Sharpton Threatens To Storm DNC And Wage War On NAACP
NY Post:
February 14, 2008 — The Rev. Al Sharpton yesterday said the Democratic Party would commit a “grave injustice” if it seated delegates from Florida and Michigan at the party’s national convention - and he threatened a march on the party’s Washington headquarters.
Sharpton’s call - detailed in a letter to Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean - came a day after the NAACP leader Julian Bond urged party officials to seat delegates from the two states, saying that not to do so would risk “disenfranchising” minorities.
Both Florida and Michigan were stripped of their delegates to the Democratic convention after their legislatures set the dates of their primaries before Feb. 5 in defiance of the national party.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton won both contests and has recently called for delegates from both states to have access at the convention in late summer.
But supporters of Barack Obama have argued that such a move would be unfair to him, and several Democratic insiders have expressed concern that the party would suffer painful infighting if Clinton prevailed.
Sharpton wrote: “I firmly believe that changing the rules now and seating delegates from Florida and Michigan at this point would not only violate the Democratic Party’s rules of fairness, but also would be a grave injustice.”
He added that protestations about being disenfranchised, a point made by Bond in a separate letter to Dean Tuesday, “should have been made many months ago, before the decision was made to strip these states of their delegates.
“And once the decision was made, it should have been vigorously objected to and contested by those who felt it disenfranchised voters,” Sharpton added.
Sharpton told The Post, “I think the DNC is playing a dangerous game . . . [and could] open the door here for everything from litigation to demonstration.”
He said his National Action Network is discussing a possible march on DNC headquarters, adding, “This smacks of the same stuff we accused the Republicans of in Florida in 2000 . . . changing the rules.”
The DNC has said the two states could hold new primary elections, or could appeal having the delegates stripped with a rules committee that won’t meet until July. But those proposed solutions haven’t made anyone happy.
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Sharpton was on Beck this evening. He’s beginning to sound more sane than the Democrat heirarchy.
February 14th, 2008 at 6:59 pmPer my husband:
This isn’t a civil rights thing - ALL voters in those 2 states are not going to be counted in the primary, but that is the fault of the states who just had to be counted early. The rules were set long ago, and apparently no one complained until now. I wonder if we would have heard about it had Hillary LOST those states, probably not from her. If Obama had won those states and then brought it up I am sure the Clinton campaign would object. Unhappy voters in those two states should seek a way to fire the state democratic party reps who bucked the DNC and pushed up there primaries. If they change the rules NOW, after the fact, I would expect another Florida Voting Lawsuit to make its way through the court system up to the Supreme Court. As a Republican I must say I think I would enjoy watching the Democrats “eat there own” that way.
February 14th, 2008 at 7:15 pmRemember after the 2000 election when the dems were pissed about voter disenfranchisement? Now they are willing to disenfranchise their own party in FL and MI. Talk about hypocracy. BTW, who cares when a state votes, what differance does it make to the DNC? Im hoping for riots at the Denver convention.
February 14th, 2008 at 7:24 pmIf the Messiah loses the big dance to the Thighmaster, I am wagering there will be riots.
February 14th, 2008 at 7:32 pmSharpton would be encouraging NO I say even DEMANDING the acceptance of these delegates if it helped Obama, the black man.
Sharpton could care less about anything else,
he is a racist to his very core.
Oh wait I forgot were not allowed to say that are we, yeah thats right only whitey can be racist…lol
February 15th, 2008 at 3:00 amIn Florida, the Republican-controlled government passed the bill to change the date. The Democrats tried to pass two amendments to make the primary date Super Tuesday so that they could conform but the Republicans, the majority, rejected both of those amendments. The bill was actually passed to allow a paper trail on touch-screen voting machines. At no time, did an actual voter have anything to say about when the primary was held although a record 1.7 million Democrats did come out to vote on primary day because we have cable TV, the Internet and magazines and newspapers to form our own opinion. It was actually nice not having political mob scenes with visting candidates. It also made us form our opinion based upon the facts and not group hugfests. Secondly, the DNC penalty stated that any state that changed their date would lose 50% of their delegates just like the Republican National Committee rules. But the DNC changed the penalty to 100% AFTER Florida and Michigan changed their dates and no response has been received as to why they changed their own rules after the fact. As for Michigan, Sen. Clinton chose to have her name remain on the ballot as did some other Democrats but Senators Edwards, Obama and Gov. Richardson pulled their names at their own choice. However, in Florida, all of the Democratic candidates were listed on the ballot no voters could still vote for whoever they wanted. Florida will not accept a caucus because caucuses promote only a very small turnout of voters and don’t always represent the entire state population.
February 15th, 2008 at 3:58 amLiberal on liberal action.
February 15th, 2008 at 5:50 amMan thats hot.
You know what I think. I think that the only people here that are being penalized are the people of Florida and Michigan who had NO SAY in what day their votes would be cast. These people should have the RIGHT to have their vote counted and participate in the process of choosing the Democratic nominee. If I were in Florida or Michigan, heck, I would riot just because my voice wasn’t being heard. Why should each and every voter in those states be removed from this process? Wicked.
How smart of Senator Clinton to keep her name on the Michigan ballot anyway. She already shows that she is SMARTER than ALL the rest.
I really wish that Al Sharpton would just shut his trap! If he thinks this black woman is going to participate in any protest/riot for this sake, he must be out of his mind. It is in fact the Obama party that said that the VOTER should have the final say in choosing their nominee. What makes the voters in Florida and Michigan any less valuable? It’s a stupid rule in the first place and should have never been affected. The people of Michigan and Florida deserve to be heard like you and I.
They don’t want the superdelegates to decide and they dont want the people of Florida and Michigan to count. It sounds more manipulative on the Obama campaign’s part than anything else. Who are they to talk?
February 15th, 2008 at 11:40 am