Dean's war on Florida

I think the DNC overreacted to the change in Primary date. Playing hardball like this only helps the Republicans.

Florida Democrats had, and have, little choice but to go along with the state's decision to leapfrog its primary from March to the front of the pack in January. First, they didn't have the votes to block it: Florida's legislature is controlled by the G.O.P., as is its Governor's mansion. More important, most Floridians want their primary moved up: the 2000 debacle may have subjected them to national ridicule, but it revealed the peninsula's new bellwether muscle — and they feel they deserve to flex it now in a presidential kingmaking process that could be decided by March of next year.

Saying they didn't have the votes to block is disingenuous, the vote was a landslide, with only one vote against. There is more than one Democratic representative in Tallahassee.

Florida is flexing it's muscles as an important swing state. Disenfranchising Florida Democrats doesn't seem like a good idea.