Wolfson was on Fox and he didn't seem to taking that direction at all. Considering Hillary flatly turned down the plan where she would gain a net 10 delegates, this obviously doesn't make sense and isn't the campaign line.

I love how he keeps mentioning the big states Hillary has one and includes Michigan and Florida and is never challenged with the legitimacy of either or the fact that Ikes was part of the decision-making to strip the States of all delegates and McAuliffe took the same hardline stance with Michigan not a few years earlier when he stared down Michigan who was considering moving up their primary under McAuliffe's DNC watch.

Anyone know what he meant when he said the rules only say you lose 50% of the delegates?

As I understood it, the agreement each of the candidates signed ahead of time, and the DNC has been enforcing, is that if FL and MI held early primaries, none of the delegates would be seated. None of the results would count.

??

Oh I misread. Obama is on record saying and delegate decision will have no dependence on the disqualified Fla and Mich primary results.

The really sleazy part of any idea is that the Super-Delegates are sat in full. I mean are not they the ones with the hair-brained decision to buck the rules and move up the Primary in the first place? If anything they should be disqualified - but that's not good politics to punish your own in party support.

Here's the operative part of the four state agreement each candidate signed:

Note that it says "I will not campaign or participate in any state..."

Therefore, they agreed not to participate in the FL and MI primaries.

THEREFORE, I _______________, Democratic Candidate for President, pledgeI shall not campaign or participate in any state which schedules a presidentialelection primary or caucus before Feb. 5, 2008, except for the states of Iowa,Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina, as “campaigning” is defined byrules and regulations of the DNC._____________________________________John/Jane Doe, Doe for PresidentDATE

Here's what happened: McAuliffe got ambushed by TIm Russert, who had the audacity to quote McAuliffe directly about the 2004 election, and how in 2003, he held Michigan's feet to the fire about moving their primaries. He cut their delegates in half and enforced it, vigorously, saying it would cause chaos if he didn't. His own words, when he led the party.

He then said "50% is the rule". Of course, that's ridiculous -- each election cycle makes its own rules. But the point was, he would not allow a change in the rules for the 2004 cycle.

Saw it. He squirmed pretty good.

The very cool thing about the posturing of the Clinton campaign right now is this is proof that the Hillary knows 2008 was her last year to be a credible national politician. She will not be back in either 2012 or 2016 as a candidate (barring some rehabilitation so spectacular that it would put Richard Nixon to shame).

If she is truly desiring of public service on the national stage, she last, best hope is to be recast as a "king (or queen) maker" backstage. This will be what keeps her "supporting the party".

Frankly, it wouldn't surprise me if she didn't run for reelection in 2012 and go back into corporate law or lobbying. (However, it also wouldn't surprise me if she did...too early to tell.)

Terry McAuliffe isnt the most reliable source in the world. He told Timmeh today that his own dad was 'up in heaven' and Timmeh had to tell him that his dad was still in the Barcalounger watching them on TV.

Hard to count on much of anything McAuliffe says.

Technically I think that the DNC is in trouble if they budge at all on their original decision regarding the primaries not counting. So they will have to say that their previous decision stands and th primaries cannot be counted...
Separately they could then offer to seat the delegates of Michigan and Florida 50/50 for the sake of party unity removing any option of them changing their vote/represenation for presidential nominee.

To me this is the healthy thing to do. Let the original decision stand. Tainted primaries will not be considered, they do not count.

Then offer a competely separate way of including the two states at the convention so that everyone is fired up for the fall elections...

Under Rule 11.A., five states were in violation of the Democratic National Committee's Delegate Selection Rules, and as such, all five states should have been punished under Rule 20.C.1.a.

Rule 20.C.5 stipulates that the DNC may take further action against any state party which is found to be in violation of the rules:

"Nothing in the preceding subsections of this rule shall be construed to prevent the
DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee from imposing additional sanctions,
including, without limitation, those specified in subsection (6) of this section C.,
against a state party and against the delegation from the state which is subject to
the provisions of any of subsections (1) through (3) of this section C., including,
without limitation, establishing a committee to propose and implement a process
which will result in the selection of a delegation from the affected state which
shall (i) be broadly representative, (ii) reflect the state’s division of presidential
preference and uncommitted status and (iii) involve as broad participation as is
practicable under the circumstances."

Full rules available at http://tinyurl.com/39wg3s.

The fact that the Clinton campaign is making an issue out of this, after signing the pledge, demonstrates how craven they became after the Super Teusday strategy flopped. I think they will have to find their own way back to the rest of us. They are hopelessly lost in self-absorption.