According to
MyDD DNC staff kicked
Jerome Armstrong, Matt Stoller, and
Joe Trippi out of a public Democratic Party meeting -- because they have blogs. This could have been direct violation to the DNC Charter and the investigation into this violation is expected to implicate multiple DNC Staff.
Jerome Armstrong reports:
There's something wrong when the chairs and executive directors go on and on with their praise toward the internet that's brought millions into the coffers of the DNC, and then turns around and kicks Joe Trippi and his band of bloggers out of the meeting room when the "closed" Q & A with the DNC Chair candidates occurs. You could have walked right in off the street and into the candidate Hall unencumbered, but if you happened to be a blogger, or the guy who brought the strategy of embracing the small donor activist on the net for the Democratic Party, and he's got a blog, out you go.
There's something wrong when DNC Chair candidate Donnie Fowler, during his 5-minute presentation on his candidacy, singles out Matt Stoller as an example of embracing the technological ideas that are going to bring this party forward, and then some DNC staffer walks up to Stoller and tells him he's got to leave the room, because he's a blogger.
This would of course be a direct violation of Article 9, Sect. 12 of the DNC Charter (pdf) which mandates that:
All meetings of the Democratic National Committee, the Executive Committee, and all other official Party committees, commissions and bodies shall be open to the public, and votes shall not be taken by secret ballot.
Of course, Article 10, Sect. 3 of the Charter requires this to apply to all Democratic Party bodies.
Please post your ideas for extracting accountability in the comments. Please post contact information including email addresses and direct extensions in the comments. Please recommend and please stand up for Armstrong, Stoller and Trippi.
Update [2004-12-12 0:5:50 by blogswarm]:Title changed to include word "may" and add "PR disaster"
Update [2004-12-12 4:14:49 by blogswarm]:The DNC has to follow the Democratic Party Charter provisions for open meetings, and the state parties have to follow the Democratic Party Charter provisions but some are now saying the ASDC doesn't, even though it comprised of the state parties and housed in the DNC.