DNC: Torn between two Lovers-Democrats Get Conflicting Demands From NAACP and Crazy Rev. Al

"Torn between two lovers, feelin' like a fool Julian Bond says one thing, Rev. Al says two"

Florida and Michigan both lost their delegates to the Democratic Convention because their moved their primaries early. Having won both primaries Senator Clinton wants the delegates seated (in Mich she ran opposed). Yesterday, Julian Bond of the NAACP has told the DNC to seat the Delegates from these two states as not to disenfranchise their voters. Rev. Al says if they do that he will lead one of his famous, "I don't give a shit demonstrations." You know I don't give a shit what is right or wrong but I am going to protest anyway. No word on whether he is going to have people burn down a building like he did with Freddies in Harlem, or lead a pogrom as he did in Crown Heights.

AL: WE'D PICKET DEM HQ

By MAGGIE HABERMAN

February 14, 2008 -- The Rev. Al Sharpton yesterday said the Democratic Party would commit a "grave injustice" if it seated delegates from Florida and Michigan at the party's national convention - and he threatened a march on the party's Washington headquarters.

Sharpton's call - detailed in a letter to Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean - came a day after the NAACP leader Julian Bond urged party officials to seat delegates from the two states, saying that not to do so would risk "disenfranchising" minorities.

Both Florida and Michigan were stripped of their delegates to the Democratic convention after their legislatures set the dates of their primaries before Feb. 5 in defiance of the national party.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton won both contests and has recently called for delegates from both states to have access at the convention in late summer.

But supporters of Barack Obama have argued that such a move would be unfair to him, and several Democratic insiders have expressed concern that the party would suffer painful infighting if Clinton prevailed.

Sharpton wrote: "I firmly believe that changing the rules now and seating delegates from Florida and Michigan at this point would not only violate the Democratic Party's rules of fairness, but also would be a grave injustice."

He added that protestations about being disenfranchised, a point made by Bond in a separate letter to Dean Tuesday, "should have been made many months ago, before the decision was made to strip these states of their delegates.

"And once the decision was made, it should have been vigorously objected to and contested by those who felt it disenfranchised voters," Sharpton added.

Sharpton told The Post, "I think the DNC is playing a dangerous game . . . [and could] open the door here for everything from litigation to demonstration."

He said his National Action Network is discussing a possible march on DNC headquarters, adding, "This smacks of the same stuff we accused the Republicans of in Florida in 2000 . . . changing the rules."

The DNC has said the two states could hold new primary elections, or could appeal having the delegates stripped with a rules committee that won't meet until July. But those proposed solutions haven't made anyone happy.