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Final note on the DNC RBC meeting

Posted by on 05/31 at 10:49 PM

In the wake of today’s Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting, DNC officials would be well served to reassess its media and open meetings policy.

Hold on, hold on: I’m not suggesting by any means that DNC officials should close any meeting to the public (although the RBC members did meet behind closed doors for about two hours between sessions today, and presumably, that’s where the deals were worked out).

I am just suggesting that the DNC could better manage its availability issues.

If I was in charge of PR for the party, I would suggest that in the future, if party officials are ever faced with such a contentious meeting (say, theoretically, when the Credentials Committee gets together at the national convention in August), they:

Retain the split agenda that separates the presentation portion from the portion that involves deliberations and decisions. Compartmentalizing the to-do lists ensures that other items to be covered won’t become ensnared by anyone disaffected by decisions being made along the way.

Provide open seating at the presentation portion only, but do not allow cameras (including cell phone video cameras) inside. Party regulars will be able to hear, first hand, the arguments being made by and for each side, and party officials won’t have to explain away inconvenient, uncomfortable and unflattering video. One look at that jeering, combative crowd today exposes the lie that is the insistence that the party is SO UNIFIED.

Allow a single video camera to document and relay what’s going on as members deliberate and decide the issues at hand, but do not allow anyone beyond committee members and staff inside. Live television coverage assures that the meeting is still open, but the decorum of the meeting will be preserved.

Taking these steps will allow the DNC to maintain tighter control of its message without sacrificing the openness of its committee meetings.

It’s something Howard Dean should really think about—especially in light of Harold Ickes’ comments that HILLARY CLINTON RESERVES HER RIGHT TO CHALLENGE TODAY’S RESULTS IN THE CREDENTIALS COMMITTEE!!!