Democratic Rules and Bylaws Committee set to resolve Clinton-Obama delegate dispute

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: Democratic panel set to resolve Clinton-Obama delegate dispute
The party insiders will decide what to do about the disqualified delegations from Florida and Michigan.
By Peter Nicholas and Janet Hook, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
May 29, 2008

WASHINGTON -- The last Democratic presidential primaries take place Tuesday, but an obscure panel of 30 party insiders now finds itself in the strongest position to determine whether the long nominating process will come to a smooth conclusion. Meeting at a Washington hotel Saturday, the party's Rules and Bylaws Committee will attempt to settle a lingering dispute about whether delegates from Michigan and Florida should be seated at the party's convention in August.

Both campaigns and thousands of voters have been lobbying the committee members, who are used to working in anonymity. E-mail messages are flooding in. The 500 tickets set aside for spectators were snapped up within three minutes on the Internet.

At stake are the 368 delegates from Michigan and Florida, who were disqualified because those states held their primaries in January, earlier than allowed by party rules. Under the outcome Hillary Rodham Clinton has called for in recent weeks, she would pick up 111 more delegates than Barack Obama. That would narrow his lead in the delegate count and might position Clinton to argue to the party's superdelegates that they should throw the nomination to her. But there is little support on the committee for giving the New York senator everything she wants. That leaves the panel with a second challenge: bringing Clinton, Obama and Democratic officials together in an agreement that unites the party and keeps bruised feelings to a minimum.

Should Clinton or her supporters come away feeling she was treated unfairly, they may prolong their argument all the way to the convention and hesitate to get behind Obama if the Illinois senator becomes the nominee. That outcome would leave the party weakened in its general election battle against John McCain, the presumed Republican nominee.

Privately, aides to both Clinton and Obama say they prefer to see the issue settled this weekend....

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-dems29-2008may29,0,695749,full.story

[mac2]

1. Why not at the convention?

That's were they all vote and speak. This secret stuff is unacceptable.

[Elidor]

3. See, it's not secret when there are 500 spectators

Try another one.

[barbtries]

2. i would be really pissed

if clinton got all the delegates from a state that didn't have obama's name on the ballot. i don't know the niceties of the math, but it is really hard for me to imagine a scenario that she could fairly claim is unfair to her considering that.

[rocktivity]

4. Split the pledged delgates evenly, no superdelegates

Otherwise the DNC disenfranchises the voters, disrespects the states that obeyed their rules, rewards the ones that didn't, and generally defeats its own purpose.

:headbang:
rocknation