Webloggin » Disenfranchisement: Dem Party Lawyers Move To Penalize Florida and Mich. Voters

In 2000 this was called disenfranchisement, today it will be called a victory for Barack Obama. This all implodes on Saturday.

A Democratic Party rules committee has the authority to seat some delegates from Michigan and Florida but not fully restore the two states as Hillary Rodham Clinton wants, according to party lawyers.

Democratic National Committee rules require that the two states lose at least half of their convention delegates for holding elections too early, the party’s legal experts wrote in a 38-page memo.

The memo was sent late Tuesday to the 30 members of the party’s Rules and Bylaws Committee, which plans to meet Saturday at a Washington hotel. The committee is considering ways to include the two important general election battlegrounds at the nominating convention in August, and the staff analysis says seating half the delegates is “as far as it legally can” go.

Of course if we remove the smoothed over spin and replaced it with something a bit more truthful we would be required to swap out “the committee is considering ways to include the two important general election battlegrounds at the nominating convention in August” with “the committee is looking for ways to penalize voters at the two important general election battlegrounds while minimizing the damage it will do to the Democratic party at the nominating convention in August”

But the problems don’t end there. Disenfranchising the Florida and Michigan voters is only the first step. The next part of the plan is deciding how to go about giving votes to Barack Obama without a hanging chad and a fortune teller.

Think about it this way. If the party really wanted to fix things they would simply hold a do over primary, let both candidates campaign and get the real count. It’s that simple. But they aren’t. Why?

The reason is found at the heels of a certain DNC preferred party candidate who goes by the initials BHO. The DNC can’t have their guy come short in the popular vote while the super delegates vote for Obama anyway; they have convenient cover with today’s situation. Sorry girls.

As an indication of what the party is up against we look at the latest statements from those who are gearing up to takes sides in the battle.

“This is a really, really significant issue to women. Obviously it’s a significant item to people of color too. So I’m just preparing myself as best I can,” said Huffman, president of the California NAACP.

Alice Huffman, a member of the Rules and Bylaws Committee from California who is supporting Clinton, said she has been barraged with e-mails in the past few weeks. She said the senders include Floridians who are upset that they are being disenfranchised, and she has started printing out the messages so she’ll have a record to explain her decision.

“This is a really, really significant issue to women. Obviously it’s a significant item to people of color too. So I’m just preparing myself as best I can,” said Huffman, president of the California NAACP.

The shoe shipments are being organized by WalkAMileInOurShoes.org and1 the orange idea was promoted by a group called Florida Demands Representation, which plans to bus Floridians to Saturday’s rally outside the meeting. Blaine Whitford, a volunteer helping organize the effort, said they are unaligned with any candidate.

Susie Buell, one of Clinton’s top fundraisers, has formed a political action committee encouraging women to support full seating of the delegates. The WomenCountPAC has taken out ads in USA Today and The New York Times promoting attendance at the rally.

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