Clinton's "Nuclear Option?"

HuffPost political editor Tom Edsall writes that the Clinton campaign is preparing to "ram through" the party's rules and bylaws committee a proposal to seat the disputed Florida and Michigan delegations and thus close the delegate gap by about 55. Edsall writes that the decision to deploy this tactical "nuke" has not yet been made.

Not to the belabor the metaphor, but it's not clear to me that Clinton really has this weapon in her arsenal. The rules and bylaws committee may or may not be comprised of a majority of Clinton supporters (many of its members remain uncommitted), but they're not going to be asked to vote on any challenge that would award Clinton her entire delegate haul from Michigan and Florida. The two challenges they've been asked to consider would, at most, award Clinton an extra 30 delegates -- half of her margin from Florida and half from Michigan. One of the challenges, if successful, would allow 23 superdelegates from Florida to make known their preferences, and Clinton would net a few.

In any event, whatever the RBC decides, the party's credentials committee, which won't spring into existence until late June, has final say. And Obama will probably have a majority of members on that committee, enough to send a majority report to the convention with whatever recommendation arises from that deliberation. (Clinton's backers would send a minority report.)