Rep. Dan Gelber

A fascinating new blog offers the up close and personal on what’s happening in Tallahassee while the state legislature is in session, and it’s hard to resist peeking. State Rep. Dan Gelber (D-Miami) is House minority leader, and is running for Florida Senate this year. While most Democrats in Tallahassee are unhappy with their Republican colleagues, few are so plain spoken about it. For example:

Tallahassee is a two party town and increasingly so the Republicans — especially my colleagues in the House — are becoming more and more partisan. Ideas are no longer as important as who proposes them, and principles are malleable depending upon who they are being used to bash.

Yownza.

But Gelber would know. He was the one who withstood Republican scorn last year to offer an amendment to the legislation changing Florida’s primary date. Gelber wanted Democrats to be able to vote one week later than Republicans in order to stay within the calendar established by the DNC in the 1970s. His amendment was met with derision and disrespect by the Republicans. Hear it for yourself. A transcript follows but it makes better listening:

Speaker Marco Rubio (R-West Miami): Rep. Gelber, in all fairness I did not recognize you to close on your amendment. These are questions. Rep. Rivera.

Rep. David Rivera (R-Miami): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Rep. Gelber, If I understand this correctly, the intent of the bill is to make Florida more relevant in the presidential nominating process by moving the primary up to Jan. 29. Your amendment is trying to move the primary beyond Jan. 29 to Feb. 5. I assume, in, in trying to appease, ah, perhaps leaders of your national party that would like to do that. Why are you, exactly, trying to appease the leaders of your national party?

Rep. Gelber: Thank you, uh, for that friendly unfriendly question, Rep. Rivera. And I’ll take that as a friendly question although I’m not sure it was intended as such. Um, I think most members know, have read papers, that you know, a lot of folks out here do believe it would be a good idea to make Florida more relevant. The national Democratic party, however, has implemented rules that would in fact punish the Florida Democrats if the folks in the front row* implement a primary in the way the bill is currently engrossed to Jan. 29. So given that, many of us have, are now suggesting that we simply go to Feb. 5 and we are encouraging your, uh, magnanimity in actually moving it to Feb. 5 so that in fact, the national Democratic party does not punish the Florida Democratic party for something this Republican legislature decides to do.

Speaker Rubio: Rep. Rivera.

Rep. Rivera: So Rep. Gelber, let me get straight. [Laughter begins] You’re asking us to help the Democratic National Party stop punishing the Florida Democratic Party? [More laughter] You’re asking the Republican members of this congress to help the national Democrats to stop punishing the Florida Democrats? Is that accurate? [Laughter increases as recording ends]

We all know what happened next.

Rivera’s question makes it obvious that in Florida, our Republican leaders were only concerned that Republican votes be counted. And they were. So Republicans are guilty of simply not caring about Democrats. Howard Dean’s crime, on the other hand, was to do what the Republicans never could, and that was actually take away our votes. Can you guys in the other 48 states** not understand our resentment toward Dean and his authoritarian “leadership?”

* In the Florida House, the party in charge gets all the good seats.
** Not Michigan, of course. They feel our pain.