Michigan and Florida: Half!

Update: Clinton campaign official statement at the end of the story.

The Democratic National Committee Rules and Bylaws committee has voted to seat the full delegations of Michigan and Florida, with each delegate receiving a half of a vote.

7:07 There are people chanting, "Denver, Denver!"

Harold Ickes voted for the Florida measure, but against the Michigan one.

They had to ask security to bar the door.

Ickes said that the Michigan decision "Hijacked" the votes of 600,000 people, and that the principle of fair representation of the will of the voters meant awarding delegates to "Uncommitted." He peppered his speech with phrases like "hijacking" and "you bet your ass."

Several of the speakers had testy interchanges with vocal spectators.

Harold Ickes has reserved the right to take the Michigan decision to the credentials committee, and people in the halls are still chanting, "Denver, Denver!" No word on whether they are fans of Gilligan or Uncle Jesse.

Ickes has a point, Uncommitted ran a really great campaign, has a solid platform, and is going to be ready on day one. All of those volunteers who canvassed tirelessly for Uncommitted are hanging their heads, but the candidate is not available for comment.

This has been a long day, and those who watched this process, listened to the speeches, have got to come away with the strong impression that everyone in that room had an honest stake in reaching a unified compromise, with one exception. By reserving the right to go to the credentials committee, Harold Ickes is reserving the right to make sure that the Democratic Party cannot field a candidate that is viewed as legitimate. The rest of them can just cross their fingers, or hold their breath, or pray. Who is the hijacker here?

The final tallies are:

Florida

Clinton:52.5 delegate votes

Obama:33.5 delegate votes

Edwards:6.5 delegate votes

Michigan

Clinton:34.5 delegate votes

Obama:29.5 delegate votes

Hillary gains a net of 24 delegates, but Edwards' 6.5 will presumably go to Obama, cutting that to 17.5.

A few quick observations. One of the controversial elements here was the use by the Michigan Democratic Party of exit polling data to allocate 30,000 uncounted write-in votes. There was a lot of hand-wringing on this point, but the alternative, throwing those votes in the garbage, didn't really gibe with the misty-eyed Democracy theme of the day. There was one funny exchange that I will quote as accurately as I can from memory. The speaker at the time was talking about being fair to the voters of Michigan, and a woman in the audience started yelling:

Female Spectator: What about Iowa, North Carolina, South Carolina...

Male Spectator: Shut up...

Female Spectator:You shut up!

Priceless. There was some speculation from the MSNBC panel that the Clinton campaign might just let the credentials committee challenge simply die on the vine once the spotlight has moved. Either way, there figure to be some fun times ahead in Denver.

Update: The Clinton campaign released the following official statement last night:

Harold Ickes and Tina Flournoy made the following statement:

Today's results are a victory for the people of Florida who will have a voice in selecting our Party's nominee and will see its delegates seated at our party's convention. The decision by the Rules and Bylaws Committee honors the votes that were cast by the people of Florida and allocates the delegates accordingly.

We strongly object to the Committee's decision to undercut its own rules in seating Michigan's delegates without reflecting the votes of the people of Michigan.

The Committee awarded to Senator Obama not only the delegates won by Uncommitted, but four of the delegates won by Senator Clinton. This decision violates the bedrock principles of our democracy and our Party.
We reserve the right to challenge this decision before the Credentials Committee and appeal for a fair allocation of Michigan's delegates that actually reflect the votes as they were cast.