(PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES)
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
The Democratic Party is going to try to sort out the headache created by Michigan and Florida.
The rules committee meets this weekend to decide what to do with the delegates from those states. Michigan and Florida broke party rules by moving up their primaries and as punishment were stripped of all their delegates. It was made clear to them before they changed the primary dates that is what would happen.
Party lawyers say the DNC has the authority to seat some of these delegates, but not all. They say seating half of the delegates is quote "as far as the committee can legally go." And, once the committee decides how many of the delegates to seat then they need to figure out how to divide them between Clinton and Obama. Could be a long weekend.
It becomes pretty tricky when you consider that in Michigan, Barack Obama's name wasn't even on the ballot. It's also important to note that both candidates signed a pledge not to campaign in either state and agreed the primaries should be invalid if the states changed the dates. Senator Clinton appears to have forgotten this.
Clinton is hoping the committee will seat as many delegates as possible, so she can narrow the gap with Obama and then try to persuade superdelegates to side with her. But the fact is that even if the delegates are fully restored, it won't be enough for her to overtake Obama's lead.
Meanwhile, a Florida court has thrown out a lawsuit challenging the party's decision not to seat the state's delegates. The judge sided with the Democratic Party, saying that political parties have the right to make their own rules. It's the second lawsuit in Florida protesting the DNC's decision to be thrown out of court.
Here’s my question to you: What should the Democrats' rules committee do about Michigan and Florida?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
John from San Diego writes:
Jack, the Democratic leadership needs to craft a carefully-worded statement that reiterates the fact that all the candidates, Hillary and Barack included, agreed to a set of ground rules, and that the Florida and Michigan politicians then threw their voters under the bus. Then they should seat delegates from each state in a manner that doesn’t punish the innocent voters, but also doesn’t alter the current balance of elected delegates nationwide.
Michael from California writes:
First, seat all elected delegates but with only 1/2 a vote each. Second, remove all superdelegates from the two states, since these are some of the very party leaders that got their respective states into this fiasco. Finally, the delegates should be split 50/50 between the candidates.
Tom from Boston writes:
Gee, let's see. The DNC established clear rules, Florida and Michigan broke them, and now Clinton wants to seat them simply because she is going to lose the nomination otherwise. How much more transparent could this be? The rules are the rules, pure and simple.
Elena writes:
Seat them! I do not care if it gives Hillary the nomination, but do not leave out 2 million+ voters. It will come back and haunt the Democrats in the fall. The voters will be so angry they'll vote for McCain and the Democrats will lose.
Bob from Pittsburgh writes:
Jack, Since Hillary had all of the name recognition going into this election and neither candidate was permitted to campaign in either Florida or Michigan, these illegal primaries were nothing more than "beauty contests." Of course Hillary "won," though beauty is certainly in the eye of the beholder.
Dennis from Gwinn, Michigan writes:
Both states have great fishing. Maybe they can have a winner-takes-all bass catching contest. This process is getting old enough to stink like a dead carp anyway.