United?

United. It was the word of the day as the Democratic Rules and By-laws Comittee forged a compromise on seating the Florida and Michigan delegations, and Barack Obama took my advice and resigned from Trinity United Church.

If you missed the RBC festivities today, no worries, I watched the whole thing. And what a show it was. Under the glare of television cameras and in front of a raucous crowd of mostly Clinton supporters, inside party politics took center stage. What could have been deadly dull parlimentary manuevering turned into compelling political theater, thanks to the passion of the presenters and the crowd.

Just to recap the problem: Florida and Michigan violated the timing window of the Democratic primary sequence, so their primaries didn't "count". Each state held a primary but none of the candidates campaigned in either state. And in Michigan, Obama wasn't even on the ballot. But suddenly, with the primary so close, the Clintons pressed for these two states to be reinstated so she could get more of the popular vote and a few more delegates. This day was viewed as critical to Hillary's nomination chances.

Ok. So John Ausman presented the main petition for Florida. He was particularly articulate and good natured in advocating the restoration of at least 1/2 vote per delgate for the full Florida delegation. He pointed out that the committee's charter granted them the power to do this. He also wanted the Florida super delegates to get their original full vote per. After questions from the committee, he was followed by a feisty Sen. Bill Nelson, who clearly explained how the Florida Republican Party cornered the Florida Democratic Party into violating the primary date window.

It's worth laying it out briefly. In a bill to insure a paper trail for verifying electronic ballots, the Republican controlled state legislature included moving the primary to a date they knew was unacceptable for the Democrats. Faced with a choice of no paper trail (to avoid what happened in 2000) or a primary in violation of the party time window, state Democrats supported the bill. Republicans had succeeded in their mischief.

Nelson was followed by the passionate state senator Altheria Joyner, who advocated for the Clinton campaign and then by US Rep. Robert Wexler for the Obama campaign. Wexler laid out the first big move of the day. He said the Obama camp was willing to accept a solution whereby the Florida delegation would be seated, each with a 1/2 vote, and would accept the delegate apportionment of the original vote. This conceded up to 19 delegates to Clinton. Wexler ably made this sound like a huge concession. He was exposed a little by Clinton supporter Tina Flournoy when she asked if Obama would support a full reinstatement of the Florida delegation (1 full vote per delegate). When she chided him for his pat answer of "We support the Ausman petition", he followed with an impassioned (ok, he was shouting) defense of his own lifelong committment to voting rights. It was fun. Then Harold Ickes, a senior campaign advisor for Clinton who was on the committee (how is that allowed?) tried to get into Wexler's grill, asking acidly, "Are you familiar with the concept of 'fair reflection'?" Wexler shot back, "No, why don't you enlighten me". Ickes then stomped away. It was real fun.

The committee then heard from Michigan. Michigan was the tricky one, because Obama withdrew his name from the ballot. State Dem. chairman Mark Brewer presented the Michigan solution. It was a novel idea. He suggested a 69- 59 split of the delegates for Clinton and Obama. This was forged from a variety of exit polls which indicated that this was a "fair reflection"of the voters' will. Most importantly, it was acceptable to the Michigan State Democratic Party. Whether or not it's constitutional is another story.

Senator Carl Levin (who could be Danny DeVito's brother) then explained heatedly how Michigan wound up in violation of the Democratic rules. It's not worth going into, but let's say it was a protest against Iowa and New Hampshire's first states status in every Presidential election. David Bonior (ex-campaign manager for John Edwards) represented the Obama campaign. He was the least interesting of all the presenters, but he stated Obama's case: they wanted a 50-50 delegate split, with the full delegation seated, each with a half vote.

Finally, ex-Governor Jim Blanchard advocated for the Clinton campaign. He was great. Unflappable and enthusiastic, he even survived a sally from Donna Brazile, the grand dame of democratic insiders, (ex-Al Gore campaign manager), who called out the Clintons for trying to change the rules at the end of the game. Blanchard presented the Clinton solution: let the votes stand as they were counted, with Clinton getting her 55% and Obama getting nothing. Hmm.

With presentations over, the committee recessed for lunch. And as transparent as the proceedings appeared to be, the deal was still cut in a back room, away from the cameras and the crowds. But a bombshell was yet to come.

The final solutions? The Florida delegation would be fully seated, each with a 1/2 vote; Clinton would get an additional 15 or so delegates. The committee went for the 69-59 delegate split, with the entire delegation seated, also with 1/2 a vote. Now...on a day when Hillary Clinton got an additional 20 delegates and a legitimate claim to hundreds of thousands of popular votes, they were upset with the Michigan solution. Ickes, after saying "you bet your ass" several times, added, " "Hijacking four delegates is not a good way to start down the path of party unity." Then he lowered the boom: "Mrs. Clinton has told me to reserve her right to take this to the Credentials Committee" at the convention. Wow.

We'll see if this is an idle threat or not. The truth is, that on a day when the Clinton camp got their wish to have these two primaries legitimized, Obama really won. The magic number is now 2,118 and if he and Hillary split the pledged delegates in these last three primaries, he'll only need about 25 super delegates to secure the nomination unless... there's a Credentials Committee hearing about the Michigan ruling.

After the votes were rendered, the protests began. Clinton supporters shouted over the committee members' closing remarks and stormed out of the room. They continued carrying on in the lobby of the Marriott. It could be a long, hot summer.

Nevertheless, the RBC did their job today. They tackled thorny issues and approved compomise solutions that re-enfranchised voters in important states. This should start the process of getting the party united for the fall.

Speaking of united, Barack Obama officially resigned from Trinity United Church. Here is an interview explaining his reasons. Bottom line is he had to do it for his campaign. America can't keep seeing pictures of his congregation whooping it up while pastors lampoon subjects most Americans don't find very funny. I don't care what the African American worship tradition is, this is supposed to be a Christian church. Where's the love and compassion and tolerance? All we see is ridicule and anger and hostility.

Obama did the right thing by putting United behind him.

Now let's see if Obama can get Democrats united behind him.

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