“How dare you,” a middle-aged woman screamed at the top of her voice. “You bastards stole my vote!”

The members of the Democratic Party's rules and bylaws committee concluded their business and retreated to a safe distance. Some of them may have been basking in the opportunity to act as referees at the end of the titanic fight between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

But others spent the day shifting uncomfortably in their seats, watching a scene unfold that really was not in the brochure when they signed up to serve on this obscure body.

The ballroom at the Marriott Hotel in northwest Washington started filling up at 8am on Saturday, 90 minutes before the start of the meeting. There were banks of cameras and photographers and three news networks were broadcasting the proceedings live - an unlikely prospect for a committee more used to debating the nuances of what the word “shall” should mean in the party's rulebook.

Above them came thunderclaps and lightning. Outside, hundreds of Mrs Clinton's supporters were waving rain-soaked placards reading “Stop sexism” and “Not counting votes is an Obamanation”.

The morning's business was repeatedly punctuated with raucous applause and wolf whistles from both the Clinton and Obama contingents - who snatched up the 500 public tickets available in less than three minutes - as well as frequent poundings of the chairman's gavel. Some of the more vocal members of the audience were forcibly removed by security guards.

During a tense three-hour lunch break - two hours longer than scheduled - the committee tried to thrash out its differences behind closed doors.

Supporters of Mrs Clinton and Mr Obama, some of whom had taken the opportunity during lunch to lubricate their emotions at the hotel's crowded bar, acted more like rival street gangs than proponents of opposing candidates from the same party.

Mrs Clinton had pushed for all the delegates from disputed primaries in Florida and Michigan to be seated at the nominating convention.

Mr Obama's team argued that her victories in January counted for little because neither candidate had campaigned in these states - and that he had obeyed party instructions by removing his name from the ballot in Michigan. But, with a virtually insurmountable lead in the race for the nomination, he could afford to be generous, offering a compromise by which the delegates would get half a vote each.

The majority of the committee duly obeyed, backing a solution by which Mr Obama was awarded all those delegates representing people who voted “uncommitted” in the January primary - plus four of Mrs Clinton's delegates. Mr Obama's representative, David Bonior, said: “You know, we bent quite a bit for Senator Clinton. For the purpose of party unity, this was a nice decision.”

To Harold Ickes, the veteran Clinton operative who once bit a man's leg in a political argument, the compromise was anything but democratic.

He was “stunned” at the “gall and the chutzpah” of this body of 30 individuals in deciding “to substitute their judgement for the votes of 600,000 voters [in Michigan]. Hijacking four delegates is not a good way to start down the path of party unity.”

Mrs Clinton's supporters began chanting: “Denver, Denver” - signalling they were ready to take their struggle on to the convention in August. Betty Jean Kleng, of Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, went outside where - surrounded by TV camera crews - she tearfully vowed “to stand up and fight”. Sharon Miley, who had come from South Bend, Indiana, to demonstrate her support for Mrs Clinton, said breathlessly: “Hillary will be our nominee.”

But inside, some of the Clinton contingent were beginning to mix defiance with realism as they invoked the name of the Republican nominee that Mr Obama now appears set to take on in November. “McCain, McCain,” they shouted. “McCain 2008.”

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