Clinton aide changes Mich., Fla. stance - Yahoo! News

Clinton aide changes Mich., Fla. stance - Yahoo! News: "Clinton aide changes Mich., Fla. stance" By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer 44 minutes ago WASHINGTON - Harold Ickes, a top adviser to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign who voted to strip Michigan and Florida of their delegates last year, now is arguing against the very penalty he helped pass. In a conference call Saturday, the longtime Democratic Party member contended the DNC should reconsider its tough sanctions on the two states, which held early contests in violation of party rules. He said millions of voters in Michigan and Florida would be otherwise disenfranchised — before acknowledging moments later that he had favored the sanctions. Ickes explained that his different position essentially is due to the different hats he wears as both a DNC member and a Clinton adviser in charge of delegate counting. Clinton won the primary vote in Michigan and Florida, and now she wants those votes to count. "There's been no change," Ickes said. "I wasn't acting as an agent for Mrs. Clinton. We stripped them of all their delegates in order to prevent campaigns to campaign in those states. ...Those were the rules, and we thought we had an obligation to enforce them." Clinton won after all the Democratic candidates agreed not to campaign in either states because they violated the party rules. Clinton, who flew into Florida on primary-eve but did not hold a public rally, tried to argue that Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois had violated the pledge by airing a national ad campaign that also showed on Florida television stations. Ickes' dual positions on the issue illustrates some of the internal division within the party as Clinton and Obama run neck-in-neck in the Democratic presidential race. Civil rights leaders also have been somewhat split on whether seating the Florida and Michigan delegates would unfairly disenfranchise minority voters. As of Thursday, the delegate count stood at 1,280 for Obama and 1,218 for Clinton. If the DNC were to award Michigan and Florida's 313 delegates based on the vote in their primaries, she would be ahead because she won both states. On Saturday, Ickes reiterated the campaign's view that new "re-do" votes in Florida and Michigan aren't necessary. Ickes also expressed confidence that DNC Chairman Howard Dean will work out a solution to Michigan and Florida's stripped delegates and that there will be no delegate fight at the Democratic National Convention in August, predicting that Clinton will have the nomination locked up shortly after primaries and caucuses end on June 7. "We hope the national chairman will engage the Democratic leadership of both of those states and work out a suitable compromise," Ickes said, stressing that neither the candidates nor the Democratic party will be well-served by a "bitter fight" that lasts into the convention.