DNC: "No Redos in FL & MI, No Delegates at the Convention"

According to the guy in charge of the DNC's rules and bylaws, if Michigan and Florida want delegates seated in Denver, they must conduct new primaries:

Unless Florida and Michigan Democrats devise workable plans to redo their outlaw primaries, there is no chance the national party will yield to pressure and approve their delegates if it could tip the outcome of the Democratic presidential race, a potential key arbiter of the dispute said yesterday.

James Roosevelt Jr. of Massachusetts, cochairman of the Democratic National Committee's rules and bylaws committee, said in an interview with the Globe that he doubts there will be a resolution of the standoff without the states devising do-over contests to be held before June 10.

Florida's Democratic Party this week abandoned a proposal to hold a mail-in primary, and there were signs yesterday that the Michigan Legislature's plan for a June 3 primary was falling apart after legal questions were raised by the campaign of Barack Obama. At a hastily arranged campaign stop yesterday in Detroit, rival Hillary Clinton challenged Obama to support new contests in Michigan and Florida, saying it would be "wrong and frankly un-American" to disenfranchise nearly 2.5 million voters.

Her campaign accused Obama of blocking a revote, citing a memo issued earlier yesterday by Roosevelt and the rules committee cochairwoman, Alexis Herman, saying they believed the Michigan plan could pass muster with the party.

Obama accused Clinton yesterday of being "completely disingenuous" on Florida and Michigan, telling CNN that she didn't show concern for the voters in the two states until "it looked like she would have no prospects of winning the nomination without having them count."

Roosevelt, asked whether the party might yield to a compromise to seat the Florida and Michigan delegations that did not include another contest approved by the Democratic National Committee, said: "As long as it could affect the outcome, [there's] no chance of that." ...

In the interview, Roosevelt also said national party officials are resolved to maintain an orderly nominating process. That could be jeopardized if the party backs down against the two scofflaw states.

"If there is simply a caving on this, we'll end up with primaries on Halloween, and so that does at least counter some of the purely political campaign influences here," said Roosevelt, who is also chief executive officer of Tufts Health Plan of Massachusetts.

Stay tough, DNC. We need a convention floor fight in Denver.