Hey, this will be a short diary but one that needs to be heard. I will vote for the Democratic nominee, regardless who it is, but only if I know the process was at least semi-legitimate.  That means either the DNC finds a way for a real re-vote in Florida and Michigan, not a caucus, or I vote for McCain.

I am sick and tired of hearing from these spineless Senators who shivered and ran from the Republicans and allowed them to get away with murder, even when they were in the majority, or the incredulous pundits who look at issues with the depth of three year olds to tell me that Hillary should give up.  Obama has the tiniest of leads and where the hell do they come off to try to manipulate the election anymore than Obama already has with his lies and injecting of race.

One more time, from the top.

Aside from the fact that there is an excellent reason the DNC penalized MI and FL in the primary presidential race. Aside from the fact that both MI and FL were warned under no uncertain terms what would happen if they tried to "cut in line" without due process. Aside from the fact that both Obama and Clinton agreed, on film and on paper, to the DNC's decision to de-legitimize MI and FL's out-of-turn selection of the presidential nominee.

Today U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds ruled Michigan's presidential primary law unconstitutional because of a provision that would give the list of voters' partisan preferences from the Jan. 15th primary election to the Democratic and Republican parties only. The AFL-CIO brought the suit in January on behalf of the Green, Libertarian and Reform parties and the judge agreed with them that it infringed upon their constitutional rights. While the Clinton campaign had hoped the judge would order a re-vote as a remedy, she did not and in fact insisted that her decision had absolutely no bearing on the presidential election at all.

Since the judge made no effort to address the disenfranchisement of Michigan from the primary process, the Clinton campaign took the opportunity to call for a state-run primary re-vote.

"In the wake of today's court ruling regarding Michigan's January 15th primary, we urge Senator Obama to join our call for a party-run primary and demonstrate his commitment to counting Michigan's votes."

{crickets}

But does her ruling really have no bearing on the nomination battle? At least one Michigan Democratic Party spokesperson thinks this decision actually puts the nail in the coffin of the re-vote prospects altogether since it bars the Secretary of State's office from handing over the lists that would be needed for a re-vote to occur.

"We need those lists to prevent people who voted in the Republican primary from voting in the Democratic do-over. Those are DNC rules," said spokeswoman Liz Kerr, referring to the Democratic National Committee. "This is basically the final straw in preventing us from having a do-over election."

But are those the DNC rules? Marc Ambinder calls bullshit. Is this statement perhaps tipping Howard Dean's hand? Hmm, wonder of this is the sort of thing that Harry Reid meant when he said "things are being done" to make sure the nomination ends well before the convention.

[editor's note, by Todd Beeton]Liz Kerr is a spokesperson for the Michigan Democratic Party, not the DNC, so there's really no reason to think she's channeling Dean here, but rather communicating the message that as far as the MDP is concerned a re-vote is dead.

Looking good for a Michigan "mulligan" primary:

Michigan Democrats agreed Friday to push a do-over primary in early June to give them a say in the close presidential race between Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

Amid talks with the two campaigns, the four Michigan Democrats said in a statement they were "focusing on the possibility of a state-run primary in early June which would not use any state funding." Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, one of the Democratic participants, said a likely date is June 3.

"This option would require the passage of legislation by the state legislature, and we look forward to working with the members of the legislature in the coming days to see if this option can be made a reality," the Democrats said.

The legislation, currently being written, has some serious hoops to jump through including approval by the Michigan Democratic Party, both the Clinton and Obama campaigns, the Democratic National Committee, state party leaders and Gov. Jennifer Granholm, but the momentum certainly seems to be on the side of its coming together.

And remember that whole Florida compromise where the delegates would be seated according to January's vote, only cut in half (the number of delegates, that is, not the delegates themselves...)? Looks like it's FL Sen. Bill Nelson's idea. (Nelson, you'll recall, is a Clinton supporter.)

With the Florida Democratic Party's proposed mail-in do-over of its Jan. 29 presidential primary drawing more heat than support, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson began floating the idea Friday of seating half the state's 186 pledged delegates at the party's national convention.

Nelson said he spoke Friday with both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on the Senate floor about the plight of Florida and Michigan, the two states stripped of delegates because their early primaries violated national rules.

"Both of them said, `You have to seat Florida and Michigan.' Now, of course, the devil is in the details,'" Nelson said.

The Nelson plan still gives Clinton the edge, based on her 17 percentage-point win in January. But instead of gaining 38 delegates, Clinton's victory margin in Florida would be reduced to 19.

I'm still not sold on it and it sounds like a damn hard sell to the campaigns, but I suppose it would be better than nothing.

It was none other than James Carville who once said "When your opponent is drowning, throw the son of a bitch an anvil." It's time for Obama to take Carville's advice to heart and quash Hillary's underhanded attempt at a Michigan and Florida re-vote.

We all know that neither Hillary nor her supporters truly care about Michigan or Florida -- had Obama won either one, we'd have had another state to add to the list of states that "don't matter." No, behind all the phony altruism is cold-blooded political maneuvering. Hillary's been knocked on her ass and now wants Obama to help her up so she can knee-cap him. Instead, Obama should take a page from the Clinton playbook and kick her while she's down -- something that Hillary herself would never hesitate to do. Obama could then prove to Hillary's supporters, albeit perversely, that he's tough enough to face the Republicans in the fall.

And so, I'm calling on Obama to reject any notion of a Florida and Michigan re-vote. Instead, he can simply split the delegations 50-50 when he takes control of the credentials committee. Clinton supporters will predictably cry bloody-murder, but such a course of action is well within the rules Senator Clinton agreed to. Moreover, for a campaign that employs every dirty trick imaginable, from lawsuits to poaching pledged delegates, to suddenly assert moral indignation would be laughable. So go ahead Barack, toss Hillary that anvil.