When Hillary Clinton told the Washington Post the other day that the Florida and Michigan primary questions could well be settled by the Democratic Convention’s credentials committee, many of us shook our heads knowingly and acted like we knew what that really meant. Thankfully, Greg Sargent at TPM has done some actual research and produced his “Election Central Idiot’s Guide To The Credentials Committee.”

His findings:

There are a total of 186 members on the credentials committee. Twenty five of them are appointed by DNC chair Howard Dean, and the remainder are alloted by state, in numbers based on each state’s population and Democratic performance …

In the end the breakdown on the committee will hew very closely to the overall breakdown of pledged delegates. So presuming things continue as they have, Hillary will not have a majority, and Obama will have more members on the committee than she does.

Then what happens?

Well, the Florida and Michigan delegations will petition to be seated. The delegations can ask for a straight seating or they can suggest more creative solutions to the problem. Alternatively, outside parties might suggest solutions to the committee, too.

There is no formal process by which the committee decides to vote on any particular proposal. So, basically, after some discussion, the committee agrees to hold a vote on a particular proposal for seating the delegations in one way or another. (Or, alternatively, the committee would consider separate solutions to each state’s problem.)

At this point, three things can happen.

(1) If a majority of the committee supports the proposal without significant dissent, the delegations are seated according to the proposal’s directives.

(2) If a majority of the committee supports the proposal but 20 percent or more dissent, they get to issue a minority report — and the proposal goes to the full convention for a vote.

(3) If the proposal doesn’t get majority support, the delegations aren’t seated.

In number (2) there lies the capacity for a minority on the committee to create mischief.

So here’s the takeaway: Hillary will not have a majority on the committee; neither will Obama, though he will have more members than she does. But Hilllary’s supporters could conceivably force a full convention vote on whatever proposal the committee considers.

Is that likely? Not really. The credentials committee is unlikely to consider a proposal that is flat-out opposed by either campaign. And even so, Hillary supporters would be unlikely to take so drastic a step, because it probably wouldn’t prevent the ultimate passage of the proposal in question — and would end up getting them blamed for the mess that would inevitably ensue.

So there you have it.