What does the Osman Petition involve?
Obama gets behind Florida’s delegate plan By Sam Youngman Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) campaign said Saturday that it is willing to seat half of Florida’s delegates based on the proposal offered by the Florida Democratic delegation, a concession that would give rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) an advantage in the state but leave her short of what she wants and needs from the state. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.), speaking on Obama’s behalf at the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) Rules and Bylaws Committee (RBC) meeting, announced the Illinois senator’s move to wild applause from the 500 onlookers. The statement came after a morning of impassioned pleas and methodical presentations aimed at getting the RBC to reverse the punishment it imposed on Florida when it stripped the state of its delegates last year for holding the Florida primary ahead of the approved time. Wexler said that Obama was embracing what has become known as the Ausman petition, the Florida Democratic Party
Blog post about it: “It’s Ausman Petition Not Osman Petition Had a ton of emails today from people wondering about the Ausman Petition, however they all spelled it “Osman Petition”. It literally took me an hour to figure out what the heck they were all talking about. There is nor Osman! Anyway onto the Ausman Petition. Last week, Democratic National Committee member Jon Ausman filed a petition with the party’s rules and bylaws committee pointing out that the charter of the Democratic National Committee uses the verb “shall” when describing the relationship between super delegates and the convention, as in super delegates “shall” be seated. The argument, basically, is that the charter supercedes any penalty imposed by the RBC. The counter arguement is that the verb “shall” is later qualified. The 28 members of the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws committee may well decide that the challenge has validity and may well decide to seat the super delegates from Florida, and then, should there be a simi
