Dean on CNN tonight: "we are not going to bend the rules for either side."

[madfloridian]

Dean had another interview tonight on CNN Election Central with Campbell Brown. The video is not up yet, but I did find the transcript.

He made it clear he was going by the rules.

CNN transcript of Dean and Campbell Brown

They were discussing his call for the superdelegates to come out for someone by July 1. Campbell asked what he could do if they did not.

DEAN: I'm asking them for the sake of their country to do this. We can't afford four more years of George Bush, which is what John McCain is offing us. He's offering us the same policy in Iraq as George Bush, stay there for 100 years, just like Korea, I think is the quote. He's supporting George Bush's tax cuts.

Campbell asks how he thinks superdelegates should vote. He quotes the rules, not his preferences.

BROWN: So, trying to get to that point, what do you think the superdelegates can -- should do, rather? Bottom line this for us. Should they be voting with their states or with their conscience?

DEAN: No, my job, Campbell, is to make sure that the losing candidate who gets 49.8 percent of the vote, which is probably what they are going to get, feels they have been treated fairly. The rules say that superdelegates can do whatever they want. I support the rules, because I am going to support the rules right down all the way through this whole thing.

They discuss FL and MI.

DEAN: I would very much like to have Florida and Michigan seated. Because of the circumstances under which they held their elections, essentially which were not valid elections, they aren't going to be seated the same way that everybody else is.

They can be seated in one of two ways. One, they can be seated by agreement between the two campaigns if there is no clear winner, or, two, they will be seated I suspect by whoever does win the nomination. Whoever wins the nomination will control the credentials committee, which will control the seating. And I strongly believe our nominee is going to want Florida and Michigan in the hall. Under which rules, that will depend. The nominee will set the rules.

She mentions the criticism he is getting for not playing a more active role in bringing things to an end. He is aware of the criticisms.

DEAN: No, my view is that the voters will work it out. And I have to chuckle a little bit. The people who are complaining that I'm not taking a stronger role, when you drill down on that a little, as I have, when they have called me, is, I see (should be SAY..checked with the video) what you mean, is you would like me to be a strong leader and adopt your point of view and then ram it through the DNC. I am going to not going to do that for either side.

There are going to be donors and supporters on both sides that are mad at me. I am going to play this one by the rules, right -- there's this clear set of rules. Everybody knew what the rules were a year-and-a-half ago. Those are the rules that we are going to nominate the next president of the United States under. And we are not going to bend the rules for either side.

And I say thank you, Howard Dean, for that. It will not make you popular with Florida's Democratic leaders (in fact they express disgust with you, daily). But the people are pretty much coming around.

You might even be welcome back in Florida someday if the leaders who got us into this mess will stop stirring up trouble.

Right now the "rules" are what will save our party.