Debbie Wasserman-Schultz wants the bloggers off her back. Okay, first a quick review.

I've been collecting petition signatures for Common Cause's effort to stop gerrymandering in Florida. You can find out more about this at the website FairDistrictsFlorida.org or check out an earlier post of mine.

Last week I took advantage of living in Tallahassee and went over to visit the Common Cause office. I mainly wanted to just find out if I could drop off the petitions I collected since mailing them off to the P.O. Box in Ft. Lauderdale was getting expensive.

More Below.

Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Karen L. Thurman issued the following statement today on the state of the Democratic nominating process as it relates to Florida:

Over the hump.

NOTE: THIS IS AN ACTION DIARY FOR FLORIDA RESIDENTS ONLY
Cross Posted From FlaPolitics.com

Last Wednesday I posted a diary urging people to go to the Democratic Party Caucuses Saturday in order to get involved in the campaigns and especially to collect  signatures on the Common Cause petitions to get state constitutional amendments on the 2010 ballot which would outlaw gerrymandering.

I had a great time myself and want to encourage people to continue with this effort by attending election watch parties Tuesday night and bringing a stack of petitions with them.

More Below

NOTE: THIS IS AN ACTION DIARY FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE REGISTERED DEMOCRATS IN FLORIDA.

IF YOU DON’T FIT THIS CATEGORY THIS DIARY IS NOT ADDRESSED TO YOU.

In case you didn’t know, the Florida Democratic Party (FDP) is holding caucuses to elect the people who will be delegates to the Denver national convention in August.

Now don’t get your shorts in an uproar. This not a "do-over" election or some Hillary plot to steal the nomination.

The apportionment of delegates by candidate was already determined by the primary held January 29 and that is not going to change. Also, as always, there is no guarantee that these delegates will even be seated. Almost certainly this will not occur until AFTER a nominee is decided.

More below.

William Kristol, acknowledging that the Democratic primary is over, lays out today in The New Times, the basis for how Republicans are going to run against an Obama candidacy. It is very well done, but should not be a problem for the Obama campaign to counter.

In fact, the ease with which it can be countered shows the power of Sen. Obama’s message. It is important to understand this message and how to use it for all Democratic campaigns in the run up to November.

More below.

Some of the hierarchy of the Florida Democratic Party and some in our Democratic congressional delegation have clearly hooked their wagon to Hillary Clinton's rapidly falling star.

My hope is that the party will acknowledge Obama's inevitability and start preparing for how to run with an Obama presidential candidacy here in Florida.

Big Caveat: If McCain picks Florida Gov. Crist as a running mate it's probably hopeless. Time to roll up in a fetal position and whimper.

Personally, I don't think that's gonna happen, so, what's the plan?

More below.

Cross Posted From FlaPolitics.com

Ben Smith over at Poltico.com reports that on a Hillary camp conference call Mark Penn

downplayed Obama's victories in smaller states as the result of higher spending: "The events of Super Tuesday were very much related to investments," he said.

I sure hope the Obama campaign picks up on this.

More below

Can we please stop this particular speculation. Below the fold is a copy of a letter from a state committee woman answering State Representative Dan Gelber's suggestion for a do-over by mail.

Leaves on the Current has a recommended diary about the questioner at the Republican debate that asked the participants if they believed every word in the Bible. Leaves on the Current was depressed that none of the candidates spoke to the Constitution’s restriction that no religious test would be used for public office.

Commenters rightly stated that the Constitution doesn’t preclude citizens from asking candidates anything they like and that we shouldn’t be shocked that such questions are asked at Republic forums.

But there’s another point that needs to be made. More below.

As part of various magazine retrospectives of Norman Mailer’s career after his recent death, The New York Review of Books has made available some reviews of his books and a few pieces he wrote for that publication. One of the latter, written in 2003 right after the beginning of the Iraq War and called The White Man Undburdened, is a real eye opener. Mr. Macho comes out with what can only be described as a decidedly feminist take on Bush and his war.

More Below.

This was too funny not to share. Jac Wilder VerSteeg of the Palm Beach Post wrote an editorial with the above title about the UF Student at the Kerry speech.

The mess over the Democratic primary here in Florida is becoming disheartening. The headline in the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper Friday was Tampa Activist Sues DNC. Oh man, what else could go wrong?

Well, this weekend answered that question with more bad news for Florida. Since the Four State Pledge has now gotten the support of all the Democratic presidential candidates, the time has come for the Florida Democratic Party and its chair Karen Thurman to compromise on this divisive issue.

More over the hump.

The New Yorker magazine has a Talk of the Town piece on Steve Earle living in Greenwich Village. It's a fun read. He's recording his new album in Jimi Hendrix's old Electric Lady studio. Near the end is this wonderful quote:

Sitting on a drum stool, Earle talked about Hendrix and his connections to the Village and Dylan, and other subjects he had on his mind, such as Shakespeare, the reasons he likes John Edwards, and the beauties of New York. "I need to be able to walk out of my door and see a same-sex biracial couple walking down the street holding hands. That makes me feel safe."

Gotta love the guy. BTW, this should be read while listening to Condi, Condi from The Revolution Starts . .  Now.

As everyone knows, the Republican dominated Florida legislature moved the state’s presidential primary to January 29, 2008. Both national parties said that Florida would lose delegates at the national conventions for this decision. Chairman Dean also made clear that any candidate who campaigned for the primary in Florida would not receive any delegates from it.

Gatordem has posted a dkos diary on this issue and I’ve been writing about it over at FLAPolitics. But now the Florida MSM is jumping in with both feet. More after the bump.

In a discussion of Newt Gingrich’s analysis of the Republican Party as stated in a recent New Yorker article, Kos says the following:

Gingrich, on the other hand, appears to sense that Americans are disgusted at Bush and GOP incompetence and expect government to work for them. Katrina and Iraq have driven that sentiment home.

Therefore, if his party is to remain relevant, it must recreate itself not as the party of smaller government, but the party of modernized government.

But this has already taken place in Florida. Learn more below.

Rory Stewart, author of The Places In Between and The Prince of the Marshes, has a piece in The New York Review of Books called Iraq: The Question. All it consists of are answers to some questions asked of him by the audience after his discussion with broadcast journalist Dan Harris at the Asia Society in New York on April 20, 2007. But it is definitely worth reading.

Two excerpts over the fold.

Originally posted at FLAPolitics

Congresswoman Karen Thurman, Chair of the Florida Democratic Party (FDP), titled a recent email "The Road to the Presidency Runs Through Central Florida". Like most missives from a political party it was soliciting funds (which is to be expected). This one was for the Democratic challenger in the special election for a central Florida State House seat.  

But, the email’s title spoke to me, because I’ve been thinking along the same lines recently. Let me explain.