Bill Nelson: “the reason I asked to speak as in morning business is because I wish to talk on another subject that is not the subject…”

“the reason I asked to speak as in morning business is because I wish to talk on another subject that is not the subject of the Mortgage Foreclosure Protection Act but is the continuing saga we have about seating the Democratic delegates to the national convention from the States of Florida and Michigan. Over the weekend, in the State of Florida, the State party met. Having already elected the delegates under their rules from the various congressional districts, the only thing to complete the election of the Florida delegation was the remaining delegates who are selected at large of the whole State, proportionate to the amount of votes both Senators Obama and Clinton got in the January 29 primary--a primary, by the way, that had a record turnout of 1.75 million, almost 2 million Florida Democrats who turned out and voted. As a result of that, in that proportion to which Senator Clinton got 50 percent of the vote and Senator Obama got 33 percent of the vote, the rest of the delegation of the total of 211 delegates were selected. So Florida's delegate selection process has gone through under the normal procedures set out by the rules and bylaws of the Florida Democratic Party. So the question now is, now that we have our delegates duly elected, are they going to be seated? Well, of course, you know the position of this Senator from Florida, who has been trying for 9 months now to work a compromise by which we can get the delegates seated.”