If you would like to be added or dropped from the Michigan ping list, please freepmail me.
Hoping this isn't resolved by convention time...even if it is, the dems are going to have one, giant, contentious mess on their hands.
Popcorn at the ready!
Posted on 05/22/2008 5:26:27 AM PDT by Libloather
D.C. meeting could bring compromise on Michigan, Florida delegates
BY MICHAEL SAUL in Tampa and KENNETH R. BAZINET in Washington
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Thursday, May 22nd 2008, 4:00 AM
The next Democratic donnybrook will be in a Washington ballroom.
Busloads of Hillary Clinton supporters will swarm a meeting next week at a D.C. Marriott, where Democratic Party elders hope to forge a compromise over Florida and Michigan's now-voided convention delegates.
"We really don't know what to expect, but we do know that the Clinton people are very organized," said a senior Democratic National Committee source.
Clinton, in Florida on Wednesday, compared the current vote fiasco to 2000, when George Bush edged Al Gore - still a sore point for many Democratic partisans.
"If Democrats send the message that we don't fully value your votes, we know Sen. [John] McCain and the Republicans will be more than happy to have them," Clinton said.
"The Republicans will make a simple and compelling argument: Why should Florida and Michigan voters trust the Democratic Party to look out for you when they won't even listen to you?" she added.
Hoping to avoid a free-for-all at the powwow, the party laid down tough ground rules on Wednesday for its May 31 meeting: "In order to maintain the decorum of the meeting, banners, posters, signs, handouts and noisemakers of any kind are strictly prohibited."
The public also is barred from speaking.
Representatives of Clinton and rival Barack Obama, as well as the Florida and Michigan state parties, will argue their cases in the procedural showdown.
Clinton and Florida officials want all the votes to count, which would give her a significant lead in the popular vote.
"They should count them exactly as they were cast," Clinton said. "Democracy demands no less."
"That's never going to happen," countered Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
Florida and Michigan are being punished for ignoring party rules by holding their primaries before Feb. 5. Obama and Michigan - and some party officials - would settle for a compromise seating half their delegates. Clinton is opposed.
Either side can appeal this summer to the party's credentials committee. Clinton reiterated she is willing to take her quest all the way to the convention in August if Florida and Michigan continue to press their case.
"I will, because I feel very strongly about this," Clinton said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Obama, on a three-day campaign swing through the Sunshine State, avoided the issue and instead told 15,000 cheering supporters in Tampa that he's at the "threshold of being able to obtain this nomination."
"We need to vote," said Patrice Weil, 51, an Army veteran who returned to Florida recently from Iraq. "Florida had enough problems in [2000]. We need to have an opportunity to have our voice heard."
Democratics are no fun.
She will go into Denver with the lead in the popular vote, and there is nothing the Democratics can do about it.
Both Hillary and Obama signed some agreement that the Fla and Mich votes would be excluded because those states moved up their Primary dates. Now, of course, Hillary want (needs) to reneg. I’d love to be able to ask Hillary at one of her speeches: “I know you’re fighting to get our votes counted. You say every vote must count. So why did you sign that agreement way back when in the first case? You didn’t give a damn about our votes until you realized you were in a fight. So I ask you, why should we trust you now when you’d sold us out without a second thought at the beginning of this Primary season?”
"In order to maintain the decorum of the meeting, banners, posters, signs, handouts and noisemakers of any kind are strictly prohibited." The public also is barred from speaking.
Sounds like the RATS are afraid of the Frankenstein Monster they've aided and abetted - Code Pinko.
If you would like to be added or dropped from the Michigan ping list, please freepmail me.
Hoping this isn't resolved by convention time...even if it is, the dems are going to have one, giant, contentious mess on their hands.
Popcorn at the ready!
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