Wexler Calls Out Ickes

In an interview with MSNBC’s "Morning Joe" this morning, Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.), who gained plaudits Saturday for his impassioned representation of Barack Obama at the DNC's rules committee meeting, said Hillary Clinton’s senior campaign advisor Harold Ickes was “somewhat hypocritical” for statements made over the weekend disavowing the Michigan delegate compromise.

When asked about it Sunday on "Meet the Press," Ickes told Tim Russert: “We're counting Michigan. (Obama) voluntarily took his name off the ballot, Tim. There was no party rule, no exhortation from the Democratic National Committee. He, he--it was a voluntary, strategic choice that he made. He could have kept it on there.”

Wexler pointed out that as a member of the DNC’s rules committee, Ickes had voted in August 2007 to strip Michigan and Florida of its delegate votes.

Beyond that point of contention, Wexler said he thinks the Democratic compromises reached Saturday will allow the party to move on.

“The important thing is that it will allow us in Florida to actually unify Democrats and get ready for the general election,” he said.

Asked how his constituents have responded since Saturday, Wexler said, “Most understand we’ve declared and achieved the great victory.”

In other matters, Wexler reaffirmed his rationale for why former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan is not bound by executive privilege and should be able to testify before the House Judiciary Committee.

“Unlike other previous members (of the administration),” Wexler said, “we will allow him and he should be able to testify because…he has put all this information in a book.”

Wexler says McClellan could provide the House Judiciary Committee with valuable information on the firing of US attorneys, the “uncovering of a covert CIA agent” (Valerie Plame), and “intelligence that brought us to war in Iraq.”