Democratic Party delegate disaster

In the wake of Hillary Clinton's comeback in Ohio and Texas, it's become quite apparent -- if it hasn't been earlier -- what a mess the Democratic National Committee has made for itself in Michigan and Florida.

That's where the party has self-inflicted a controversy over whether state delegations will be seated at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this August. At the moment, the answer is "no," which is not a good answer. Unfortunately for the Democrats, "yes" isn't a good answer, either.

The national party prohibited seating the delegations from Michigan and Florida because the states broke party rules against holding their primaries before Super Tuesday on Feb. 5.

Leaders in Michigan and Florida wanted to move the dates up because, like Illinois which moved its primary up much earlier this year, they wanted to play a role in the presidential nominating process and didn't see why they should take a back seat to Iowa and New Hampshire.

Well, Michigan and Florida are playing a huge role now, although probably not in the way they envisioned it -- certainly not in the way the national party envisioned it when it handed down its punishment for violating the rules.

So, today, March 6, as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are locked in a neck-and-neck battle for the presidential nomination, here are the options the national Democratic Party has left for itself:

One, refuse the delegations and in the process disenfranchise and frustrate voters in two states that are key to a general election victory in November.

Two, refuse the delegations and in the process offend Clinton supporters who understandably will question why her wins in the two primary states are not being counted.

Three, accept the delegations and in the process offend Obama's youthful "movement" of first-time voters who will view his nomination as being stolen after Obama had played by the rules not to campaign in those states (and wasn't even on the ballot in Michigan).

Four, divide up the delegations in some arbitrary way that in the end still will put the DNC in the position of deciding the nominee and in the process will anger almost everyone except the nominee.

Five, pray that the courts step in to decide the issue, look silly and inept in the process, and still end up offending almost everyone.

Six, push for costly second caucuses in both states that those state party leaders currently are resisting. This is not a great option, but may nonetheless be the best.

When creating this mess in the first place, national party leaders probably assumed Clinton would easily wrap up the nomination early and the delegates from Florida and Michigan would be irrelevant. Instead, they've got a razor-thin race where those delegates likely will be crucial.

And that makes it a disaster.