Opinion: Speaker Pelosi speaks a truth about the Florida flap

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has let the cat out of the bag and said what everyone has known all along:

The Democratic National Committee’s removal of all of Florida’s 2008 convention delegates for violating party rules about scheduling state primaries before Feb. 5 is meaningless.

Speaking with a covey of political reporters at a lunch in Washington today, Pelosi was asked what she thought of the delegate termination. ‘That will be determined by the presidential nominee,’ said Pelosi, who will serve as honorary chair of the convention next August in Denver.

‘The Democratic National Committee is the ruling authority now,’ she said, ‘but the tradition is that the presidential candidate will decide.’

And even if Alaska’s Mike Gravel were the Democratic nominee, he wouldn’t be sufficiently suicidal to write off any state with as many electoral votes (25) as populous Florida.

--Andrew Malcolm