Redstate

Never mind elections. Never mind delegates. Never mind super-delegates. We're down to the meta-level, now.

By Moe Lane Posted in 2008 | Rooting For Injuries | The Best Democratic Primary EVER — Comments (10) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

And the best part? It all happened two days ago, and nobody really noticed:

The Democratic National Committee said Tuesday that Florida and Michigan members will be seated on the three standing committees — including the critical Credentials Committee—at the party’s 2008 national convention, a position that could affect the selection of the Democratic nominee.

While both states were stripped of their delegates to the convention, according to the DNC’s interpretation of party rules, members from those states will be seated on the Credentials Committee. The Credentials Committee, which can meet prior to convention, resolves disputes over whether to seat delegates at the convention.

“The DNC interpretation is that there are 186 members of the Credentials Committee and both states are seated on the standing committees,” said DNC spokeswoman Stacie Paxton.

Really? Page 42, Appendix D, check out Florida's and Michigan's allocation. Also peruse this post as a refresher (sayeth he, modestly). Then read on.

The fix is in. While the article notes that, say, Florida can't vote on its own credentials validation, there's no reason why it can't vote on Michigan's, or Michigan's on Florida's - or both in accordance with whatever credentials challenge is directed against State delegates that might be a touch, ah, recalcitrant about letting two very important State delegations take their rightful seats in the Democratic National Convention. You can safely assume, by the way, that both Michigan and Florida's committee members will not be favoring Barack Obama, given that he's spent quite some time trying to keep them down; he might be able to appoint a reliable member or two from Florida, but a solid majority of them will be Clinton's. Including the quote-unquote "uncommitted."

Will this give her a majority on the Credentials Committee? I'm not sure, but probably not. Will it help her get within spitting distance of a majority? Depending on how the next set of races go, probably. Can Obama rely on Howard Dean packing the DNC's portion of the Credentials Committee with reliable Obama supporters? About as much as he can rely on Dean being competent at anything else involving his job as DNC chair - in other words, no.

Is this the best Democratic primary EVER? Yes. Oh, my, yes.

Moe Lane

PS: Don't whine to me. It's not my fault that the entire Democratic primary system was apparently designed by people who subconsciously hated Democrats. I'm just the messenger.

The giggling messenger, yes - but still just the messenger.