Delegates in Limbo Await Their Fates

By Joel Achenbach
Howard Dean was just on CNN, getting all tangled up in questions about those Florida and Michigan delegates. Officially, they don't count. They're dead. They're ghostly essences screaming in the torment of primary-season damnation. But wait: Maybe they really just exist in a kind of Purgatory, and, if Sen. Hillary Clinton has her way, they will still manage to ascend to the Democratic National Convention.

Dean told Wolf Blitzer that this will be decided by the Credentials Committee, which he said would be 180 people from across the country. He said repeatedly that he has no control over the Credentials Committee, which naturally makes you wonder if most of the people on the Credentials Committee are his cousins and so forth.

We've already learned today that, in addition to primaries and caucuses, there are conventions such as in West Virginia where delegates are selected after multiple ballots and who knows what kind of back-room dealing. But how many of us have thought about the Credentials Committee and what it might portend?

"Hi, we're from the Credentials Committee, and we're here to help."

Run for your life.