Liberty and Justice for All!

I had heard this once before, but again the Florida Democrats are claiming that the reason why their primary was held before it was supposed to because the Republican controlled legislature gave them no choice. On the issue of a re-vote:

A party-run primary or caucus has been ruled out, and it’s simply not possible for the state to hold another election, even if the Party were to pay for it. Republican Speaker of the Florida House Marco Rubio refuses to even consider that option.

On the issue of following the rules:

“The rules are the rules.” Unfortunately, the rules did not apply to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina when they, too, violated the DNC calendar by moving from their assigned dates.

So if certain states violated the rules and have their delegates count then Florida should absolutely have theirs count as well, especially if the reason why they lost their vote is because the Republican controlled legislature controlled the date.

Earlier I was critical of Karen Carter and her actions in the Louisiana Legislature when she sold out her own party and supported a Republican for Speaker of the House. How did the Democratic voters in her district pay her back for her selfishness? They rewarded her with the most votes in her OPDEC election in District B.

This is why the Democratic Party is losing ground in this state. Selfish Democrats who are only concerned with their own personal power are rewarded with more seats. The state party does not even follow its own rules. Because of her actions, she should have been censured. The party should have stood up and said “We not tolerate people who allow the Republicans to gain more and more power for their own benefit”. She should be embarassed for her actions and the voters should have tossed her out.

We are supposed to be “progressives”, but we won’t make any progress by supporting people who support Republicans. Until we learn that, we will continue to fail in this state.

Previously I discussed that Democrats need better wordsmiths. The debate tonight continues that concept. Hillary did have one good line where she stated that it took one Clinton to fix the mess one Bush made, maybe it will take another Clinton to fix the mess of this Bush.

However, she still needs some wordsmiths. Hillary was asked if she made a mistake or was naive when she voted to authorize force in Iraq.

She gave her answer which went all over the place. Her answer should have been:

“No. It was not a mistake. I made a decision based on what was presented to me as facts. The President lied. Had the President not misled us, I would have voted differently. But that was not my mistake, it was his lie. He should take all the blame. The question we should ask now is why are there still Republicans who still support his failed policies.”

It is really that simple. It is just like how John Kerry should have stopped saying “I voted for the war before I voted against it” and should have said “I voted to give the President power to take appropriate action. The action he took was not appropriate”.

I also had an issue with one of Obama’s answers. In the discussion of the decision to give the President power to take action. Hillary stated that we have used the threat of force to cause other people to take action before. Obama criticized the vote to authorize force because he said that she had to know that the President could take military action with the authority granted.

Now, hindsight is 20/20 and all reasonable people wish that we had not given the President the power to take action. However, how effective would legislation been that was geared to make Saddam take action if it lacked the teeth to back up the demands? It is like the mall security guard running after you saying “Stop! Or I’ll say ‘Stop’ again!”.

Basically, Congress should be able to authorize the President to use the threat of force and trust that the President will use that power responsibly. Because Bush failed to use his power responsibly does not mean that we should be blaming those who he misled.

As one of my last acts of 2nd vice chair of the JPDEC (I have since moved to Orleans Parish) I wrote this on behalf of the committee.

The Jefferson Parish Democratic Executive Committee would like to voice its displeasure with those Democrats who have decided to abandon their party in the selection process for the next Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives. Representative Karen Carter and the other Democrats who have expressed their support for Representative Jim Tucker are doing their party a disservice.

With the upcoming census, it is likely that Louisiana will be forced to redistrict after losing a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. It is vital that Democrats have control over this process so we can protect ourselves from the tactics that were used by former U.S. Representative Tom Delay (R-TX) and other Republicans in Texas during their most recent redistricting. If those Democrats who are crossing party lines on this issue believe that such events will not take place in Louisiana, they are fooling themselves. With the founding of the LCRM, similar to Tom Delay’s TRMPAC and ARMPAC, we can clearly see what the Republicans are intent on doing. If the Republicans had won control of the LA House, are we to believe that they would act in a fair and bipartisan manner?

We would urge all elected Democrats to stand firm and support a Democrat for the position of Speaker of the House. Any Democrats who support Tucker for the top leadership position in the House will be remembered for their betrayal of their party. The JPDEC urges the State Democratic Party and all other Democratic Parish Executive Committees to censure Democrats who vote for Tucker, to remove those Democrats from any party leadership positions, and to actively recruit candidates to replace those traitors in the next election. With the losses sustained by the Democratic Party in the last election, we cannot afford to have Democrats who will sell out their party in order to gain powerful committee assignments.