MI and FL - Is there a valid reason to "punish" them?

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean had this to say about FL and MI on March 5. Although I understand that there are rules and that FL and MI allegedly agreed on dates 18 months ago, I feel that FL and MI should have been allowed to change those dates with proper notice and documentation. I can understand FL and MI getting a slap on the wrist for not following proper channels. However, I don't think that their delegates should be omitted from the primaries process. Nor do I think there should be a series of hoops to jump through to potentially get reinstated.

Let's look at the big picture for a moment. FL and MI held their primaries about 1.5 months early. It was still well into 2008. It's not like they held the primaries for the 2008 election in 2006 or 2007. That would be inexcusable and omitting them at that point would be more justified. The media seemed to make a big deal of FL and MI holding their primaries before Super Tuesday (the first Tuesday after the Superbowl). I fail to see the issue. Sure, quite a few states held their primaries on Super Tuesday, but holding primaries before or after Super Tuesday seems quite arbitrary to me. It shouldn't be a big deal.

Getting back to the mess at hand, former DNC Chairman Don Fowler says "It'll be a hellacious battle" to allow a "do-over" for FL and MI. A do-over? Why? That's like asking the NFL to redo the Superbowl assuming that they held it a week before they should have held it. I think that the votes that have already been collected should count. In my opinion, a "do-over" is just going to lead to another "hanging chad"-like fiasco.

I say that voters should take a stand and tell the DNC to stand down and let the delegates assignments from the initial votes in FL and MI count.