Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008

DNC shows all that breaking rules pays in the end

OVER THE WEEKEND, literally on the eve of the convention, the Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee did what everyone assumed it would do in the end: It restored full voting rights to the delegations from Florida and Michigan.

All that drama the past few months, all that posturing over the importance of rules, all for nothing.

The moral of the story, if it’s permissible to use any sense of the word “moral” in connection with any process so ethically malleable, is that in the end political parties are about one thing and one thing only: winning elections. Any consideration that gets in the way of that supreme goal is swept aside.

To recap: The party forbade states to move up their primaries to crowd Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. Florida and Michigan defied the party. But while candidates didn’t campaign there, Sen. Hillary Clinton remained on both ballots, and “won” both states. The party gave Florida and Michigan a very stern talking-to, but in the end, let them have their way when Sen. Barack Obama asked it to do so. Why? Because neither party wants Florida or Michigan voters to resent it in November.

The official party line now is that Florida and Michigan were sanctioned, however temporarily, and have therefore learned their lesson. They’ve learned a lesson all right — it pays to break the rules.

It’s natural that Florida and Michigan would want more attention in the nominating process, just as we South Carolinians don’t want to lose any of the attention we get now. But who in all of this stands up for what’s best for the country?

Obviously, not the Democratic National Committee. Nor anyone else, as far as we can tell.