Lawsuit seeks to seat Florida delegates (and so it begins)

[Wretched Excess]

you knew this was going to happen.  and hillary isn't even getting her hands dirty at this point.  now, I
wonder if  Team Barack will actively oppose "counting every vote" in court.

sweeeeeeeeeeeeet

Lawsuit seeks to seat Florida delegates

Three prominent Broward County Democrats filed a federal lawsuit Thursday morning against the Democratic National Committee, seeking to force the committee to seat Florida's delegates at the upcoming presidential nomination convention.

The suit was filed by state Sen. Steven Geller, an attorney for Greenspoon Marder in Fort Lauderdale; Barbara Effman, president of the Democratic Club in Broward County; and Percy Johnson, a convention delegate.

The suit alleges that the committee failed to "treat equally all similarly situated states and Democratic voters" when it decided not to seat Florida delegates because the state moved up its primary date against party rules. The suit also claims the committee's actions violated "due process" because the sanctions against Florida "flow from a constitutionally inadequate process that implements DNC rules in an arbitrary manner."

The DNC said its actions have so far been supported by the courts.

"In two other cases so far, the courts have upheld the Democratic National Committee's right to establish and enforce its own rules regarding the selection of delegates to the Democratic Convention," Press Secretary Stacie Paxton said in a news release.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., won the Florida Democratic primary on Jan. 29 in a race where the candidates had agreed not to campaign here, but she now lags Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., in the delegate count. The state has 210 delegates.

The DNC said its Rules and Bylaws Committee is meeting May 31 to address the seating of Florida's and Michigan's delegates.
Story

[jendf]

I think this is going to be one of the most entertaining summers I've had in a long time.

Just kick back and watch the wailing and gnashing of teeth from the Democratic Party commence!

[USA4ME]

Good move.  Regardless of the outcome, it highlights the DNC's unwillingness to count every vote.  Anything short of Florida and Michigan being accurately represented by the vote of the people at the Dem convention makes the candidate illigitimately chosen, though they'll never admit it.

.

[Wretched Excess]

more info, and links to more interesting stuff at the end of this link:

Geller files federal lawsuit in an attempt to get Florida delegates seated

State Senate Minority Leader Steve Geller filed a federal lawsuit today against the Democratic National Committee in an attempt to get the full Florida delegation seated at the party's national convention - with its votes weighted to reflect the results of the disputed Jan. 29 primary.

Geller, a Cooper City Democrat, is a superdelegate - assuming Florida delegates are seated at the national convention. He says he's uncommitted, but seating the full delegation based on the Jan. 29 results would have the effect of helping Hillary Clinton in her bid to catch up with Barack Obama in the contest for nominating delegates.

Geller said that's not his intention, and to bolster that claim his two co-plaintiffs in the lawsuit include Barbara Effman, a delegate pledged to Clinton, and Percy Johnson, a delegate pledged to Obama.

"I would have done this if Senator Clinton needed the votes or Senator Obama needed the votes or if Senator [John] Edwards were still in the race and needed them," Geller said.

Geller, Effman and Johnson said their objective is to get the will of the 1.75 million Florida Democrats who voted in the primary reflected in the state's delegation, and to have that delegation count.

Failure to do that would send the message that the national Democrats don't care about Florida Democratic voters, they said. And the repercussions would be so great that Democrats in the fall might not bother voting in the general election or might actually vote for Republican John McCain, Geller said.

"This is not about the Hillary Clinton campaign. This is not about the Barack Obama campaign," Effman said. "This is about Democracy."

All spoke at a noon news conference at the Fort Lauderdale-based Greenspoon Marder law firm, where Geller practices law when he's not doing legislative work. One of Geller's law partners, Richard W. Epstein, is handling the case.

Effman is president of the largest political club in the county, the West Broward Democratic Club. Johnson is president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Democratic Club.
For those of you who want to do lots of reading, here are some documents provided by Geller's office.

link

[Hawkgirl]

What's the word?  Self-Destruct...

[DixieBelle]

Goldy
Bronzy
Irony

I'm loving it!!

[Willow]

Ain't if funny, in the last three Presidential elections Florida has been at the center of controversy. And Obamalama is too stupid to see that! Now we know why Hillary didn't drop out!

[Hawkgirl]

We're a bunch of retards down here.....

[Willow]

We're a bunch of retards down here.....

if you mean you are in FLA then ehllo! 

[Lauri]

Rush had a caller today, fascinating woman named Beatrice who was a lifelong black Dem, who would not vote for Obama.

she just doesnt trust the guy.

and she thinks the DNC is sick of the Clintons and rigged it so that Clinton cant win no matter what she does - they didnt count on people watching this closely and knowing how much money the Dems have.

it does appear the Clintons are being thrown out before all the votes are counted - and hasnt she won more states than he has? i realize this SD issue muddies the waters a lot, but if it was just straight states delegates, wouldnt she be the front runner still?

i hope Hilary takes Rush's advice and sues them

[Willow]

Rush had a caller today, fascinating woman named Beatrice who was a lifelong black Dem, who would not vote for Obama.

she just doesnt trust the guy.

and she thinks the DNC is sick of the Clintons and rigged it so that Clinton cant win no matter what she does - they didnt count on people watching this closely and knowing how much money the Dems have.

it does appear the Clintons are being thrown out before all the votes are counted - and hasnt she won more states than he has? i realize this SD issue muddies the waters a lot, but if it was just straight states delegates, wouldnt she be the front runner still?

i hope Hilary takes Rush's advice and sues them

Hillary has won the BIG states, Texas, California, Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York,

[Wretched Excess]

Rush had a caller today, fascinating woman named Beatrice who was a lifelong black Dem, who would not vote for Obama.

she just doesnt trust the guy.

and she thinks the DNC is sick of the Clintons and rigged it so that Clinton cant win no matter what she does - they didnt count on people watching this closely and knowing how much money the Dems have.

it does appear the Clintons are being thrown out before all the votes are counted - and hasnt she won more states than he has? i realize this SD issue muddies the waters a lot, but if it was just straight states delegates, wouldnt she be the front runner still?

i hope Hilary takes Rush's advice and sues them

Hillary has won the BIG states, Texas, California, Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York,

including the states that have to flip for the dems to win in november, primarily FL, OH, and perhaps WV.  but they also have to retain the states that kerry won, states like PA and MI.  and mccain could run strong in CA, although I'm realistic enough to realize that his chances are extraordinarily slim.

[Wretched Excess]

Rush had a caller today, fascinating woman named Beatrice who was a lifelong black Dem, who would not vote for Obama.

she just doesnt trust the guy.

and she thinks the DNC is sick of the Clintons and rigged it so that Clinton cant win no matter what she does - they didnt count on people watching this closely and knowing how much money the Dems have.

it does appear the Clintons are being thrown out before all the votes are counted - and hasnt she won more states than he has? i realize this SD issue muddies the waters a lot, but if it was just straight states delegates, wouldnt she be the front runner still?

i hope Hilary takes Rush's advice and sues them

i believe the way it works out is that hillary won the most primaries, but obama pretty much ate her lunch in the caucus states.

overall, he has"won" more states.

[DixieBelle]

If they put FL/MI back into play, is it mathematically possible for her to win? Could she strong arm her way to the nomination? Frankly, I've been too busy grinning to really do the math.

[Wretched Excess]

If they put FL/MI back into play, is it mathematically possible for her to win? Could she strong arm her way to the nomination? Frankly, I've been too busy grinning to really do the math.

not delegate wise.  BHO still has a big lead in pledged delegates of a couple hundred, I believe.  that may as well be 5,000, with the dems proportionate allocation of delegates, where you can win PA by 10% and only get a net gain of 7 delegates (or something like that).  throw in that the SDs are beginning to flood his way, and she is toast.

she is trying to create an popular vote argument;  at this moment, if you count the people that voted for her in FL and MI, more people have voted for her than have voted for obama.  I don't expect that to be any more successful for her than it was for algore in 2000.  but it's fun to watch harold dean make that case so forcefully.

on edit : all totaled (inc. SDs), he leads her by 180 delegates

[Tess Anderson]

All I know is that there's some big meeting at the end of the month about this, and that the deadline for a decision on this is June 3rd. Quite a screwed-up system the DNC has going on, Howard Dean is unfit for his job as head.

The math varies from politican to politican, from pundit to pundit. It looks as though they'll have to cut out those big two states, as they threatened to last year, and then probably lose both to Juan in the general election OR seat them and then all hell would break out anyways.

The GOP's penalty was better, but this IS the Democrat party. Hillary isn't going to drop out because she thinks only she'd have a chance against Juan, and she's right.

[Wretched Excess]

All I know is that there's some big meeting at the end of the month about this, and that the deadline for a decision on this is June 3rd. Quite a screwed-up system the DNC has going on, Howard Dean is unfit for his job as head.

The math varies from politican to politican, from pundit to pundit. It looks as though they'll have to cut out those big two states, as they threatened to last year, and then probably lose both to Juan in the general election OR seat them and then all hell would break out anyways.

The GOP's penalty was better, but this IS the Democrat party. Hillary isn't going to drop out because she thinks only she'd have a chance against Juan, and she's right.

the rules committee meets on the 31st.  they will determine, among other things, if FL and MI will be seated, and under what conditions, and how they will be apportioned to the two candidates.

[miskie]

It really is amazing to watch, isn't it ? All the Dems had to do was find a moderate candidate with some appealing points to grab indies and fence-sitting conservatives, and the election would have been delivered to them neatly wrapped, tied up with ribbons and a bow. Especially considering McCain, who has about as many negatives as positives to most conservatives.

Instead they find two polarizing egomaniacs who are ripping their party apart over what amounts to just a slight difference in policy between them. Add to that an organization who has shot themselves in their collective feet over the whole "Voter Disenfranchisement/Stolen Election" thing they were screaming about 8 years ago. With the FL/MI issue, they are either going to Disenfranchise their own people, or let a candidate win via stolen election.

Dean/Obama/Clinton = Moe/Larry/Curly.  Only Funnier.

[Lacarnut]

Dean/Obama/Clinton = Moe/Larry/Curly.  Only Funnier.

H5 for that quip