Chris Bowers proposes this possible solution for seating MI and FL at the convention:

I think seating Florida's delegation as is (105 Clinton, 67 Obama, 13 Edwards) and holding a new Michigan caucus (with 128 pledged delegates at stake) would be an acceptable compromise ...

While I agree that this solution has merit I believe a penalty is still necessary to discourage bad behavior. We want the rank and file Democrats to be heard. The DNC could strip the SD's from both states because it is the state party leadership that was responsible for this mess. Then we have the appropriate folks paying a penalty.

Although the Florida Republican Legislature made life difficult for the Democrats; last summer the DNC offered to pay for a separate Presidential nominating primary but the Florida Democrats turned it down.

The other caveat I would place on this is that MI should hold what's know as a firehouse caucus. Its no different than a regular primary election but it may have shorter hours. Ballots are secret and the hours are long enough for people to vote, and if you throw in early voting it should turn out pretty well.

Rank and file Democrats in Florida and Michigan are heard which is what most of us want.

Are the Clinton tax forms not being made public because of this potentially questionable 2006 transaction?

Clinton's presence at the gathering at Tavern on the Green in Central Park was a coup for the unheralded, privately held Accoona, which paid for the former president's appearance by issuing options for 200,000 shares of stock to Clinton's charity, the William J. Clinton Foundation. In 2006, the Clinton Foundation sold the shares for $700,000.

It appears all the money went to his Foundation, but why are they taking so much time to provide tax returns that have been filed with the IRS for almost a year?

With respect to the Accoona stock, for example, Clinton's foundation reported the sale of shares for $700,000 on its 2006 IRS-mandated financial statement for tax-exempt organizations. But the foundation was not legally required to report the initial receipt of Accoona shares, and it did not do so.

The foundation also declined to disclose to whom it sold the stock. "The foundation sold its shares through a broker in 2006," Clinton Foundation spokesman Ben Yarrow said in an e-mail.

Accoona's chief financial officer, William Rose, also declined to disclose the buyer or to give the stock's current value. Accoona did not buy back the stock and the buyer had no connection to his firm "that I'm aware of," Rose said Monday.

Shouldn't Democrats have ALL the tax record information before we decide Clinton is worthy of the nomination? Isn't even the appearance of stalling to produce these documents a warning sign? As John Aravosis points out:

Hillary called it "frankly disturbing" that her Senate opponent [Rick Lazio] wouldn't release his tax returns, now she won't release hers

After the complete and utter disingenuous handling of the NAFTA nonsense, begun by the Clinton campaign, we have more unfortunate two-facedness to deal with.

Are you ready to defend Clinton for four years? We can put this baby to rest if they just come clean with the tax records.

Unless a major meltdown occurs in the TX caucus this day was basically a wash for pledged delegates. The pledged delegates are what count.

Again and again, this race has shown that it is voters and delegates who matter, not the pundits or perceived “momentum.”—Mark Penn, chief strategist HRC campaign, 2/13/08

Unless we end up with a major surprise in the TX caucus we will end up with a wash for the this day of elections. In other words, Clinton is still more the 100 pledged delegates behind. This Tuesday night is much like Super Tuesday, in that once the dust settles reality will bite Clinton in the ass. Its about the delegates.

Her chance of making up the difference in the pledged delegate count is so close to zero that her only plausible path to the nomination is to convince the super delegates to commit to her.

Once again the much vaunted Clinton machine--which had a twenty plus point lead in both Texas and Ohio less than one month ago--has been battled to a standstill by the upstart Senator from Ohio.

(h/t John Aravosis)