DNC's Hot Ticket

May 27, 2008— -- Saturday's Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting on Michigan and Florida is now being called "the hottest ticket in town".

While the tickets did not exactly go in a minute (that was just a DNC Internet person being "flip" according to an informed source), the tickets were snatched up in 3 minutes, prompting CNN to compare it to the reportedly 12 minutes it took Hannah Montana to sell out the "much larger" Verizon Center earlier this year.

If you can't wait until Saturday to talk about the justice of the punishment meted out by the DNC, a federal district court in Tampa, Fla., will hear arguments Wednesday in the re-filed DiMaio case.

Florida Democratic Party activist Victor DiMaio is challenging the DNC's decision to strip Florida of all of its delegates by arguing that Dr. Dean's party violated federal law by discriminating against Florida on the basis of race and national origin.

DiMaio is arguing that the DNC's rule was unfair and discriminatory because the Democratic Party took into account racial and ethnic origin diversity in choosing Nevada and South Carolina as two of the four states allowed to hold their contests before Feb. 5.

DiMaio's case is on cross motions for summary judgment.  DNC lawyer Joe Sandler will argue it for the DNC.

The DNC is confident that the court will throw out the case -- perhaps as early as Wednesday.

The DNC's confidence is based on two points: (1) courts have recognized the right of political parties to establish and enforce their own rules; and (2) the DNC plans to point to Saturday's meeting of the Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting as "the right forum" to resolve this matter.

For those tracking lawsuits against the DNC, the DiMaio case is the not the only one out there.

Florida Senate Democratic Leader Steven Geller has a case of his own which rests, in part, on due process grounds.

"You have to follow your own rules," Geller told ABC News. "Their rule say that they have to do an investigation. . . They never contacted me and I'm the Senate leader . . ."

Geller, who filed his suit in federal court last week, says that if the DNC had met its obligation to conduct an investigation, he would have told them that Florida Republican legislators had put Florida Democratic legislators in a box by forcing them to violate either the DNC's rule requiring a paper trail or the DNC's rule requiring a late primary. The DNC acknowledges that it did not meet with Geller as part of its investigation but it maintains that the Florida leaders at all levels were "fully briefed."

Geller attorney Richard Epstein hopes to file his request for an injunction (asking the court to force the DNC to seat all of Florida's delegates) on Thursday or Friday of this week. Both Geller and Epstein are with the law firm of Greenspoon Marder.

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