A week after DNC took FL's delegates away, Michigan gov. signs law moving their primary up too

Joe is now at the Rules meeting, he just ran into FDL's Jane Hamsher. The meeting doesn't start until 930AM.

In the meantime, I was just reading my Washington Post and noticed something rather significant. The DNC sanctioned Florida on August 25, 2007 by stripping away its delegates. That made it painfully clear what would happen to any state that moved its primary up in violation of DNC rules. So what does Michigan do one week later, on September 4, 2007? Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat, signs a law establishing their January 15th primary, in violation of DNC rules. Michigan knew exactly what was going to happen if they broke the rules, they just watched Florida lose its delegates one week earlier, and they did it anyway. And now they're acting all surprised.

There really are some atrocious issues underlying this entire conflict.

1. Florida and Michigan Democrats were complicit in all of this. This wasn't something the Republicans forced on them - they wanted to break the rules, and they did.

2. Florida and Michigan knew in advance that they'd lose their delegates if they moved their primaries up. They didn't care.

3. The reason we have these rules, the reason we have these sanctions, is to protect the primary process, and in particular to protect the first-in-the-nation status of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. If FL and MI are let off the hook, as Hillary is proposing, then there are no rules, and we'll have a free-for-all the next time around when every state keeps moving their primaries up and up and up until we have non-stop primaries for 4 years.