Herman, Roosevelt, Roques-Arroyo - A Civics Lesson

Do you know those names?

Actually, the full names are Alexis Herman, James Roosevelt, Jr., and Eliseo Roques-Arroyo.

"Do you know me now?"

We'll come back to them; today's topic is Michigan and Florida.

But before we even get to that, I'd like to tell you about a brand new technology from Google called "Grand Central -- Call Me". Let's say you read this e-mail, or read it on my docjess.blogspot.com blog. And you're angry at something I said (as was the case yesterday with a bunch of you). You want to yell -- now, on my blog is a button that says "Call Me" -- click the button, and Google will call you, you'll hear the kind of ring that the old black dial phones had, and then you can leave me a message which will go immediately to my cell phone and my e-mail. It is INCREDIBLY COOL. End of commercial, back to politics.

Since we have 48 days until the Pennsylvania primary, there is a lot of time to consider all sorts of things about this year's contest. One of those things is whether or not the Michigan and Florida delegations should be seated in Denver. It is an interesting conundrum because base Constitutional tenets are pitted against personal feelings.

My personal love of the Constitution knows no bounds. And the 10^th Amendment gives every state the right to set election dates on any day they so decide. HOWEVER the 1^st Amendment gives the DNC the right to say they wouldn't accept any date prior to the 5^th of February. Pretty simple. THOSE ARE THE RULES. And I'm a big believer in rules, ESPECIALLY where elections are concerned. Let's all harken back to 2000. Oh yeah, butterfly ballots in Florida. Katherine Harris. His Honour Chief Justice Rehnquist. Let the nightmare return. Back then, a lot of us wanted the popular vote to hold, but the Constitution said no -- it's the Electoral College, and then the court of last resort. Sucks, but without the rule of law, emanating from the Constitution, we have nothing.

From that perspective, the delegations do not get seated.

BUT

The DNC has said that the states can re-run the primaries. (And this time, in Michigan, they could actually put ALL the names on the ballot, unlike what they did in January.)

Also but --

To be seated at the convention, your credentials need to be approved by the DNC Credentials Committee. I bring you back to Alexis Herman, James Roosevelt, Jr., and Eliseo Roques-Arroyo. Meet the 2008 DNC Credentials Committee. They can accept the delegate slates, modify the slates, deny the slates. Those are the rules; it's up to 3 people. Out of the 12 million who have voted so far. (And if you're interested, you can Google the names -- they're pretty interesting people.)

A side problem is where the Michigan and Florida delegates would stay in Denver, since the DNC has a sub-committee that "owns" all the hotel blocks in the city -- and rumour has it they aren't handing any out to those delegations. Then again, if you've ever done ANYTHING political, you're familiar with room sharing.

So what do we do? An interesting addition to this relates to the Pennsylvania primary. The Clinton campaign never submitted a full delegate slate to the state, so if she wins, there is a question about which human delegates will represent her in Denver. And remember, as I keep harping, NO delegate, pledged or Super, is required to honour the candidate to which they committed. They can change their minds on the Convention floor.

What do you think? If you have a heart-felt opinion, you can write to the Credentials Committee. You can send a letter, or an e-mail, or call them. http://www.demconvention.com/contact-us/?lang=en
has all the contact information. The trick to politics comes from Tip O’Neill. (And if you don’t know who he was, PLEASE don’t ask me -- my heart can’t take it) -- He said “All politics is local” -- I say "All politics is retail” (Apologies to every English teacher I ever had. Honest.)

Things get accomplished in the political realm from both the top down and the bottom up. Politicians run for office. Some of them as often as every two years -- and if you open with “I have an opinion, AND I VOTE” -- they listen. From one end of the spectrum to the other, up to and including Rick Santorum, politicians normally vote their constituencies, provided those constituencies make themselves heard.

Whether the Michigan and Florida delegations get seated as they are, or with a different slate, or not at all, might affect the outcome of the nomination. Might not (it depends how one runs the numbers, and what the final delegate count is on June 7^th). But whether they are seated says a lot about process and outcome.

I have heard from a bunch of you who say “Yeah, but I’m one person, what I do doesn’t matter.” I’m one person. This e-mail goes to a distribution list with 220 names on it at last count. I know it’s forwarded. The email is posted on a blog which is read by another 40 or so people (that I know about). So let’s say a few other people forward the information, or share it. It might be that what I say reaches 300 people on any given day. Think that number doesn’t make a difference? Remember: Al Gore lost Florida by 533 votes.

Tell the DNC what you think. Tell your SuperDelegates what you think. EVERY sitting House and Senate Democrat is a SuperDelegate. More than 25% of the SuperDelegates are up for re-election 8 weeks after the convention. Trust me, they care what you think. Write your newspapers and magazines (if nothing else, it’s fun to see your name in the paper….) Be heard. How the Democratic Party nomination comes out this year is a function of participatory politics.

I leave you with a Margaret Mead quote à “A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”