloved Obama - fine - but let her do that as the partisan she is, and not as someone out and about working the media for her own interests.

Not only should there be someone official (paging Howard Dean) out in public correcting the deliberately false spin the Obama camp is putting on this, but the DNC should be having regular come-to-Jesus meetings with those who are crossing the line between truth and fiction, in an effort to put an end to it.

That's what should have been with real leadership - but we don't have that now and nothing loooks promising for the future.

I really have given up all hope that a rational and fair decision will be rendered on Saturday, and I have no doubt that Sunday will find all the usual suspects gleefully analyzing the brilliance of the DNC for finally coming up with a plan that rewards Obama for nothing.  The blogs will be gloating so hard they may all choke on their own smugness.

the fix is in. it is no up to each of you what you want to do about it. i am not saying bolt the party but i have to tell you many are planning on just that.

However, as I read further, it seems like Clinton superdelegate, Democratic National Committee member Joel Ferguson, broke ranks with the authors of the letter, calling their plan "fatally flawed."  He wants Clinton to get 73 supers and have the 55 uncommitted at the convention. Failing that, Ferguson wants the pledged delegates given 1/2 a vote and Superdelegates a full vote. Using his Plan B, the fill Michigan delegation will not be seated.

The Impending Democratic Implosion
SuperDelegate Update:
New Supers Supporting Obama Despite Constituents Voting For Clinton
Dennis Cardoza - California
Jim Costa - California
Full List Below

Will Saturday mark the start of a healing process for the Democratic Party or will it only fuel the expanding fracture within the party?

My guess is the latter. Let's face it, the DNC has done everything they could in recent months to garner public support for their anointed nominee and now they are paying the price. The DNC has made it clear that the issue of Florida and Michigan has everything to do with the rules, and little to do with the people. It is unlikely that any decision made by the DNC outside of a full delagatory seating will reverse the damage in those states.

So What Will The DNC Decision Be?

Those dastardly Democrats have some 'splainin to do.

Michigan and Florida are even more important than Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania, West Virgina or Kentucky.  They're almost as important as Puerto Rico.

This piece of news alone makes me hopeful that if HRC continues her campaign -- to the convention and beyond -- she'll almost certainly become the nominee.

This is arbitrary beyond the pale.  So, while NH and IA GUARANTEED it's "pre-window" status, those at the DNC also guaranteed that states they perceived to be more diverse than IA and NH to move up their primaries, as long as they 'adhered to the rules'.

But the rules in this case, only apply to those that have been acknowledged.  Unlike MI who played by the rules and was completely ignored.

So when it came down to it Michigan moved on and the DNC didn't blink. The DNC knew what would be coming.

Inaction is action itself.  If the DNC had ample information from MI and its intent, it should have moved on it rather than fester.  If no one responded to my requests I would gather it was okay to be actionable.

And when MI did NOW the DNC is all about punitive actions.  

Again, this is so arbitrary.  Its no wonder why we are in the mess we are in.  Ignoring a situation does NOT make it go away and then TRY to undo the damage.