Why Am I Angry?
The Republicans control 65% of both houses of the state legislature. The governor is a Republican. The legislative session is 60 days in March and April. A special session would have to be called by the governor or the leader of one of the houses, all Republicans.
In her Party Statement on Primary Situation, Congresswoman Karen L. Thurman, Chair of the Florida Democratic Party, adds some details on how nasty the Republicans were in this, including doing it with Bill 537. For those not familiar with Florida, that was the “official” number of votes that separated Al Gore and the Shrubbery in the 2000 election.
She notes:
Our Democratic legislators in Tallahassee tried to set the Florida primary on Feb. 5, instead of Jan. 29, but of course, their proposed amendment to House Bill 537 was greeted with laughter and derision from the Republicans who control the state government.
She also notes:
When this committee stripped us of 100% of our delegates last year, some members summed up their reasoning by saying, “The rules are the rules.” Unfortunately, the rules did not apply to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina when they, too, violated the DNC calendar by moving from their assigned dates.
That is bad enough, but then you go around a read post by Lambert at Corrente wondering why only Florida and Michigan were punished, and you have comments stating authoritatively that Florida and Michigan were arrogant and refused to comply with the rules.
Obviously the commenter hasn’t bothered to learn anything about the situation, but it’s perfectly OK to go around misinforming people.
It’s bad enough that the Republicans are laughing at us, but then we are asked to forget that Democrats are spitting on us and to embrace a Democratic candidate in November. Sorry, but I have a little too much self respect do to that. I am not going to enable my abusers, I’m leaving.
Update: Avedon Carol at Sideshow and Suzie Madrak at Suburban Guerrilla have joined Mary Beth at Wampum in trying to spread the word, but the commenters are just as lazy and clueless. There’s nothing like be called a Lieberman.
