Details on how Florida worked with the GOP to set the early primary date. [View All]

[madfloridian]

A couple of folks here have told me I am showing an obsession about this issue. Yes, I probably am. But today when I found out the court accepted Nelson v Dean, it hit me very hard. Instead of taking a case to court on its true basis...delegates, Nelson and Hastings turned it into a way to make it sound as though the DNC was taking away the votes of African Americans.

They made their case into a racial thing to get the court to accept it.

If you speak out here in Florida very much, if you lay out the truth...you are called a "troublemaker". Heck, some might even call you crazy.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz called this guy one of the "usual lead dissenters" in the party.

Wasserman Schultz refers to one of the "usual lead dissenters."

Question:How much internal dissent was there over the decision?

Wasserman-Schultz: "It really wasn’t difficult. There were a few dissenters in the party leadership--quite honestly, the normal lead dissenter in the Democratic Party leadership in Florida (Jon Ausman, a DNC member from Tallahassee, who frequently disagrees with the party leadership). But there was actually significant unity both in the elected and the party leadership. Three-quarters of executive committee members indicated their support and took two different votes. This is the most significant swing state in this election. It’s incredibly important that we have our say and make sure that our votes are counted."

That statement was made about Florida's decision to defy the DNC. See how easily she tossed off the idea that most agreed with the state decision? And the Florida bloggers stuck with them, and the media spread their message.

Here is something from an email now online written by Jon Ausman. I have had a copy of it for a while, but now it is online. He was at the DNC to present Florida's case to them after the vote was taken: 115 yes to 1 no. He in this email presented all the things known by the DNC as Florida leaders sat there and said they fought the Republicans here. They did not fight at all. I have posted some of them before. The Rules Committee passed this out at the meeting to show Florida that the DNC had not been fooled...that they knew Florida Democrats had been on board from the start.

1Florida Democratic Legislators sponsored the bill to move the primary to January 29th;

Jeremy Ring introduces primary bill

2.Florida House Democratic Legislators voted in committee three times for the bill to move the primary to January 29;

3.All but one Florida House Democratic Legislator vote on the floor to move the primary to January 29; and,

The one conscientious NO vote

4.Florida House Democratic Leader Dan Gelber stated, after receiving a call from DNC Chair asking for help in opposing setting the primary date before February 5, “I don’t represent Howard Dean.”

5.Florida House Democratic Leader Dan Gelber stated, after offering an amendment to move the primary to February 5th, that the only reason he offer it was “to show that there was an attempt to state within the Democratic Party rules.” The amendment failed on a voice vote with no debate being offered.

6.Florida Senate Democratic Legislators voted in committee to move the primary to January;

7.Florida Senate Democratic Leader Steve Geller stated on the Senate floor that he was offering an amendment to move the primary to February 5 only because he was threatened by DNC Chair Howard Dean. Sen. Geller than mocked his own amendment which failed on a voice vote without any debate.
Email from a DNC member

The rest of his letter is well worth a read. He advocates for a caucus which would have allowed Florida to keep its delegates. He ends with this statement:

When elected officials blatantly blame the DNC for enforcing its rules and ignore the complicity of Florida Democratic elected officials in creating this situation they are not serving the Democrats of Florida well. They may get headlines, they may get support, but they are being demagogues rather than leaders.

It is time for leadership. We represent the Democrats of Florida and since our legislative Democratic elected officials have failed us, we need to make sure that their votes, in caucuses, count.

Well said, Jon. They did get those headlines. They did get the adoration of the Florida blogging network which has failed to do its job in presenting truth.