the report continues that "the senators don't want to pound Hillary Clinton, and there is a sense she should be given a grace period."  perhaps they are hoping for a graceful exit on the part of the senator from new york.  

many delegates are reacting to the implied threat from the clinton campaign to continue this "battle," perhaps even going all the way to denver.  but clinton's own delegates are preparing to shut that option down:

Moreover, a number of Clinton backers signaled Sunday that they were wary of the kind of protracted fight that some of her aides said they might wage in the coming months.

"It would be most beneficial if we resolved this nomination sooner rather than later," said U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, a high-profile superdelegate who backs Clinton. "The more time we have to get through a general-election period and the more time we have to prepare in advance of the convention, the better."

Some of Clinton's closest advisors want the New York senator to challenge the party's unusual decision Saturday to shift four of Clinton's Michigan delegates to Obama in an attempt to reflect how voters might have cast ballots and to allocate Michigan's uncommitted delegates to Obama, even though his name did not appear on the ballot in the state.

Even if Clinton won those delegates in a challenge, it would be unlikely to alter the outcome.

"She'll do the right thing for America, and I don't think we're going to fight this at the convention," said Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell, a top Clinton supporter and party superdelegate, speaking on CBS. "Because even were we to win it, unless it's going to change enough delegates for Sen. Clinton to get the nomination, then it would be a fight that would have no purpose."

Alice Huffman, a member of the rules panel and a superdelegate committed to Clinton, said she would not support an appeal if Obama had clearly won the delegate fight.

"What's the point for a challenge, if a challenge doesn't change the status of anything?" asked Huffman, the president of the California branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People.

the latimes article continues:

"I don't think anybody's going to have much tolerance" for a convention fight, said Democratic strategist Bill Carrick, who is neutral in this race. "The big rationale for the Clinton campaign to continue among insiders and superdelegates was that they were going to get a big pickup of delegates from Florida and Michigan. There was no big pickup."

The events Saturday had seemed to portend a more combative course -- with Clinton loyalists openly jeering members of the rules committee and vowing to take her cause to the floor of the party's national nominating convention this summer in Denver.

That is exactly the nightmare scenario that party strategists believe could doom their hopes by further antagonizing key constituencies such as African Americans, women and working-class whites.

The question of Florida and Michigan has hung over the campaign for months. When Clinton fell behind Obama in the delegate count, she began to argue that the states should be fully counted. Clinton had hoped that the party would not only restore the state's delegations but would allocate delegates based on her massive victories, perhaps even denying Obama any Michigan delegates because he had pulled his name from the ballot.

That, Clinton aides believed, would have helped pull her close enough to Obama that she could convince party superdelegates to hand her the nomination.

Saturday's ruling dashed those hopes.

Clinton picked up just 24 more pledged delegates than Obama from the two states. Even with Clinton's decisive win in Puerto Rico, Obama is now within 47 delegates of victory. Clinton needs 202.5.

what is surprising is that clinton delegates are announcing publicly what we've been hearing privately:

Even Wasserman Schultz, despite her hope for a swift resolution, called it a "mistake" for the rules committee to slash half the votes of her state's delegation. She said she had heard from many upset constituents and predicted the party could have trouble revving up Florida activists in the fall.

Still, some Clinton backers said Sunday that Clinton might lose some avowed supporters if Obama clinched the nomination and yet she fought on.

Garry Shay, a rules committee member and Clinton superdelegate, said he would stick with her if she finished within 100 delegates of Obama.

But within 10 to 20 days, he added, "I'm going to reassess based upon the political reality."

democrats are getting impatient to move on to the general election (actually, we are behind schedule).  meanwhile, the hotline blog notes:

Hillary Clinton's campaign is holding its final primary eve event at the New York Baruch College Athletic & Recreation Center, 55 Lexington Avenue at 24th Street, New York City.

A sign that she won't be fighting on to the DNC's Credentials Cmte? Or Denver?

just in case we have some new york-based hillary supporters...