Dean offered an olive branch to Florida. Delegate apportionment not settled.

[madfloridian]

He offered them a seat at the convention. He offered them hotel rooms. He has said all along he would do that.

In spite of that, Florida delegates will not get to vote on important issues concerning the nominee selection until a nominee is chosen or both sides agree. The latter is not likely to happen.

Floridians Now Booked to Return to the Fold


Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean gestures during an interview with The Associated press, Thursday, March 27, 2008, at DNC Headquarters in Washington.

Updated 2:12 p.m.
By Jonathan Weisman
After months of animus and finger-pointing, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean offered Florida's Democratic House delegation an olive branch this morning: He booked them hotel rooms in Denver. It may not seem like much, but Florida House members hailed the gesture and the tone of the morning meeting as a breakthrough. Dean had pledged he would do everything in his power to seat Florida's delegates, months after he stripped the state of its convention voice after it moved its primary forward against party rules.

"Good tone, good tenor, everybody's on the same page," declared Rep. Alan Boyd (D-Fla.). "I now have confidence we can get this thing done."

Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz admitted they were no closer to figuring out how those delegates would be apportioned. Hillary Rodham Clinton wants the results of the nullified Jan. 29 primary respected, while Barack Obama wants a 50-50 split so the apportionment wouldn't effect his lead. Wasserman-Schultz said everyone agreed it would take a few more contests to decide on the math.

"That won't be up to us," Boyd said. "The decision needs to be made by the campaigns."

The hotel gesture is not meaningless. There was real fear that by the time the standoff is resolved, no rooms would be left in Denver.

They further agreed they "will continue to work towards a solution to ensure delegates are seated and logistics are in place for a Florida delegation in Denver."

The deal has been started, it is not yet done.

Howard Dean said last night that he was not going to bend the rules toward either side.

DEAN: I would very much like to have Florida and Michigan seated. Because of the circumstances under which they held their elections, essentially which were not valid elections, they aren't going to be seated the same way that everybody else is.

They can be seated in one of two ways. ]One, they can be seated by agreement between the two campaigns if there is no clear winner, or, two, they will be seated I suspect by whoever does win the nomination. Whoever wins the nomination will control the credentials committee, which will control the seating. And I strongly believe our nominee is going to want Florida and Michigan in the hall. Under which rules, that will depend. The nominee will set the rules.

Overtures have been made, but this thing is not fully settled.