‘To be or not to be.’

Co-editor Trish is all in a dither these days over the state of Democratic politics in Florida. Since her ballot would not be counted in Florida’s (in the eyes of the national Democratic Party — illegal) Jan. 29 vote, she says she’s not sure she’ll even vote in the presidential primary. But maybe there’s something that would get Trish to cast a ballot for a presidential candidate after all: Al Gore.

The St. Petersburg Times’ Buzz column suggests that leaders of Florida’s Democratic Party easily could add Gore to the ballot they draw up this weekend:

Heck, most of the other Florida-snubbing Democratic candidates say Florida’s primary is so meaningless they won’t even send their spouses to mix with party regulars in Orlando this weekend. Why not have some fun with it then, and add a Nobel Peace Prize winner to the Florida ballot? Call it a favor to those Palm Beachers who accidentally voted for Pat Buchanan in 2000 and want another chance to vote for Gore. Hillary and company probably wouldn’t love the idea, but she and the rest of the field haven’t exactly been dolling out favors lately to Florida Democrats.

Why not, indeed. Although Buzz does admit to making the suggestion just to create some, ahem, buzz at this weekend’s state convention, it makes this piquant observation:

Al Gore back on the Florida ballot, after the national Democrats opted not to count Florida’s Democratic votes. It’s almost Shakespearean.

As he Bard himself might have suggested: hoist the Democratic candidates on their own petard and be done with it.

I received another weird e-mail from Florida Democratic Party chair Karen Thurman. She started off gloating over Republican national party chair Mel Martinez stepping down after only nine months on the job:

Remember how he had big plans to resurrect the Republican Party and rehabilitate its image? It appears that was an insurmountable task.

But we shouldn’t be surprised. Martinez ignored the Floridians he was elected to represent by siding with President Bush over the people on just about everything.

One of the biggest debacles occurred this week, when Martinez and 14 Republican Representatives from Florida ripped away the promise of medical coverage for half a million uninsured Florida children and millions more children across the country.

Okay, I can understand that, and Thurman’s point is valid. Then she goes on a bit about how the SCHIP was passed on her watch in Congress. Then she begins to level accusations against the Republican Party:

Now the Republicans have put the program and millions of children in grave danger. I believe their decision to block healthcare for children will go down as a major turning point in history. No amount of spin can cover up the simple fact that these Republicans, like Feeney and Keller, chose Bush over Florida’s kids.

This vote demonstrates, in the starkest of terms, why we’re Democrats.

But here Thurman (and the FlaDems) go off the rails:

Rank-and-file, right-wing Republicans are so fed up with their candidates blustering, flip-flopping and backtracking that they’ve become desperate for another option. They need a Real Republican.

We’re giving them one.

What humdinger of an idea is coming? It’s a Web site called Draft Katherine Harris. Clever, huh? It’s ironical!

Yep, in a letter where Thurman asks for a contribution no less than six times, she unveils a Web site plastered over with unflattering photos of former Florida attorney general, erstwhile gubernatorial candidate and certifiable whack-job Katherine Harris that is intended to be humorous. I guess it would be if this were something besides a presidential election.

Does the Florida Democratic Party have so much money and resources that it can waste it on a spoof Web site that appears to serve no purpose beyond entertaining members of their team? I’m certainly no fan of Katherine Harris, but I’m even less a fan of Karen Thurman, whose judgment and leadership are certainly questionable in this instance.

Here you’ve got the state Democratic Party, which has already been put through the wringer by the Republican state legislature (oh, wait, that’s right — it was a Democrat who filed the bill to move the state’s primary to Jan. 29, incurring the wrath of the national party and rendering its primary meaningless) and the Democratic National Committee, paying to design and host a “satirical site” that is neither funny nor in good taste.

Seems to me the only joke around here is the Florida Democratic Party. And it’s not funny, either.

When the hubbub over Florida’s new presidential primary date began, the Florida Democratic Party was quick to blame the Republican-led state legislature for a change that violated national Dem Party rules and introduced the state party to a world of hurt. It turns out, however, that it was actually a Democratic state senator who introduced the original legislation that moved the primary date to Jan. 29. Hmmm.

But when newly spineful state party chair Karen Thurman gathered the Democratic faithful around her last weekend to announce that the state party would defiantly promote the Jan. 29 vote as a “real” election that “counts,” the man responsible for the original legislation was conspicuously absent.

When Karen Thurman surrounded herself with Broward County Democrats last Sunday to tout the Jan. 29 primary: state Sen. Jeremy Ring. No one invited the Broward state Senator who sponsored the original bill moving Florida’s primary from March to January and undercut the Democrats’ argument that the early primary was all the Republicans’ fault.

So, the party needed an alternate explanation, and they found one — in an alternate universe: Ring was somehow fooled by Republicans into proposing the primary move, fully aware that Howard Dean and his Democratic National Committee would beat on Florida Democrats like Ringo Starr on a snare drum. Right.

“If you turn on the left wing liberal radio down in Broward, I am public enemy number one,” said Ring, who actually campaigned in 2006 on the need for an early primary and makes no apologies for his leading the effort. “I hear that a lot, that I was duped by the Republicans. No one duped me.”

Now that the Florida Democratic Party is resigned to the fact that the state will be off-limits to the leading Democratic candidates (except for blue-plate fundraisers — so much for the Dems who can’t afford that) and the party’s convention next month will be just another diversion at Disney World and the state will be stripped of its convention delegates, Thurman et. al. seem bent on ignoring the fact that a fellow party member actually started the whole thing.

It would be inconvenient to acknowledge Ring’s role in a process where the Florida Democratic Party has morphed into the Defiant Victim — victimized by the Republican-dominated legislature, victimized by its own national party and victimized by the prez candidates, yet standing up on its hind legs and saying “Go to hell” to its victimizers. The reminder that Ring ran on the notion of moving up the primary date, was elected on it and followed through on his campaign promise is an inconvenient truth that the FlaDems simply must ignore.

You might already know the facts, but here they are again: Florida’s majority Republican legislature passed a bill earlier this year changing the state’s primary to Jan. 29. This placed the Florida election ahead of Iowa, South Carolina, Nevada, and good old New Hampshire, which is a violation of both Republican and Democratic party rules.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) punished Florida by taking away half its delegates to the 2008 Republican convention. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) took away all Florida’s delegates and made the Democratic frontrunners sign a pledge not to campaign in Florida. The pledge does not prohibit fund-raising.

The DNC offered Florida Democratic party leaders a deal: if you nullify the results of the statewide Jan. 29 primary and hold party caucuses, pay-per-vote straw polls like Iowa, or some other behind-the-scenes event with extremely limited participation on Feb. 5, we will forgive you.

FDP leaders, wisely, went with “no deal.” They argue correctly that there is more for Florida voters to decide on Jan. 29 than just presidential preference, and besides, your average voter (like me) doesn’t agree that his or her vote should be tossed in favor of those from Democratic party insiders.

Here’s why you should care. The DNC, in refusing to allow candidates to campaign in Florida, is throwing the 2008 election to the Republicans. Picture it: months of TV spots with Rudy and Mitt telling Florida voters why we should love them, but also increasingly hammering away at Hillary, Barack, and John. Headlines like, “Thompson Eats Fried Gator Tail at Rotary Picnic” and “McCain Tours Military Base.”

And on the Democratic side? Silence, broken only the occasional dive for dollars at private parties.

“You’re going to continue to see Republican candidates coming to Florida, shaking hands, listening to voters,” said Erin Van Sickle, a Florida Republican Party spokeswoman.

Said Merle Black, a political scientist at Emory University and expert on Southern politics: “It’s a huge power struggle within the Democratic Party that cannot help the party’s candidates in Florida.

“But having nobody come to Florida, that’s theater of the absurd,” he added.

The fourth biggest state in the country, always a toss-up, is abandoned — no, handed on a silver platter — to the Republicans. And why? Because national Democrats have their panties in a wad over something Florida Democrats can’t change: the legislatively mandated election date.

If there was ever a time for the DNC to get its head out of its ass, the time is now. As Ben Weaver, North Florida Regional Director for the Florida Young Democrats, noted, before it looked like all Democrats needed to do to win in 2008 was show up. And we can’t even do that right!

Frustration with the DNC, and the candidates who fear losing its funding, is high.

Republicans have been aggressively mobilizing and courting Florida voters, while Democratic candidates have been wary of doing anything to antagonize party leaders in those early nominating states.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson’s campaign even refused recently to send a letter of greeting to a Jackson County Democratic picnic for fear of violating his pledge to the four early states.

And all the front-runners, even those who originally accepted, have now declined invitations to the state party convention in Orlando at the end of October.

But Weaver, and quite a few others, are betting that Florida will get its delegates back even if the DNC rigidly stays the course, as they say they will. He thinks that on the first day of the national convention the front-runner will reinstate our 210 delegates in a show of party unity. I hope it won’t be too late by then, that too many Floridians will have only heard the GOP’s side of things for so long that they’ve tuned out whatever last-minute campaigning the Democrats engage in. If so, Howard Dean can take the credit for blowing it — again.