UPDATE: Roundup of Tennessee blogger reaction at TennViews [1].
The DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee has heard arguments all day re. Florida and Michigan. They have just reconvened, and are ready to consider the motions.
Developing...
UPDATE: RBC votes to seat all Florida delegates, but give them one half vote. Now hearing motions on Michigan.
UPDATE: Getting ready to vote on the Michigan motion that would take delegates away from Clinton and give them to Obama, and assign the "uncommitted" delegates to Obama. Ickes is furious, says they are "hijacking" the process. I don't blame him, and I'd say the same thing if the candidates were reversed. Ickes just said they will take it to the credentials committee. Guess they learned their lesson from Bush v. Gore in 2000.
UPDATE: Michigan motion passes. Pledged delegates will be seated with 1/2 vote, but delegates are apportioned, 34.5 Clinton, 29.5 Obama. Pandemonium ensues.
So there you go. FL and MI are settled, almost as we predicted earlier in the week. On to Puerto Rico, South Dakota, and Montana.
COMMENT: What I watched of the process was open and fair to both sides in terms of hearing arguments. The Michigan decision, though, was bullshit. I don't see how this committee can take delegates away from Clinton and give them to Obama with a straight face. And I'd say that if the candidate's positions were reversed. Regardless, it doesn't matter as the delegate math stands today. Obama is the nominee. The superdelegates will decide it next Wednesday. But you haven't heard the last of the Michigan Motion.
UPDATE:
TIME [2]
The committee also voted to seat Michigan's full 157-member delegation, each with half-a-vote. But because Obama had (along with John Edwards) taken himself off the ballot, figuring out how to apportion the delegates was much trickier. Following a plan endorsed by the Michigan Democratic Party, the committee voted to allot Clinton, who won 55% of the vote, 69 delegates, and Obama, who most believed was the overwhelming choice of the 40% of Michigan primary voters who chose "uncommitted", 59. If the delegates had been meted out based strictly on the actual vote Clinton should've gotten 73 delegates, and her supporters claimed, Obama should have gotten no delegates, at least until the convention when the uncommitted could state their preference.
Boston Globe [3]
Mark Brewer, chairman of Michigan's Democratic Party, told the panel the best solution was a compromise, based on an assessment of exit polling and other data. Brewer said Obama was entitled to 59 pledged delegates to Clinton's 69, "a far fairer reflection of the Democratic preferences in Michigan."
Philadelphia Inquirer [4]
"I am stunned that we have the gall and chutzpah to substitute our judgment for 600,000 voters," Ickes said of the decision on Michigan, which grants four fewer delegates than the Clinton campaign would have received under her proposal. "I submit to you that hijacking four delegates... notwithstanding the flawed election, is not a good way to start down the path to party unity."