Clinton’s Credentials

What don’t like about what the Clintons are doing is that it could very well destroy the chances for the Democratic Party for several election cycles if they are successful in pushing themselves onto the ticket in November. If they are on the ticket in November most people will believe (correctly) that they muscled their way around a popular vote. Does that remind you of a certain president?
Jim

April 1, 2008, 4:04 pm
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/clintons-credentials/index.html?hp
Clinton’s Credentials
By Tobin Harshaw
Tags: credentials committee, democratic convention, Hillary Clinton
When Hillary Clinton told the Washington Post the other day that the Florida and Michigan primary questions could well be settled by the Democratic Convention’s credentials committee, many of us shook our heads knowingly and acted like we knew what that really meant. Thankfully, Greg Sargent at TPM has done some actual research and produced his “Election Central Idiot’s Guide To The Credentials Committee.”
His findings:
There are a total of 186 members on the credentials committee. Twenty five of them are appointed by DNC chair Howard Dean, and the remainder are alloted by state, in numbers based on each state’s population and Democratic performance …
In the end the breakdown on the committee will hew very closely to the overall breakdown of pledged delegates. So presuming things continue as they have, Hillary will not have a majority, and Obama will have more members on the committee than she does.
Then what happens?
Well, the Florida and Michigan delegations will petition to be seated. The delegations can ask for a straight seating or they can suggest more creative solutions to the problem. Alternatively, outside parties might suggest solutions to the committee, too.
There is no formal process by which the committee decides to vote on any particular proposal. So, basically, after some discussion, the committee agrees to hold a vote on a particular proposal for seating the delegations in one way or another. (Or, alternatively, the committee would consider separate solutions to each state’s problem.)
At this point, three things can happen.
(1) If a majority of the committee supports the proposal without significant dissent, the delegations are seated according to the proposal’s directives.
(2) If a majority of the committee supports the proposal but 20 percent or more dissent, they get to issue a minority report — and the proposal goes to the full convention for a vote.
(3) If the proposal doesn’t get majority support, the delegations aren’t seated.
In number (2) there lies the capacity for a minority on the committee to create mischief.
READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/clintons-credentials/index.html?hp