Blame the Republicans

for the mess in Florida, but if this mess results in a brokered convention, that would be a great outcome:

You've got to hand it to the Republicans in the Florida state legislature and governor's mansion. They have an evil cleverness that you've got to admire, however grudgingly. As soon as the national Democratic Party set a "no sooner than" date for primaries/caucuses other than Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, Florida's Republican-controlled legislature tacked onto a bill a date, January 29, for the Florida primary in violation of that rule. The bill, which had as its primary purpose the establishment of a ballot paper trail (a truly salutary purpose), passed with Democratic support, given that Democratic opposition was pointless in any event (Republicans hold overwhelming majorities in both houses of Florida's legislature), and defeat of the ballot paper trail bill might have doomed that badly needed reform for the foreseeable future.

At the same time, and on the same ballot, the Republicans decreed that a vote would be taken on a property tax "reform" constitutional amendment that the Democratic Party opposed. As with most Republican tax proposals, it provided a great windfall to the richest and least deserving parts of the population, owners of second homes, while giving regular homeowners virtually nothing (in most cases their property tax bills rose even despite falling ad valorem values of their homes), and by making their homestead caps "portable" and applicable to any home they might subsequently buy, it created a caste system providing current Florida property owners with a major advantage over all others when competing to purchase property -- a MUCH lower payment, all other things being equal. So, with the only hope of defeating this heinous "reform" (a false hope, as it turned out. It passed) being to hold the Democratic primary on the same day so as to attract Democrats to the polls, the Florida primary was held on January 29, in violation of party rules, in hopes that some accommodation could be reached.

Then came that ridiculous "pledge" letter that prevented candidates from campaigning here (contributing to the passage of that horrible amendment), the no-campaigning primary that was "won" by Hillary, and the subsequent squabbles over some way to salvage something from this fiasco, squabbles that continue with fruitless, nay, damaging effects on our prospects in November.

Various proposals have including seating the delegation as elected, seating the delegation as elected but giving the delegates only one-half of a vote, and holding a new primary, with the most heavily publicized proposal having that primary held by mail.

Seating the delegates as elected, of course, blatantly flouts the REASONABLE (aside from the four earlier states) rule about the allowable primary date. Because this rule was known beforehand and agreed to by all the candidates, this is patently unfair.

Giving the elected delegates half a vote is a weird compromise, although seemingly the called-for remedy. I dislike the idea that being robbed of half my vote is somehow more OK than being robbed of it completely, but that's perhaps because I voted in Florida in 2000 and am a little sensitive to the negation even of part of my vote. This now seems the likeliest resolution, and I hate it except that it might contribute to a brokered convention, which is in my opinion the best outcome we could have at this point.

I favored a new primary, but here again the Republicans have all the cleverness of the snake with the apple. They graciously agreed that we could hold such a contest, but refused to allow any state funds to be used for the purpose, even as far as verifying voters' signatures on mail-in ballots. While the state paid for the Republican primary, they refused to pay for anything but the invalid Democratic primary that has already been held, with the responsibility falling on the state or national party, reducing the war chests Democrats would have for the general election.

This is just so wrong. There was no campaigning in the first primary, no well-organized GOTV efforts, no campaign advertising or literature -- it simply did not provide a legitimate result. We knew it was invalid but we thought the national party wouldn't have the guts to enforce its rules. In other words, we thought we'd get away with it. We didn't.

In my opinion, we need to hold a new primary for several reasons, but the state, which forced us into this mess, ought to pay for it. That ain't happening, so it's a much closer call, but I still think a new primary would be best. We need our candidates to campaign here -- it is very important to engender enthusiasm for the battle with the Republicans to come. It is largely during the primary phase that issues are discussed in any detail. The Republicans are having a field day with the field all to themselves.

It's a close call because we need to weigh the beneficial effect that spending that money on traditional advertising during the general would bring versus the beneficial effect a primary campaign would have in winning hearts and minds here in the crucial state of Florida. I think that the balance very slightly favors the primary because, during the national campaign, we will be exposed to so much advertising anyway that the saturation point will be long passed, but during June we might actually win some supporters and energize a lot of others for November.

But it seems it isn't going to happen. This has been a bad mess from the git-go, and the Republicans did it to us with malice aforethought. One of my biggest complaints about Obama is that he seems to want to strike some sort of "unity" with these people. I don't. Indeed, if we get the upper hand, I want to beat them down with it and show the same degree of mercy they have shown us over the past eight years.

Remember, it was the Republicans who did this to us. It wasn't the Democrats in the legislature, it wasn't the Florida Democratic Party, it wasn't the National Democratic Party, it wasn't Howard Dean, and it wasn't any of our candidates. It was the Republicans, and we need to remember it until we find ourselves in position to punish them for it. And then we must punish them harshly.