Libertarian ping! To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.
Posted on 03/30/2008 4:19:25 PM PDT by anymouse
Down here in Galveston County, the Ron Paul bots tried to hijack the convention using subterfuge and tactical advantage of surprise, that would have made al Queda proud (high-placed sleeper, multiple coordinated attacks with a goal of causing a larger scale effect at the State convention and later at the National convention.
Unfortunately for them it was discovered and thwarted for the most part by perceptive Republicans that took action and alerted others to help block their efforts. But it did make for a long and chaotic mess.
Like jihadists, they took advantage of a weak Party leadership in transition and general apathy of Party activists and precinct delegates.
A high level trusted elected official used the opportunity of a sick convention coordinator, a lame duck Party chairman and an honorary convention chair that did nothing but show up to give a speech at the start of the convention, to appoint weak commitee chairmen and pack key committees (Nominee, Credentials and Platform) with Paulbots, who had never been active in the Party before. To cover the obvious, a few "go-along" follower types were added to the committees to ensure the Paulbot block vote would not be challenged.
I sat in on the Resolutions/Platform committee after seeing some disturbing planks in the draft Platform. I witnessed a shocking railroad job of a Libertarian platform pushed through with highly questionable planks voted through with little opposition. Including one listing a list of complains against Sen. McCain and stating a no confidence in him as the Party's nominee. This was later removed in a heated floor fight.
Also the trusted official tried to get a change to the rules to allow people that had not voted in the Primary to be allowed to considered as State delegates. Supposedly to allow his daughter who had just turned 18 to go to State as a delegate (an understandable excuse.) But because I had been alerted to the plot to stack the nominations and Credentials committees, I knew that this could also be used to let Libertarians, who had not voted in the Republican Primary to be rammed through as sleeper Ron Paul delegates, merely by swearing to a worthless Party loyalty oath. The Parliamentarian eventually figured out that it was against State Party rules and it was withdrawn, before I could get my turn at the mic to explain the potential hazard of our entire SD delegations being disqualified at the State convention by the Credentials committee discovering that some of our delegates had not voted in the Primary.
They even had the audacity to add Bob Smither to the Nominating committee. Spither ran in the 2006 General election as the Libertarian Party candidate for CD 22. He didn't show up to the convention, but it was a clear evidence of a concerted Libertarian plot to hijack the Nominations process.
Eventually things worked out in a long and painful floor fight.
Most of the State delegates and alternates ended up being known Republicans, but there were a few that made it, that I didn't recognize as well as quite a few known Ron Paul supporters. So don't be surprised if other Paulbots make it to the State convention in Texas and elsewhere and try to infiltrate the State committees and attempt other mischief in a vain attempt to push Ron Paul as a viable nominee over McCain.
Although we are not thrilled with McCain as the presumptive Republican nominee, we cannot allow the resulting Party angst and apathy to be exploited by another Party, the Libertarians (and their radical Left and Right Paulbots) to hijack our State and National conventions.
If you doubt my observations, check out some of their stated plans:
"Delegates must VOID McCain's wins !!!" http://www.ronpaulforum.com/showthread.php?t=307129
: The delegates in these states need to file the motion at their conventions : for Mccain to be revoked of all his delegates in those states for failure : to comply with election ballot state law requirements.
"Republicans have choice - Ron Paul supporters tend to fall into two camps. Some believe he may still pull off a David vs." Ron Paul Topix forum http://www.topix.com/forum/us-house/ron-paul/TJQJFHLSRLIGG4PJA
: We held down the fort in Texas. Delegates at the least representing : Paul's platforms are in place.
: Ron Paul Supporter, : Dr. Aaron Benfield : Austin, Tx
This deceptive process reminds me at least somewhat of Rush Limbaugh’s operation chaos.
Libertarians lack any ethics whatsoever.
All the more reason to vote for Chris Peden.
I am well aware of Ron Paul’s “get out of Iraq” views but I am also well aware of John McCain’s RINO record.
My attitude is that at least someone is standing up to business as usual liberalism disguised as “fiscal conservatism”, “mainstream conservatism” and all the other modified conservative labels the RINO’S put on themselves.
If I were in that convention, I would have supported good things the Paul people did and opposed the bad.
I wouldn’t have been so critical.
Including one listing a list of complains against Sen. McCain and stating a no confidence in him as the Party's nominee.
I'd have voted for that.
Yup.
If the 5% of primary voters who are Paulbots can continue to tie the RNC’s shorts in a knot, what do you think the Clintons or BO will do? Holy crap, we’re in worse trouble than I thought.
xjcsa,
IAWTP
Apparently they attempted the disruption/take over in other locations. Here’s a story of the their activities down in Nueces County:
GOP chairman thwarts takeover (by Ron Paulistas in Nueces County, Texas)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1994090/posts?
Uhhh...you might want to double-check before you do that. The primary has already happened.
All the more reason to vote for Chris Peden.
Peden got less than 30% of the vote in the primary.
Darn.
As I reported in the similar thread referenced in post #11, the “Paulian’s” disrupted our district caucus here in Wisconsin by attempting to confuse, amend, and oppose almost every resolution. Their disruptive actions appeared to be both coordinated and premeditated and accomplished nothing except to waste everyone’s time and build lasting resentments toward them and their causes.
Also similar tactics in Missouri.
“Ron Paul backers succeed in guerilla takeover of some GOP caucuses”
Ron Paul Forum - Pennsylvania
http://www.ronpaulforumpa.com/smf/index.php?topic=682.0
“Ron Paul backers succeed in guerilla takeover of some GOP caucuses”
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/politics/story/2953AF413B298DD2862574100013EE2D?OpenDocument
: Never before had St. Charles County Republican Party Chairman Jon
: Bennett received so many queries about where this year’s party caucus
: was to be held. And Bennett didn’t recognize most of the callers.
: On Saturday, Bennett learned why. Dozens of avid supporters of Ron
: Paul, a Texas congressman who is running a renegade quest for the
: presidential nomination, staged a political guerrilla attack. At that
: caucus at St. Peters City Hall — as well as others across the state
: — party regulars like Bennett were overwhelmed.
: Caucuses in Missouri, held only in presidential election years, are
: typically low-key affairs attended mainly by party diehards. But this
: year, the pro-Paul activists commandeered gatherings in the city of
: St. Louis, St. Louis County, Kansas City and Springfield. Paul
: supporters also controlled caucuses in at least a half dozen rural
: counties.
: The result: Paul’s supporters predict they have snagged roughly a
: third of the 2,137 state Republican delegates. Those delegates will
: determine the state GOP platform this spring and help select the
: presidential delegates to the national Republican presidential
: convention in Minneapolis in September.
: The unorthodox push, which sparked shouting matches in some meetings,
: reflected Paul’s campaign — an anti-establishment, grass-roots
: movement built on passion.
: At many of Saturday’s caucuses, the Paul contingents also won approval
: for some of their man’s key positions, including resolutions for
: withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and against the
: federal Patriot Act and warrantless wiretaps.
: But the most politically explosive resolution called for repealing the
: Missouri Republican Party requirement that all of the state’s 58 GOP
: presidential delegates back the victor in the Feb. 5 primary: U.S.
: Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., now the presumptive presidential nominee.
: But Missouri Republican officials plan to fight back. State Republican
: Party Executive Director Jared Craighead said party leaders will be
: examining the lists of caucus-goers, and of the newly elected state
: delegates. He contends that some of the Paul activists involved in the
: caucuses were really Democrats or Libertarians who should be tossed
: off.
: But Bennett accused the Paul forces of deception. At the St. Charles
: County caucus, Paul backers did not identify themselves as such.
: Instead they promoted a group of proposed delegates they called the
: Conservative Values slate.
: “They went out of their way not to use ‘Ron Paul,’” Bennett said.
: “Intellectually they were dishonest about their reasons.”
: in St. Charles County, gave credit to his side’s stealth preparations,
: which included mock caucuses.
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch of RINOs.
I hope Ron Paul DOES succeed in some of these hijinks. The Stupid Party needs a by-God wakeup call, or we’re doomed to turn on the drive-time radio station one day soon and find out we’ve got an Emperor, and not a president, and all future elections are cancelled.
Oh what a crock! First of all Operation Chaos is, if anything, blowback on the Dems for their tinkering in open-primary states not just this election cycle but many before. A republican voter crossing over to throw a wrench is far from stealthly placing people in positions that negate the whole process to benefit a losing candidate while at the same time attempting to inflict as much damge as possible to the actual nominee.
Your thesis is beyond absurdity.
Thank God! At least it is a group of people who believe in less gov’t. This is great. At least it isn't Fabians who keep on getting elected.
And by the way, last time I looked, Ron Paul was a REPUBLICAN, not a Libertarian.
Once Op CHAOS is perfected, we need to turn it on the RNC.
Ron Paul IS a Libertarian that switched to the GOP for national office legitimacy.
Ron Paul is valid on several issues but is bonkers on national security. Hitler didn't need to be taken down? Civil War was unneccesary? Al-queda not a threat? No wiretaps? Yada, yada. When he talks about national security he just turns into standard democrat peace activist mode with wild eyes and wild voice thrown in.
In a way I'm glad the Ronbots did this chicanery. Now the actual GOP members will root the nuts out next time. Ironically Ron Paul's tactics to supposedly browbeat the GOP establishment have given the GOP establishment the incentive/rationale to tighten the loopholes. Good.
only when it comes to getting on the ballot (ever since he got spanked when he ran as the Libertarian Party nominee for President.) In every other way he is Libertarian through and through.
....except that Rush is open and honest about what he is doing.
Not only do I not care for Ron Pauls politics, I don’t like him personally. He is a rude and mean individual in my opinion. Ducking!!!
No there is a difference. Operation Chaos is fiddling with out-in-the-open tactics by simply elongating the oppositions process if possible. The Paulbots tactics are by complete subterfuge to gain positions at a committee level and then attempting to negate the process at a managerial level, if you will.
Operation Chaos - chicanery via one man-one vote results. Paulbots - chicanery to stealthly invalidate the one man-one vote results. Big difference.
snicker ping
1-Do you have a link? 2- Delegates almost always are bonafide party members with years of support history. I simply don't believe it. Someone may have claimed as such on the phone but anonymous calls do not reality make. It could have been a setup to make Dems nervous and suspicious of each other. Even if true this still would be the negating of one delegate vote for another. I would disagree with the subterfuge but again it is not the rules committee which could have the power to sway the convention and superdelegates towards one candidate or another.
Back in 1988 we had the same problem in Brazos county with Pat Robertson jihadists. They would attend precinct meetings and put forward their candidates, who would be soundly defeated. Then they would hang around until the majority of precinct members had elected the precinct’s delegates to the county convention and had left for home. Then they would make motions to reopen nominations and “elect” their nominees. They showed up at the county convention and tried to have “their delegates” seated. Fortunately the county chairman threw them out.
Here'a a link to a thread I posted earlier today about the Nueces County GOP convention.
GOP chairman thwarts takeover (by Ron Paulistas in Nueces County, Texas)
The Corpus Christi Caller-Times ^ | Sunday, March 30, 2008 | Denise Malan
Posted on 03/30/2008 12:31:03 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
In 1988 the Pat Robertson gang took over the Nueces County County GOP convention, and the GOP organization ended up holding the rump convention. Mike Bertuzzi the Nueces County Republican Chair was a veteran of that convention, and was determined to not let the convention get hijacked again. He said that the previous hijacking had harmed the party for 20 year since.
Also see my post #32 and the thread linked in it.
Actually I meant post #33
Our County Convention in Oklahoma had the same problems. Be prepared for next year when we elect officers because they intend to take over everything from the County to the State.
We approved the platform but then our Chair decided that they could debate which was against the Rules but this is Oklahoma. They were trying to change the platform — I left and told others if you leave the hall and there is no quorum, the Convention will be over which is what they did.
We all need to be prepared for next year when we elect Chairs.
Even though I disagree with about half their platform I salute their determination.. We should all be doing this.
heh heh... Good for them and too bad for the big spending big government loving republicans in TX. We got the same thing going here in NV, except even more so, wait till you see what happens over here. The Ron Paul revolution has brought a whole new cadre of people into politics whose goal is liberty. Look out for us. :)
Libertarian ping! To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.
Paul raped Peden in the primary already.
The GOP is now hoisting on up a candidate with almost all of Ron Paul's foreign policy deficiencies (save for his view on Iraq) plus some additional ones (see latest McCain speech), AND enough domestic leftism to slay an elephant. You pretty much have to feel a greater allegiance to Iraq than to America in order to endorse McCain over Paul. Otherwise, that chip ain't worth the trade.
These people are all registered Republicans. The system rewards the people that show up, plain and simple.
A little late, isn't it???
How much worse, in the grand scheme, would a Ron Paul presidency be as compared to a John McCain, Hillary, or Obama presidency be?
let freedom Ping!
I did not attack RP, just his followers underhanded tactics in their attempt to hijack the Republican Party convention process. At the worst, I accused him of benefiting financially from allowing his minions’ delusional antics to continue well past the point where it is clear that he is not a viable candidate (one could argue that he never was a viable candidate, but that is another issue.)
I doubt that he or even his campaign is linked to this activity, but I would love for it to be proven to be so. Regardless it will hurt him with the Republican Party leadership and voters in 2 years, when we can assume he will roll out the Paulbots once again to do their worst.
>a worthless Party loyalty oath<
You couldn’t have described it better! The GOP left me, I didn’t leave them.
I thought the Paulestinians were the ones the Libertarians kicked out. ;-)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.