In the Wall Street Journal, Newt Gingrich says that the only fair solution to the problem of the unseated Democratic delegates in Michigan and Florida is to allow those states to vote again:
You might think that as a Republican I don’t have a dog in this fight, but I do. All of us do. A tainted or “stolen” Democratic nomination has the potential to delegitimize the election itself and its outcome. And tainted victories produce hobbled administrations. Much as I might have agreed with the outcome of the 2000 general election, the rancor and vitriol it produced created divisions among Americans where none naturally existed before, irreparably damaging the Bush administration.
Contrary to the political consultants’ handiwork and the mainstream media’s mythmaking, America is not a nation fundamentally divided between red and blue. We are surprisingly united on the core values that make us Americans and the practical solutions to the challenges we face. We need an election process with the integrity to produce a nominee who can lead this natural majority.
The question is: How?
Giving the Michigan and Florida delegates to Sen. Clinton — particularly in light of reports that she bent the Democratic Party rules against campaigning in both states — is a recipe for even more chaos.
On the other hand, leaving the Florida and Michigan delegates unseated runs the risk for the Democrats of alienating two big states they want and need to win in November.
The answer, for the integrity of the process, is a do-over: Hold the Michigan and Florida Democratic primaries again.
The voters — not the party insiders — have the moral authority to choose the nominee. Democratic voters in Michigan and Florida should get that chance. Then in November, we’ll have a fair fight. And I’ll be honest — it may not help the chances for a Republican victory in the fall. But it will help something even more important: the integrity of our political process.
As I noted last week, there is an option here. Florida and Michigan can either take their chances and petition the Convention to allow the delegates to be seated, which would indubitably result in a massive floor fight that will damage the party and potentially the country, or they could hold caucuses in the spring.
Of course, Barack Obama has traditionally outperformed Clinton in caucuses, by a wide margin no less, so I doubt the Clinton camp would like that to happen.
