Dean Meets With Florida Delegation

From CBS News' Michelle Levi:

WASHINGTON -- DNC Chairman Howard Dean met with Florida Democratic leaders this morning to discuss how best to seat a Florida delegation at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this summer. While no specific proposals were discussed in the meeting the group said they were "unified" in going forward to seat a delegation.

Dean, surrounded by Florida Democrats, including Reps. Alcee Hastings and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Florida Democratic Party chairwoman Karen Thurman, told reporters, "We are committed to making sure that we do everything in our power to seat a delegation from Florida and we believe we will seat a delegation from Florida. I might parenthetically add that hotel rooms are reserved for a Florida deleagtion. So we expect to succeed."

"There is a lot of work to be done here," Dean admitted. "And the other thing we agreed to is this is critical that in the process of seating a Florida delegation that both campaigns are comfortable with the comprimises that need to be worked out." Hastings reiterated in importance of working with the Clinton and Obama campaigns: "It is our hope that the candidates will join us in this effort and without them an agreement is not possible."

The DNC and Florida Democrats stressed the importance of coming to a quick and fair conclusion on this issue and the significance of Florida for the party to win the White House this November. Hastings, who spoke after Dean outside the DNC said "although it may be mathematically possible to win the presidency without Florida, recent history has shown that it is not likely. So from all of this I am confident that Florida's delegates will be seated."