This little matter of seating delegates from Florida and Michigan could prove more divisive to the Democratic Party than any wounds Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama might inflict on each other.
Clinton argues that it was a Republican-controlled Legislature and a Republican governor who moved up Florida's primaries in conflict with Democratic Party rules. So the votes should count.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean disagrees. He said today Florida and Michigan should hold new primaries, paid for by the state parties. The Associated Press reports he could have trouble getting that passed Clinton's network.
I don't see, however, how Clinton could get her scenario past the American voters.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The former head of the Democratic National Committee
said Thursday it was doubtful DNC Chairman Howard Dean would be able to get
approval for a plan for do-over presidential nomination contests in Florida and
Michigan.
“It’ll be a hellacious battle,” said Don Fowler, a
former DNC chairman who sits on the party’s rule-making committee. Before
the primaries started, “Howard Dean had enough votes to get most everything he
wanted. Now that this thing has gone as far as it has and the lines have formed
according to candidates. I’m not sure how that vote would shake out now,” said
Fowler, who has endorsed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Now, everything is being viewed in terms of how it
benefits a particular candidate, not the party or the process, Fowler said.
Nonetheless, Fowler said, something has to be done, “the rules be damned”
to seat delegates from states Democrats have to and can win in the general
election.
“All they have to do is come before us with rules
that fit into what they agreed to a year and a half ago, and then they’ll be
seated,” Dean said during a round of interviews Thursday on network and cable TV
news programs. The two state parties will have to find the funds to pay
for new contests without help from the national party, Dean said. “We
can’t afford to do that. That’s not our problem. We need our money to win the
presidential race,” he said.
- Terri Hallenbeck