UPDATED: From the Florida Democratic Delegate Front: Lots of movement, but standing still

With her chances of winning fading, Hillary Clinton sent Barack Obama a letter Thursday imploring him to ask the Democratic National Committee to make all of Florida's and Michigan's delegates count towards the presidential nomination.

Most of Florida's congressional Democrats also sent DNC Chairman Howard Dean a letter asking him to help ensure a decision is made by May 31, when the Rules and Bylaws Committee meets to hear an appeal of Florida's case. The state lost its delegates for holding its primary on Jan. 29, a week earlier than party rules allowed.

Meanwhile, at about the same time those letters were released, the Associated Press caused an uproar by reporting that the DNC, the Florida Democratic Party, Obama and Clinton were "on the verge" of striking a deal for seating some portion of Florida's 211 delegates.

It turned out to be wrong, however.

FDP communications director Mark Bubriski hustled to assuage startled aides to the state's Democratic members of Congress, who should known about any deal.

In an email titled "Important clarification," Bubriski wrote that, "At least as far the state party knows, there is no imminent 'deal' or 'plan' to seat the Florida delegation in the works. We continue to discuss the issue with the campaigns and the DNC as we have for months now, but we're not on the verge of any deal nor are we talking about a one."

Bubriski did say discussions had increased in recent days, and Florida Democratic officials were hopeful they may reach some consensus that the DNC could approve.

Allowing all the delegates to count from Florida and Michigan, which also held its primary too early, has become a priority for Clinton: She won both states. Counting them would give her a net gain of 58 delegates, her campaign figures, putting her within 100 total delegates of Obama. That would strengthen her argument to superdelegates that they should throw their support to her.

After it meets May 31, the DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee could elect to give Florida none of its delegates, half its delegates, all of them, or some portion in between. In their letter to Dean, U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, Sen. Bill Nelson and other congressional Democrats argued that failing to count Florida's delegates will doom the nominee's chances here in the fall.

"We cannot afford to allow this sad chapter in our Party’s history to perpetuate itself any longer," they wrote. "Bringing it to a close at that meeting will allow us say to our voters with a straight face that their votes count and then turn our full attention to winning Florida and beating the Republicans and John McCain this November."

The one Florida Democrat who didn't sign the letter was U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor of Tampa, who supports Obama, because she said she believed the letter was prompted by the Clinton campaign.

"It was obvious to me that it was a calculated move. It was kind of a last gasp thing," Castor told Buzz. And you know how I feel right now, this is a very hopeful time, and our time would be better spent focusing on the issues that are important in the gen election campaign with Sen. Obama as the nominee."

Comments

"lots of movement, but standing still". Is that like the hokey pokey?

Count Florida’s votes as votes, split Florida’s Delegates 50/50, discount Michigan’s inequitable Primary completely, split Michigan’s Delegates 50/50, fire Howeird Dunce, kick the Republican consultant (Thurmadrunk) to the curb while you’re at it, and vote every incumbent out of office at you first available opportunity.

Problem Solved!

5:01, move on, you post the same thing everytime.

[Jon M. Ausman, Member, Democratic National Committee, Florida]

Greetings,

The two appeals filed by Floridians regarding the charter delegates and the pledged delegates remains intact.

This matter will be resolved by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) Rules and Bylaws (RBC) Committee on 31 May 2008. I believe the RBC will award Florida 23 charter delegates and 94 pledged delegates for a total delegation of 117.

Originally the Call to the Convention allocated Florida 211 delegates but Florida did violate the "timing rule" which prohibited all but four states (Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina) from holding either a primary or a caucus before 5 February 2008.

The penalty for such shall be a 50% reduction in delegates.

A Michigan Member of the DNC, Joel Ferguson, may have withdrawn the appeal he filed. The proposal drafted by the Michigan Democratic Party is only a proposal.

It is my understanding that the MDP proposal does neither has pre-approval from the DNC RBC nor does it have both presidential campaigns supporting it.

Instead, it is an idea. Anyone can issue a press release, threaten a lawsuit or criticize one of the arms of the Democratic Party of the United States.

We need to work together to resolve this issue. The time for assigning blame, of which there is plenty to go around to stain everyone involved, is over.

We need to complete the nomination process, move on to the election against the Republicans, and be prepared to govern on 20 January 2009.

Finally, if the DNC RBC gives Michigan every single delegate even though they violated the "timing rule" as did Florida then I plan to ask for every single delegate for Florida.

With respect, I am,

Jon M. Ausman, Member
Democratic National Committee
Florida

[Donald Lance]

Mr. Ausman. With all due respect, I cannot believe that as a braintrust behind moving the Dem vote forward, you would be willing to wait until the Dem nomination process is basically completed before you get a chance to argue your grievance to the DNC. Yet the triumverate of Dems in FL who pushed to get the voting date moved forward are happy and content to allow the state to be in a position where the state's votes are not allowed in deciding who should represent your party. The opposition is certain to use this issue against you, and it is for this very reason that your party will lose the presidential election. You have disenfranchised members of your own party and left them with a sour taste. For the life of me, I cannot understand why you would go against your own party's rules and think that everything will turn out for the better. I compare it to a criminal who thinks a heist will improve his standing. I have read almost every post you have written, and the tone seems to be more desparate with each one. Now you make a request for cooperation when you weren't willing to listen to the party chiefs from the get-go? To me, that is shallow and the Dem loss in Nov will be well deserved.

You are right Jon... being that I don't think that the striping of 100% of our delegation, was ever incorporated into the DNC Bylaws.

Donald Lance, the moving of our Primary date to before Feb. 5th... was an Amendment placed in the Bill to require all all voting machines in FL to produce a paper trail. The Republicans in the FL House passed their version with the amendment in the Bill. Which the Democratic Bill did not contain.
And the FL. Dem Party the last time I checked does not get to vote in the Florida House of Representatives.

Learn the facts before you make yourself look stupid!

[Donald Lance]

8:24. looking stupid is what the dem currently face, not I! Yet it IS the Dems who DO get to vote in the House. They should follow their own rules. So before you start throwing stones, look at the glass house you reside in. While you call me stupid, I counter by saying you are a moron! Look in the mirror if you don't believe me.

Go to FIRECHIP.COM

OMG, your retarded!

Anyone who thinks this will be an issue in November is demented. The war in Iraq and Bush's pathetic economy are slightly more important than convention delegates, don't you think?

This will be resolved in some way, and Florida will be represented. But not one single voter will care. Basically, if you want to stay in Iraq, you will vote McCain, and if you want to get out of Iraq and win the election, you will vote Obama.

[A Blue Voter]

11:42 Agree!

Also, McSame is clueless about the economy, and says so himself.

[Typical White Person]

Barack Obama is dead weight that will guaranteed the democrats lose to John McCain in November. He has very low support from white blue-collar workers + his racist remarks "typical white person" + his bad judgment on the Jeremiah Wright situation + "bittergate" + his relationship with an admitted terrorist in Chicago + dealing with Rezko + Michelle Obama's comments about first time being proud of America and how America is mean WILL DOOM THE DEMOCRATS AGAIN.

I know I will never vote for Obama no matter what. If he gets the nomination & loses the general election to McCain, Hillary could run again in 2012.

[Citizens of FLORIDA]

OBAMA CAMPAIGN IS FULL OF IT.
I WAS AT A DEC MEETING IN PALM BEACH COUNTY LAST NIGHT. WEXLER AIDE SAID A DEAL WAS MADE & ANNOUNCED IT.

THE HEAD THEN SAID IT WAS A LIE
YOU ARE A JOKE OBAMA, WEXLER
OUR VOTE IS NOT A JOKE...LOSERS

[Citizens of FLORIDA]

OBAMA CAMPAIGN IS FULL OF IT.
I WAS AT A DEC MEETING IN PALM BEACH COUNTY LAST NIGHT. WEXLER AIDE SAID A DEAL WAS MADE & ANNOUNCED IT.

THE HEAD THEN SAID IT WAS A LIE
YOU ARE A JOKE OBAMA, WEXLER
OUR VOTE IS NOT A JOKE...LOSERS

[Citizens of FLORIDA]

OBAMA CAMPAIGN IS FULL OF IT.
I WAS AT A DEC MEETING IN PALM BEACH COUNTY LAST NIGHT. WEXLER AIDE SAID A DEAL WAS MADE & ANNOUNCED IT.

THE HEAD THEN SAID IT WAS A LIE
YOU ARE A JOKE OBAMA, WEXLER
OUR VOTE IS NOT A JOKE...LOSERS

Donald, What planet are you living on?

Count Florida’s votes as votes, split Florida’s Delegates 50/50, discount Michigan’s inequitable Primary completely, split Michigan’s Delegates 50/50, fire Howeird Dunce, kick the Republican consultant (Thurmadrunk) to the curb while you’re at it, and vote every incumbent out of office at your first available opportunity.

Problem Solved!

Why the Flip should Obama who broke the pledge to the 4 early states(the only dem to campaign in FL), get 1/2 the delegates. When he lost FL by 17%!

PS posting the same ignorant rant about splitting legitimate votes that Obama did not earn is get ridiculous.

Why the Flip should Hillary, who pretends she now cares about Florida and Michigan after signing the pledge to ignore the 4 early states, get any of the delegates, when she's clearly acting in self-serving desperation?

PS: claiming to duck “imaginary” sniper fire is ridiculous… and a lie!

ah, there's nothing like waking up in the morning, drinking a hot cup of coffee, and reading the demented comments from pathetic kooks on this blog - TGIF

[Noneya Biz]

8:32 & 9:55 WHAT? Obama is the candidate who does not care about FL.

Oh, that is until he found out that more than 1/2 of the Democrats are boycotting him for his wanting to disenfranchise our Record # of primary voters, who turned out to vote.

Now he is saying that he wants to seat the Delegates for FL. That's only because he can't win FL without the Democrats that he has ticked off.

He got his butt kicked here, after running a week long ad in our state and campaigning at FAMU.

GET A CLUE!!!!

Noneya Biz WHAT? Clinton is the candidate who does not care about FL.

Oh, that is until she found out that more than 1/2 of the Democrats are boycotting her for lying, and her wanting to pretend she didn't sign the pledge to disenfranchise our Record # of primary voters, who turned out to vote.

Now that she's lost, she is saying that she wants to seat the Delegates for FL. That's only because she can't win the nomination even with the FL Democrats that she now pretends to care about.

She got her butt kicked everywhere, after running a weak campaigning based on imaginary sniper fire.

STOP SNIFFING THE GLUE!!!!

Hillary could run again in 2012

BAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHA

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA

She's DONE son!