By Billy House
Media General Washington Bureau
Media General Washington Bureau
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WASHINGTON -- Under pressure to take a more visible role in toning down and winding up his party's bitter presidential nomination fight, Howard Dean said on Wednesday that the stalemate over seating Florida's convention delegates will be resolved.
“We are confident enough that we have reserved hotel rooms for the delegates from Florida in Denver,” Dean added, referring to where his party is holding its presidential nominating convention this summer.
The Democratic National Committee Chairman made his remarks after a closed-door meeting with Florida's Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, Democratic U.S. House members from Florida, and state party chair Karen Thurman.
Click the play button below to hear Dean talk about the Florida delegation
Dean's suggestion that there will be an end to the delegate flap – one resulting in Florida delegates having a voice at the party's convention -- was a contrast to the hard-line stand he once took against letting their votes count at all.
Last fall, Dean had even refused to come out and speak to reporters on the matter after a similar meeting behind closed doors with Florida's members of Congress.
“The tone and the conversation mattered,” said Thurman, of the difference in Wednesday's meeting with Dean. “We kind of got off the dime. ... Everybody was on the same page. I'm not sure in recent times we've felt that.”
Still, what Dean had to say Wednesday proved to be less about a real, behind-the-scenes compromise in the works than putting a more-unified face on his party as the election this fall against presumptive GOP nominee John McCain draws nearer.
Rep. Alcee Hastings of Miramar even said as much.
“While we didn't come to a solution, and we didn't expect that we would, we are unified in our understanding of going forth for November and resolving this matter,” said Hastings.
“Everyone wants to get to the issues that will ultimately decide this election and to talk about John McCain rather than talk about Florida,” added Tampa area U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor.
But Hastings and Dean said the rub continues to be that a solution requires agreement from the campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Castor said there remain “some hoops to jump through.”
In a separate development, the DNC's rules and by-laws committee – the panel that stripped Florida of its delegates in the first place – is expected to get a legal opinion later this week from party lawyers on the validity of a challenge filed against that action by Jon Ausman, a member of Florida's DNC delegation.
Ausman said Wednesday that he has not seen the DNC legal analysis of his challenge, but that he's hoping the party's co-chairs, James Roosevelt and Alexis Herman, will at least grant a full rules committee hearing on the issue.
That committee last fall stripped Florida of its delegates to the party's nominating convention because the state moved its primary to Jan. 29, when party rules held that only four other states could hold their contests before Feb. 5.
Florida Democrats, led by Nelson, have since been fighting to find some way the state can still be represented at the convention.
But with their national race for delegates needed to secure the party's nomination so tight, Clinton and Obama have been unable to agree on any way to divvy up Florida's delegates.
Clinton won the state's Jan. 29 primary. But Obama says those results are not a fair way to distribute delegates because both of them had agreed not to campaign in the state beforehand.
Wednesday, Dean's focus was on preventing their fight on the issue from going on much longer, noting the “critical role” Florida could play in the fall election.
Reaction from the two camps to Dean's comments reflected that neither Clinton nor Obama want to be depicted as a candidate opposing allowing Floridians a voice at the convention.
But they also shed little light on details of any compromise in the works.
“Obviously, it's always been our goal to seat the delegations,” said Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs, referring also to Michigan, where a similar delegate dispute is being waged. He said the Obama campaign has been talking to both states' parties “to try to find a way to split those delegates up.”
Said Clinton campaign spokesman Phil Singer: “We have long maintained that pretending the voters of Florida and Michigan don't exist is not fair in principle and unwise in practice.”
Nelson had no comment after leaving the meeting with Dean.
Reporter William March contributed to this story. Billy House can be reached at (202) 662-7673 or bhouse@mediageneral.com.
“We are confident enough that we have reserved hotel rooms for the delegates from Florida in Denver,” Dean added, referring to where his party is holding its presidential nominating convention this summer.
The Democratic National Committee Chairman made his remarks after a closed-door meeting with Florida's Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, Democratic U.S. House members from Florida, and state party chair Karen Thurman.
Click the play button below to hear Dean talk about the Florida delegation
Dean's suggestion that there will be an end to the delegate flap – one resulting in Florida delegates having a voice at the party's convention -- was a contrast to the hard-line stand he once took against letting their votes count at all.
Last fall, Dean had even refused to come out and speak to reporters on the matter after a similar meeting behind closed doors with Florida's members of Congress.
“The tone and the conversation mattered,” said Thurman, of the difference in Wednesday's meeting with Dean. “We kind of got off the dime. ... Everybody was on the same page. I'm not sure in recent times we've felt that.”
Still, what Dean had to say Wednesday proved to be less about a real, behind-the-scenes compromise in the works than putting a more-unified face on his party as the election this fall against presumptive GOP nominee John McCain draws nearer.
Rep. Alcee Hastings of Miramar even said as much.
“While we didn't come to a solution, and we didn't expect that we would, we are unified in our understanding of going forth for November and resolving this matter,” said Hastings.
“Everyone wants to get to the issues that will ultimately decide this election and to talk about John McCain rather than talk about Florida,” added Tampa area U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor.
But Hastings and Dean said the rub continues to be that a solution requires agreement from the campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Castor said there remain “some hoops to jump through.”
In a separate development, the DNC's rules and by-laws committee – the panel that stripped Florida of its delegates in the first place – is expected to get a legal opinion later this week from party lawyers on the validity of a challenge filed against that action by Jon Ausman, a member of Florida's DNC delegation.
Ausman said Wednesday that he has not seen the DNC legal analysis of his challenge, but that he's hoping the party's co-chairs, James Roosevelt and Alexis Herman, will at least grant a full rules committee hearing on the issue.
That committee last fall stripped Florida of its delegates to the party's nominating convention because the state moved its primary to Jan. 29, when party rules held that only four other states could hold their contests before Feb. 5.
Florida Democrats, led by Nelson, have since been fighting to find some way the state can still be represented at the convention.
But with their national race for delegates needed to secure the party's nomination so tight, Clinton and Obama have been unable to agree on any way to divvy up Florida's delegates.
Clinton won the state's Jan. 29 primary. But Obama says those results are not a fair way to distribute delegates because both of them had agreed not to campaign in the state beforehand.
Wednesday, Dean's focus was on preventing their fight on the issue from going on much longer, noting the “critical role” Florida could play in the fall election.
Reaction from the two camps to Dean's comments reflected that neither Clinton nor Obama want to be depicted as a candidate opposing allowing Floridians a voice at the convention.
But they also shed little light on details of any compromise in the works.
“Obviously, it's always been our goal to seat the delegations,” said Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs, referring also to Michigan, where a similar delegate dispute is being waged. He said the Obama campaign has been talking to both states' parties “to try to find a way to split those delegates up.”
Said Clinton campaign spokesman Phil Singer: “We have long maintained that pretending the voters of Florida and Michigan don't exist is not fair in principle and unwise in practice.”
Nelson had no comment after leaving the meeting with Dean.
Reporter William March contributed to this story. Billy House can be reached at (202) 662-7673 or bhouse@mediageneral.com.