Mar

Florida Democrats “Victims” of GOP in Primary Problem?

Posted by: Mike's America @ 3:21 am in Politics

Visited 595 times, 1 so far today

Somehow it’s our fault that Democrats in Florida are in a mess!

Brit Hume Interviews Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Shultz (D-FL)
Fox News Sunday
[video here]
March 9, 2008

HUME: The Democratic presidential nominee could be decided not in the remaining primaries but in the outcome of the bitter fight over what to do about Michigan and Florida.

Both states lost all their convention delegates when they were penalized by the Democratic National Committee for moving up their primary dates earlier this year in violation of party rules.

For more on this, we turn to Debbie Dingell, a DNC committee member and a superdelegate from Michigan, and, from Florida, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, who is also a convention superdelegate.

Thanks to both of you for being with us.

First let me start with you, Congresswoman. What do you think is the fairest way to settle this question?

WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ: Well, I think when you’re talking about fairness, we have to remember that this was started by the Republican- led legislature here that actually set the date of our primary.

So the victims here in all of — in the decision by the DNC to strip us of our delegates are Democratic voters in the state of Florida.

HUME: Can I stop you there? Just let me stop you there for a second, if I can.

WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ: Sure.

HUME: In the Florida state senate, who introduced the bill to move the primary forward?

WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ: The bill was introduced by a Democratic member, a new Democratic member of the state senate.

HUME: And in the legislature, senate and house as well, how many Democrats voted against it?

WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ: Well, that’s an inappropriate line of questioning, Brit, because that bill ultimately…

HUME: Well, wait a minute. Well, inappropriate or not…

WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ: Excuse me, Brit.

HUME: … could you just answer the question?

WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ: Can I answer your question?

HUME: Yes. How many?

WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ: I would like to answer your question without you asking me another one, if you don’t mind.

The legislation that was originally sponsored was amended into an overall election package that included the major provision to ensure that we could have manual recount and a paper trail. So this is a major election package that the change of a date in our primary was included in.

So the vote total was unanimous, but that was because there’s no one in the Florida legislature that was going to vote against changing our voting system so that you could have a paper trail and make sure that every vote can be counted, unlike our touchscreen voting system right now which doesn’t allow for that.

So to try to hang a unanimous vote on the fact that Democrats supported that — that’s misleading, because they supported it because they certainly weren’t going to vote against making sure there was a paper trail in Florida.

Democrats proposed the legislation and voted for it UNANIMOUSLY and Ms. Wasserman-Schultz says it “misleading” to suggest they supported it? Correction Ms. Wasserman-Schultz: it’s not only misleading but WRONG to suggest that somehow Democrat voters in your state are the VICTIMS of the Republican legislature. Democrats in Florida were warned in advance not to move up their primary date and like the Florida 2000 recount you boobs messed it up again and are now trying to change the rules.

Ms. Wasserman-Schultz: qualified for what?

As readers can probably tell, I’m not a big fan of Debbie’s. I first saw her on C-Span a few years ago and my first thought was that I had flipped to the nearby Home Shopping channel by mistake. Like some presenters on the shopping channel, Ms. Wasserman is an empty-headed pretty face trying to sell you something you don’t need.

And this time, she just makes Florida Democrat voters look even more foolish than they already are.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 3:21 am and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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14 comments so far

Mortis

Thanks a ton for posting the transcripts. I saw it on FNC, and then listened to it again on the 9PM replay on XM Radio just to make sure I had heard what I thought I heard.

She’s a couple fires short of a Happy Meal, IMO.

March 10th, 2008 at 4:25 am

Amy Proctor

I found a clip of this on youtube but now I can’t find it again, anyone got it?

March 10th, 2008 at 5:09 am

ChrisG

So it is somehow the republican’s fault that democrats in Florida introduced a bill that passed and then the DNC (a non-state actor) imposed what I consider an unConstitutional barring of Florida’s delegates after people in Florida cast their ballots? And now it is somehow the RNC’s fault that the DNC disenfranchised voters?

Is Rove’s mind control stat still sending out signals? These people’s tinfoil is a tad loose.

March 10th, 2008 at 7:42 am

Uddercha0s

Chris,

It is not unconstitutional for Florida’s delegates to be barred. If anything, I would have to say that having primaries is unconstitutional. Somewhere I missed the part where we were supposed to first vote for the person who we’d like to later vote for POTUS. It kind of makes the barrier to entry in running for POTUS a little tougher.

March 10th, 2008 at 8:40 am

Mike's America

Chris: Didn’t Florida pass this law AFTER being warned by the DNC that if they did, their delegation would not be seated?

Here’s the video:

The loon who posted that had it titled: “Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz smacks down Brit Hume.” I’m not sure in what alternate universe that statement would be true. But in looking around on this topic I found more than one Dem who buys into this notion that Republicans in Florida are to blame for this mess started by Democrats.

Further proof, not that any were needed, that these people will NEVER take responsibility for their actions. And thus, they should never have positions of responsibility.

March 10th, 2008 at 8:48 am

ChrisG

Mike,

These idiots are saying the same thing in Michigan. I am still looking through the US Constitution to see where it says a political party, I.E. the DNC, has authority over a soveriegn US State.

My knowledge of US government says the chain of governance goes local-state-federal, not local-state-political party-federal.

March 10th, 2008 at 9:02 am

ChrisG

Uddercha0s,

I brought that up a few weeks ago. I could see two elections. A “primary” for all the candidates and a final for the top two or three. But nothing in the US Constitution says political party primaries are required.

March 10th, 2008 at 9:08 am

Mike's America

Nothing in the Constitution provides for political parties either.

But I believe the Founders saw them as necessary.

Also, the DNC, like the RNC, has every right to set rules and procedures for the participation of it’s members. And they can change the rules now to let the Florida delegation be seated but that’s unlikely. Without enforcing their rules the primary season next time around would be a bigger circus than this one.

March 10th, 2008 at 9:28 am

wesmorgan1

The sad thing is that both the Florida and Michigan parties decided to spit in the face of the national DNC, and now they’re paying the price. The irony is that, had they left well enough alone, the close race between Clinton and Obama would have made their primaries even MORE important today.

March 10th, 2008 at 9:47 am

rockhead

How many times have the Dems tried to change the rules concerning an election, even during a recount? They never lose, the election was either stolen or we (the voters) were just too stupid to vote correctly. As Mike points out, these people never take responsibility for their own actions. Hillary promised (I think) 200,000 jobs for the people of New York. When questioned where the jobs were, she accused the Republicans of stopping her. I wish the Republicans were as strong as these whiners claim, maybe we could actually get something done.

March 10th, 2008 at 9:50 am

marinetbryant

Therein lies the problem with state legislatures and Congress, they throw in everything but the kitchen sink to obscure the true intent of a bill. It’s a “I’ll vote for your part of the bill if you put my part into that bill and you vote for it.” Why can’t we have one bill on one subject, vote on it and then move on to the next one.

Tom

March 10th, 2008 at 9:56 am

Rovin

The sad thing is that both the Florida and Michigan parties decided to spit in the face of the national DNC, and now they’re paying the price. The irony is that, had they left well enough alone, the close race between Clinton and Obama would have made their primaries even MORE important today.

Fast Forward eight months

It’s being reported that the former states of Michigan and Florida may get around to re-voting to re-ratify their inclusion back into the United States after ceeding from the Union last summer. Both former governors implied that they preferred to move the dates of the ratification ahead of the schedule to resume their respective relevance according the the newly formed Election Workers Union.

March 10th, 2008 at 10:21 am

David

It seems like a “do-over” is always the Dems’ solution to an electoral issue:

ITEM: The Florida recount mess in 2000. Gore, DNC, and the Florida Democratic Party suggests a “do-over” of the election. Reason - the ballot layout was “misleading” in which people were voting for Nader or Buchanan but really “wanted” to vote for Gore.

ITEM: The Ohio election in 2004. With Kerry losing by over 120-140,000 votes, the Kerry campaign is mulling over a challenge to the outcome. DNC suggests a way to “correct” the problem would be a “do-over.” (This is how the Denver Post/RM News portrayed the Ohio 2004 election.)

ITEM: The Colorado election in 2004. Voting in the Denver Metro area is a total mess. Electronic voting machines, being used for the first time, are not working for a variety of technical reasons (failure to boot up, can’t reboot, etc.). Throughout the day, the Colorado Dems are suggesting a statewide “do-over” as a way to “correct” the vote count. When the statewide idea is dismissed out of hand, the Colorado Dems suggest a “do-over” in the Denver Metro area at “select” precincts.

March 10th, 2008 at 10:53 am

Mike's America

David: You bring up a good point. If we start allowing “redo” voting when a group of people are dissatisfied with the result, we open the pandora’s box.

Frankly, if we’re going to have a redo in Florida, I’d like to redo the GOP primary as well. Maybe GOP voters would like to reconsider John McCain.

March 10th, 2008 at 11:15 am