Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid took his comments about the state of the Democratic primary one step further today, suggesting that he and other prominent Democrats would intervene in the race if primary season concludes without a clear winner:
Reid said he would consider writing a joint letter with Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) demanding that superdelegates make their endorsements public.
"The three of us, we may write a joint letter [to superdelegates]," said Reid. "We might do individual letters, we are in contact with each other."...
However, when asked by a reporter if he would be forced to intervene if the undecided superdelegates did not make up their minds, Reid replied "I might have to."
This might explain Harry Reid's primary remarks last month that "things are being done" to end the nomination:
Q: Do you still think the Democratic race can be resolved before the convention?
Reid: Easy.
Q: How is that?
Reid: It will be done.
Q: It just will?
Reid: Yep.
Q: Magically?
Reid: No, it will be done. I had a conversation with Governor Dean (Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean) today. Things are being done.
Nancy Pelosi has abstained from such comments, though she has repeatedly suggested that superdelegates should not overturn the will of primary voters, a position that sits well with the Obama camp:
"If the votes of the superdelegates overturn what's happened in the elections, it would be harmful to the Democratic party," Pelosi said in an interview taped Friday for broadcast Sunday on ABC's "This Week."...
"It's a delegate race," she said. "The way the system works is that the delegates choose the nominee."
Meanwhile, Howard Dean has decided that superdelegates should not wait for the primaries to conclude; they need to state their endorsements now:
An increasingly firm Howard Dean told CNN again Thursday that he needs superdelegates to say who they're for - and "I need them to say who they're for starting now."
"We cannot give up two or three months of active campaigning and healing time," the Democratic National Committee Chairman told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "We've got to know who our nominee is."