REVERSE INWARD WITH A FULL TWIST IN THE PIKE POSITION: NAACP GAMBIT ON FLORIDA AND MICHIGAN

The estimable Julian Bond has done a wild and crazy thing. He has called for relief of what he calls the disenfranchisement of Millions of voters in Michigan and Florida and encouraged the Democrat Party to count their votes.

Obviously, there has been much talk about how much Black Outrage there would be if the Fichigan and Florida voters were counted and put HRC over the top, beating Obama. Here, would seem, the perfect cover, a black icon, speaking for a principally black organization, asking the votes be counted. Clever, spicy, a Boris Spassky move.

It's also not gonna work. The folks who await the Prince will not be denied, not by Julian Bond or participatory democracy. If they can't have "change", there'll be hell to pay.

BTW, on the Fichigan side, no word yet on Rich Rodriguez' position on all this. He probably had a buyout clause in his voter registration.

WHOOPS, THIS, JUST IN:



Dear Governor Dean:

I write this letter as a former Democratic candidate for President of the United States and a civil rights leader who has fought his entire life for fairness and justice for all people regardless of the color of their skin. 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.

As former Presidential candidates we both know that, whether we liked them or not, we adhered to the rules set forth by the Democratic party to select its nominee for president. For example, I would have much preferred starting the nominating process with caucuses and primaries in South Carolina and Washington D.C. than Iowa and New Hampshire. Nonetheless, I knew the rules, abided by them, and ultimately accepted the consequences. Changing the rules in the middle of a presidential contest is patently unfair both to the candidates (including Senator Edwards) and to Democratic voters everywhere.

Some have said that not seating delegations from Florida and Michigan disenfranchises Democratic voters -- especially African American voters -- from those two states. That claim, if true, 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. To raise that claim now smacks of politics in its form most raw and undercuts the moral authority behind such an argument.

As a civil rights leader who is neutral in this presidential primary season and who highly respects both remaining Democratic candidates, I think we have a responsibility to protect both candidates from charges that the process was tainted so that our eventual nominee does not start the general election campaign under a cloud. Clearly, the justifiably proud and intense passions of each candidate's supporters will be on full display in the months leading up to the convention. However, the Democratic Party and independent voices within must temper over enthusiasm by either side and the party must be resolute in ensuring that there is one set of rules by which we select our nominee.

In Progress,

Reverend Al Sharpton, President of National Action Network