By the end of June, we're going to have a Democratic civil war

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is quoted today as saying that if there is no resolution to the Florida and Michigan delegate matter by the end of June, she's going to weigh in. While we will always adore the Speaker here at AMERICAblog (hey, gay men have a thing for smart beautiful women, what can I say?), there are a few problems here.

1. Stepping in at the end of June?

Why not next Christmas? This matter is going to be resolved on Saturday when the rules committee meets. Why should a party leader be giving Hillary the green light to drag this thing out another month? Including June, we have five months to take down John McCain. If we cede Hillary another month to get her temper tantrum under control, then we lose 20% of the time left to go after McCain. That's hardly insignificant. It's also 20% more time for Hillary to take fundraising dollars away from the DNC and our congressional candidates, 20% more time for Obama to have to keep dealing with her bs when he should be focusing on McCain, and 20% less time to heal our collective wounds and re-unify the party in time for victory.

2. Pelosi said nothing about intervening to end the race.

Note that Pelosi didn't say that she'd intervene by the end of June if we don't have a nominee by then. She said that she'd intervene if the situation with the Florida and Michigan delegates was still unresolved. What if Hillary comes up with another reason, unrelated to Florida and Michigan, to drag this thing out. For example, she's already argued publicly that delegates (both super and regular) can and should switch their allegiances at will. What if she says she's staying in the race for a while to keep talking to the delegates? What if she says she's putting her campaign on hold but not conceding - you know, "just in case" (nudge nudge wink wink)?

We are going to know by this Saturday the final number of delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination. That's the day the Florida and Michigan situation will be resolved. In the 3 days following, we'll have the final primaries. By next Tuesday night, it's over. We'll know the final delegate count, and we'll know the final number of delegates needed. And it's very likely that within 24 hours - by Wednesday - Obama will have the total delegates needed to be our nominee.

If this race goes one day beyond next Wednesday, it will be one day too long.

We have put up with Hillary's electoral therapy for too long. By Wednesday we will know our nominee. And we'll also know whether Hillary wants us to win in the fall or lose. Next Wednesday is the day you need to step in, Speaker Pelosi. Because by the end of the month - hell, by next Thursday - we're going to have all out war break out in this party.