6:00: Even the cognoscenti are being kept in the dark. Florida Dem Party chair Karen Thurman is visiting the press corps. She has no special info about the delay in resuming public deliberations.
5:54: Uh-oh. Rep. Robert Wexler has taken his sportcoat off.
5:48: Out of curiosity: what happens if nothing is decided today? When the does RBC next meet? Tomorrow? Next week? Over the phone?
5:46: Back room, close-door deliberations continue. It would be a smoke-filled room, but DC's smoking ban prohibits those.
5:40: There is a broad consensus here that Michigan will not be settled today. Of course, it remains to be seen whether it will be not settled in private, or whether the rules committee will return to the public hearing and not settle the debate in public. Theoretically, if Michigan remains unsettled, the Clinton campaign has another shot of the apple. Of course, the apple is rotting, and it has fallen off the tree and squirrels are nesting around it.
5:19 Video is circulating of one outspoken Clinton supporter here who unloads on Barack Obama and promises to vote for John McCain in the fall.
5:15: The RBC is trying to come to a private consensus, or, at least, trying to come to an agreement on a starting point, on Michigan.
5:08: Two sources with knowledge of the rules and bylaws committee's closed-door luncheon say that members of the committee are arguing over a resolution to Michigan's conundrum, having largely settled on a solution for Florida. They're settling this behind closed doors, at this point... which may fuel some conspiracy theories, depending upon what they ultimately decide.
4:59: We're still waiting.
4:52: The members of the committee aren't back from their lunch. Maybe they're coming close to an agreement, or maybe they're having a food fight.
So -- here we are, waiting for the rules and bylaws committee to deliberate. They could vote on a motion, or they could debate for hours. And it's not clear whether the problems of Michigan and