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It's Over
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End The Mistreatment of Race Horses
Playing Nice
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An Indictment of Our Army’s Competence
Take That, Big Oil!
Presidential Pariah
Harper's Index
Obamicans Pile On Clinton At Own Peril
What John McCain Told Me, And What It Says About How Far He’s Fallen
‘The Change You Deserve’
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In Visit To Israel, Bush Can Prevent A War With Iran
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Vote For Justice
Breeding Sorrow
U.S. Must Stay In Iraq Till Day Is Done And Victory Won
Barack Obama's Bitter Half
Hillary And The Golden Handshake
Why Won't Hillary Adopt The Huckabee Option?
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McCain, Huckabee And The Evangelicals
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Congressional Districts Deny Democracy
Hillary’s Role: Exit Stage Left
Hazy Thinking On Medical Marijuana
Battle of The Hawks
Students Take Flight Through Readers' Generosity
The Losing Candidate's Public Pain
Taking Out The Junk -- Interview With Steven Milloy
In Defense of ‘Big Oil’
It's Islamic Jihad, Not Extremism, Uncle Sam
Letter To African-Americans
Mississippi Harbinger
West Virginia: Then And Now



The Prodigal Delegates
David Broder 3/27/2008
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Jim Naughton and John Mashek are two of the smartest political reporters of the past generation. Naughton is a veteran of the New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer and of the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., a journalism think tank. Mashek came out of North Dakota and Texas and, after a distinguished career, retired from U.S. News & World Report.

The two are also noted for their wicked senses of humor, but they weren't kidding when they met during Mashek's annual excursion to the Phillies' training camp in Clearwater, Fla., and applied themselves to solving the problem of the embattled Florida and Michigan delegations to the Democratic National Convention.

As you know, those two states have been disciplined for jumping ahead of their assigned primary dates. The Democratic National Committee stripped them of their delegates, and so far plans for a revote or some other device to get them into the Denver convention hall have been stymied by legal and political disputes.

Mashek sent me an e-mail this week outlining the compromise solution he credits to Naughton. They accept the widespread view that Obama is likely to finish the primary season in June leading the delegate race but short of the 2,024 votes needed for nomination.

Clinton is pressing to seat both delegations,
which would give her two more victories in vital battlegrounds. She left her name on both ballots, though she joined Obama in observing the DNC ban on campaigning in those states. Obama was on the Florida ballot, and his supporters in Michigan had recourse to an uncommitted slate. But he trailed in both states and, understandably, is not eager to see Clinton's popular vote and delegate totals swell.

So here is the Naughton plan: Because Florida and Michigan both knowingly violated the party rules, they must be punished by having the size of their delegations cut in half. But he would let the 183 remaining delegates chosen in the disputed primaries take their seats and vote on the platform or almost any other issue -- except those that impact directly on the presidential nomination.

When we talked, I told Naughton it was a clever solution. What I didn't tell him was that for weeks, I have been screwing up my courage to write about a crackpot solution of my own, one that would appeal only to the most desperate Democrats.

Almost 50 years ago, I went to Austin to cover a Democratic state convention. As usual, the liberals, led by the redoubtable R.D. "Frankie" Randolph of Houston, were thoroughly outvoted and humiliated by the party regulars, who supported Lyndon Johnson and Sam Rayburn.
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Democrats, Florida and Michigan Color
By Daryl Cagle  - MSNBC.com  * Posted 03/08/2008
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Democrats, Florida and Michigan Color
© Copyright 2008   Daryl Cagle  - All Rights Reserved.
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