Watson Wire

Convention Blog Report: The Rules Committee

Sunday, August 24, 2008

I’m up in Denver before the big hoo-haw really starts because I’m on the Rules Committee, which met today.  It was as exciting as you might imagine. In fact, it’s really hard to write about what happened.  There’s just no way to capture the tingling ecstasy of it.  

We ran through the business pretty fast.  We voted to recommend several items to the full Convention, such as the Permanent Officers.  I’m very pleased that my friend and the Chair of the Democratic Caucus in the Texas Senate, Senator Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio, will be one of the Permanent Co-chairs.  This is a great honor for her.

We also set the Convention agenda.  Monday night will be the actual Opening Ceremonies and the reports of the Credentials, Rules and Platform Committees.  Tuesday will be when we have the Keynote Address.  Wednesday night will be the Roll Call votes for the Presidential and Vice Presidential Nominees and the acceptance speech by the Vice Presidential Nominee.

And, of course, on Thursday night, Senator Obama will give his acceptance speech at INVESCO Field at Mile High.

The Rules Committee did pass a pretty significant Resolution establishing the “Democratic Change Commission”.  This Resolution, which will need to be voted on by the full Convention, creates a Commission charged with evaluating both the primary process and the caucus process to assure the Democratic Party picks its nominees well and fairly.  The Resolution was a product of work and agreement by both the Obama and Clinton campaigns.

I was asked to speak in favor of the Resolution, and did.  (So, I guess you could say there was something exciting.)  The Commission will have 35 members and 2 Co-Chairs.  Membership will be equally divided between men and women and it will be geographically and demographically diverse.  The members and chairs will be picked by the new DNC Chair after he or she is elected next year.

The Commission will issue a report to the DNC Rules and By Laws Committee by January 1, 2010.  That will give it plenty of time to do thorough research and work to consider all of the relevant issues.

After the Rules Committee adjourned, several of us left the Convention Center and went across the street to the Hyatt bar, where they had several big screen TV’s showing Senators Obama and Biden speaking in Springfield, Illinois.  A large group had assembled.  It was fun and there was neat sense of community as we watched this pretty remarkable pair start campaigning together.