SUPERDELEGATES REVOLT: Democratic power broker and pre-eminent superdelegate Donna Brazile declared recently that "if 795 of my colleagues decide this election, I will quit the Democratic Party." Brazile wants the famed superdelegates to remain un- committed, as she is, in the hopes that a clear front-runner will emerge by convention time. Brazile's Democratic compatriot, Bill Clinton's strategist Paul Begala, goes a step further, calling the superdelegates "an abomination to democracy." "They should be abolished, and I predict they will be," he says. "Anything that can't be easily explained shouldn't be continued."

Joe Andrew, former chair of the Democratic National Committee, agrees. "I'm very worried about superdelegates determining the nomination," he says. Though he supports Hillary Clinton, Andrew pledges to use his superdelegate ballot to back whichever candidate wins the popular vote. Another prominent Democrat, Representative Jesse Jackson Jr., a co-chairman of the Obama campaign, has said he'd be willing to forfeit his superdelegate status. "If it better serves justice," Jackson wrote in a recent Chicago Tribune editorial, "I'd be willing to give up my automatic superdelegate slot." He then added this caveat: "(as long as my colleagues join me)."   ARI BERMAN

THE BATTLE OF BERKELEY: What do organic lunches for public school kids have to do with recruiting marines? Ask GOP Senator Jim DeMint, who's trying to cut $243,000 in federal funding for the Chez Panisse Foundation, a nutrition awareness program for children, in retaliation for the Berkeley City Council's stand against military recruitment.

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