There's a good column by Gail Collins in The New York Times this morning titled The Democratic Dark Side. She's commenting on the recent pledge that the top Democratic Presidential candidates made to not campaign in Florida. That's because Florida defied the DNC and scheduled their primary before they were supposed to, which was a big DNC no-no. The decision by Florida Democrats to defy Howard Dean has resulted in Florida 'losing' all of it's delegates to the Democratic Convention next year, and the Dem candidates pledging not to campaign in Florida

Collins points out something that I haven't seen anywhere else. The Democrats promised not to campaign - but they didn't promise not to visit Florida to raise money!

Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama have all vowed to honor the Democratic National Committee rule that only New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina and Nevada can hold primaries before Feb. 5. At the urging of the Democratic chairs of the four firsties, they signed a pact promising not to campaign in any state that tries to break into the front of the line. There is, however, an exception for "activities specifically related to raising campaign resources."

Exactly what are they supposed to do when they visit Florida to raise money, not talk about politics or their campaigns for the Presidency? How will that be policed. The Florida primary will go forward as scheduled. The Democratic convention as a whole can, when meeting in Denver in August 2008 to define their platform and convention rules, over-rule the DNC and vote to accept the Florida delegates. So what does the ban actually do? Is Howard Dean really that impotent within the Democratic Party?