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Democrats dreading a drawn-out, costly battle for nomination

From Jim Acosta CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) — With Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Clinton of New York nearly splitting the delegate count in the race for the Democratic nomination, party leaders have a major dilemma on their hands: a tie ballgame heading into the convention.

I think we’re going to have a nominee by middle of March or April. Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said. But if we don’t, then we’re gonna have to get the candidates together and make some kind of arrangement, because I don’t think we can afford to have a brokered convention. That would not be good news for either party.

That’s because unlike recent conventions, when the party tickets were firmly established, Obama and Clinton could conceivably end up short of the 2,025 delegates needed to secure the nomination.

The job of putting a candidate over the top would then fall to superdelegates — the nearly 800 party leaders who can cast ballots for the candidate of their choice.

Asked whether she would be troubled by a brokered Democratic convention in which superdelegates would determine the party’s nominee, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi defended her party’s system.

These superdelegates are all part of their state delegation, so that state will speak, Pelosi said. The superdelegates work out their preference, working with the people of their state.

Superdelegates were established, Pelosi explained, to allow grass-roots Democratic activists to attend the nominating convention without having to compete with high-ranking Democratic party officials for a coveted spot on the convention floor.

So, again, I don’t think that members of Congress, governors and senators are not attuned to what’s happening in their states and in their districts, Pelosi said.

CNN political analyst Donna Brazile railed against the scenario.

If 795 of my colleagues decide this election, I will quit the Democratic Party. I feel very strongly about this, Brazile said.

The second fight is likely to be over seating delegates from Michigan and Florida. The Democratic Party has already voted not to seat their delegates because they held early primaries.

Clinton won both contests, and she wants those delegates seated.

On the Senate floor on Friday, Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida — a Clinton supporter — predicted a potential train wreck when deciding what to do about the disputed delegates from Florida and Michigan.

He opposes Dean’s suggestion to consider a new vote.

It’s a basic underpinning of our democracy and it is a basic underpinning of our constitutional right to vote and to have that vote counted, Nelson said.

You can’t undo an election with a caucus. And especially you can’t undo an election where 1.7 million Florida Democrats have gone to vote in a secret ballot and replace it with a caucus that maybe 50,000 people would show up, Nelson added.

One thing is clear: The longer that Clinton and Obama go at it, the more it will cost them.

In a conference call Friday, Clinton’s campaign announced she has raised $8 million online since polls closed in California on Tuesday and nearly $10 million online since February 1.

And 75,000 new donors pledged their financial support to Clinton since polls closed on Super Tuesday, according to her campaign.

On Thursday, the Illinois senator’s campaign announced it had raised $7.2 million in the first 36 hours after polls closed on Super Tuesday. Watch as Obama gives Clinton a run for her money.

As the two candidates battle it out money-wise, the bigger problem may be history itself.

The record shows the more divided the party, the more likely it is to lose in November.

As Dean observed, there have been three divided Democratic conventions in recent decades — 1968, 1972 and 1980. Democrats lost each time.
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McGrane leads as Els rallies in Delhi

NEW DELHI, India — Northern Ireland’s Damien McGrane continued his fine recent form with a two-under-par 69 to take a two-shot lead at the Indian Masters on Friday while tournament favorite Ernie Els battled back to make the halfway cut.

McGrane shot to prominence at the Dubai Desert Classic where he was paired with Tiger Woods for the final two days and he has clearly been inspired by the experience.

It is nice to know I played with the best in the world and survived. Once you have played with the best, everything else is second or third best. Tiger has moved on and so have I, that’s the way golf is, said the 36-year-old who is on 138 — eight-under-par.

Graeme McDowell, who finished fifth behind Tiger Woods in Dubai on Sunday, shares second place with South Africa’s Hendrik Buhrmann and Raphael Jacquelin of France.

Els, who blew his chance to win in Dubai by bogeying the final hole, battled to a second round 70 to leave him nine behind McGrane but inside the qualification mark.

The South African saw his hopes in the tournament recede in the first round with a quadruple bogey nine on the par-five 18th, but he fared better on the second day with a birdie on the same hole.

Former Ryder Cup star Thomas Bjorn remains in the hunt at four-under while U.S. veteran Mark O’Meara slipped back with a 73 to be two-under.

First day leader Jyoti Randhawa slumped to a six-over-par 77 on a cold and testing day at the $2.5 million tournament which is co-sanctioned by the European and Asian Tours.

Players failing to make the cut included England’s David Howell, and India’s top player, Jeev Milkha Singh, who had a pair of 77s. E-mail to a friend

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Refinery blast: ‘Like walking into hell’

PORT WENTWORTH, Georgia (CNN) — Georgia firefighters battled flames, and rescuers searched for the missing Friday, after a massive sugar refinery explosion that was felt miles away left at least 42 people injured, authorities said.

Six people were unaccounted for after the Imperial Sugar refinery in Port Wentworth, Georgia, exploded Thursday night — a blast so powerful it shook homes miles across the Savannah River in neighboring South Carolina. No fatalities were reported.

There was an explosion into the air with debris and a fireball that was probably five or six times as tall as the tallest trees here, said Lt. Alan Baker of the Port Wentworth Police Department. It’s the biggest explosion I’ve ever seen in my life.

Capt. Matt Stanley of the Savannah Fire Department said it was possible that sugar dust from refining process had ignited, sparking the blast. Watch Stanley describe the inferno

The managers of the refinery believe that it may have been sugar powder, when that is aerosolized, it can get ionically charged and light off with just a bit of static electricity, said Stanley. It’s very rare, but it can happen.

Investigators said they believe the disaster started in a room where workers bag sugar.

Flames from the blast continued to burn overnight from a main building to other parts of the refinery, he said, describing the site as resembling a small war zone.

The fire is not under control. It is somewhat contained, Stanley said. It is somewhat smaller than it was earlier this evening, which is a good sign.

He said firefighters are trying to keep the fire from spreading to other parts of the facility where there are flammable materials.

It was like walking into hell, said Joyce Baker, who was with her husband, a Port Wentworth police officer, at a meeting at nearby City Hall, at the time of the explosion.

The Savannah Fire Department used a tug boat to blast water onto the blaze from the Savannah River.

Right now, what we’re dealing with is a very unstable structure, said Savannah Fire Chief Charles Middleton. The explosion did damage to a good portion of the facility.

Middleton said the damage made it difficult for fire and rescue workers to enter much of the four-story plant.

The U.S. Coast Guard closed the Savannah River around the port and Coast Guard helicopters searched the water for victims who may have been thrown by the blast.

Ambulances and emergency workers from 12 counties had been called in to help at the scene, said Buzz Weiss, spokesman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.

Dr. Jay Goldstein, an emergency room doctor at Memorial Health, said many of the the victims treated through a triage area set up at the hospital were in critical condition.

We’ve seen people that have had burns to their hands all the way to about 80 to 90 percent of their body, he said.

Goldstein said some of the victims were being carried by helicopter to the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, Georgia — about an hour away — and other burn hospitals.

Another five workers were being treated at St. Joseph’s/Candler Hospital in Savannah, a spokeswoman there said. Two had been released by late Thursday.

The refinery is the major employer in the riverside town just northwest of Savannah.
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Exxon case leads to freeze of $12 billion in Venezuelan assets

NEW YORK (CNN) — Exxon Mobil has obtained a court order freezing up to $12 billion of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company’s worldwide assets after the government of President Hugo Chavez forced the company out of two joint ventures last year, a company spokeswoman said Thursday.

Britain’s High Court barred Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. from selling assets worldwide up to $12 billion, Exxon Mobil spokeswoman Margaret Ross said.

The judgment stems from Venezuela’s June decision to take control of two projects it had entered into with Exxon, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company.

One, the Cerro Negro Project, was projected to yield 1.5 billion barrels of oil over 35 years.

Ross said Exxon Mobil also has obtained attachment orders against PdVSA from courts in the Netherlands and the Dutch Caribbean islands seeking another $12 billion each, and is seeking another attachment order of approximately $300 million against the Venezuelan company in a federal court in New York.

In a January 24th filing in New York, PdVSA argued that Exxon Mobil has failed to sustain its burden of establishing that an arbitration award may be rendered ineffectual without the provisional remedy of attachment.

In a statement, Exxon Mobil said the orders are subject to further review by the courts and would not comment further on legal proceedings.
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Exxon case leads to freeze of $12 billion in Venezuelan assets

NEW YORK (CNN) — Exxon Mobil has obtained a court order freezing up to $12 billion of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company’s worldwide assets after the government of President Hugo Chavez forced the company out of two joint ventures last year, a company spokeswoman said Thursday.

Britain’s High Court barred Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. from selling assets worldwide up to $12 billion, Exxon Mobil spokeswoman Margaret Ross said.

The judgment stems from Venezuela’s June decision to take control of two projects it had entered into with Exxon, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company.

One, the Cerro Negro Project, was projected to yield 1.5 billion barrels of oil over 35 years.

Ross said Exxon Mobil also has obtained attachment orders against PdVSA from courts in the Netherlands and the Dutch Caribbean islands seeking another $12 billion each, and is seeking another attachment order of approximately $300 million against the Venezuelan company in a federal court in New York.

In a January 24th filing in New York, PdVSA argued that Exxon Mobil has failed to sustain its burden of establishing that an arbitration award may be rendered ineffectual without the provisional remedy of attachment.

In a statement, Exxon Mobil said the orders are subject to further review by the courts and would not comment further on legal proceedings.
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