I put Middle Earth Journal in hiatus in May of 2008 and moved to Newshoggers.
I temporarily reopened Middle Earth Journal when Newshoggers shut it's doors but I was invited to Participate at The Moderate Voice so Middle Earth Journal is once again in hiatus.

Monday, March 03, 2008

In Golf We Call It a Mulligan

Each year, when my friend Kirby and I head out to hit the links - particularly early in the season when you tend to be rusty - we keep alive the ancient golfing tradition of the Mulligan once per side. What this means is that should you smack your drive out of bounds, into a pond, or just chunk a worm-burner twenty yards from the tee, you can take out a fresh ball, tee it up and hit another at no penalty. It seems that this is what Florida Governor Charlie Crist would like to do with the Florida Democratic primary election.
Florida Governor Charlie Crist said he'd support a repeat of the Democratic presidential primary so the state's delegates can be counted at the party's national convention.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said he's open to the possibility. Primary elections are paid for by a state's taxpayers, so the offer from Crist, a Republican, is "very helpful'' because money is an issue, Dean said.

For those of you who have little exposure to golf aside from watching Tiger and his PGA buddies burning up the course, you may not be familiar with the Mulligan. There's a reason for this, and Governor Crist - as well as Howard Dean - would do well to keep it in mind. You don't get to do it in the pro leagues!

I'm sorry to say, Florida, but the party established a set of rules. You broke those rules and you were penalized. I know it must be even more difficult to come back to us, hat in hand, knowing that if you had simply waited until your originally scheduled primary date you'd be in the position to be kingmakers right now. As it is... you're chumps.

Nobody is saying you shouldn't send your delegates to the convention for other reasons, such as voting on rules changes, etc. (And you may want to lobby to change those primary date rules, as well as peeling back the number of super delegates.) But you blew your chance to decide the nominee by flaunting the system. Suck it up and deal.