<snip>
The Democratic Party released rules for the May 31 meeting that will decide how the Florida and Michigan delegations are seated at this summer’s national convention. Like everything else about the dispute, it looks like the meeting will go on and on.The party’s rules committee stripped Florida and Michigan of their convention seats as punishment for holding their primaries too early in the election season. The party had hoped that a clear nominee would emerge, scrap the penalty and welcome the two vote-rich states back to the convention.
That hasn’t happened, of course. So challengers in both states have appealed the punishment, and with only three primaries and 86 delegate votes to go, the party has scheduled a rules committee meeting to resolve the long dispute.
The party said in a press release Wednesday that it would devote the morning to oral arguments and the afternoon to “consideration and debate.” What it didn’t say was how long things could go on.
For each state, both campaigns, the state party and the challenger will have a chance to make 15-minute presentations. That means four presentations on Florida —from challenger Jon Ausman, a superdelegate; from both campaigns and from the state party. Michigan also is entitled to four presentations—from the state party, which is the challenger; both campaigns, and the party again, just to keep things even with Florida.
The 30 members of the committee can ask questions at any time. They’ll meet again in the afternoon to thrash out a solution, and that could generate fireworks. About a dozen of the committee members have endorsed Sen. Hillary Clinton; eight have endorsed Sen. Barack Obama. Two members work for the Clinton campaign, including strategist Harold Ickes. The two chairmen—Alexis Herman and James Roosevelt Jr.–are neutral, but Herman served in the Clinton White House.
Ideally for the party, the committee members will have reached a compromise before the meeting begins and can save it the embarrassment of a knock-down fight. But any compromise still seems a long way off: Clinton continues to insist that all the Florida and Michigan delegates be seated, an outcome that wouldn’t win her the nomination, but would narrow Obama’s lead because she won both primaries.
If it comes to a fight and a disputed solution, the party’s credentials committee would hear an appeal at the convention in Denver. Any credentials committee decision, in turn, would have to go to the convention for a vote—setting up the possibility of a floor fight on opening day.
The rules meeting begins at 9:30 at Washington’s Wardman Park Hotel. The public is invited, but can’t ask questions, hold signs, distribute fliers, hang banners or make noise.<snip>
Link:
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/05/21/democrats-set-rules-for-meeting-on-florida-michigan-delegations/?mod=WSJBlog:shrug:
"The rules meeting begins at 9:30 at Washington’s Wardman Park Hotel. The public is invited, but can’t ask questions, hold signs, distribute fliers, hang banners or make noise."Yeah... Huh...
:rofl::popcorn::rofl:
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