WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic National Committee
Chairman Howard Dean urged Florida and Michigan party officials to
come up with plans to repeat their presidential nominating contests
so that their delegates can be counted.
"All they have to do is come before us with rules that fit into
what they agreed to a year and a half ago, and then they'll be
seated," Dean said during a round of interviews Thursday on network
and cable TV news programs.
The two state parties will have to find the funds to pay for new
contests without help from the national party, Dean said.
This would be a pretty remarkable development. The absurdity is
that the DNC was supposed to be punishing Florida and Michigan for
holding their primaries early, but now the states could end up
being rewarded with crucial primaries that could decide the
Democratic nomination. Unbelievable. Had the DNC just done it the
way Republicans did, by only penalizing half of their delegates,
this whole mess would have been avoided.