Going To Extremes
Because of circumstances beyond my control, I was not at last week's Republican Party State Convention. I gave up my seat to a newcomer since I was not sure that I was going to be here for the convention or not (more on this later). However, I was following the action thanks to AM 1280 the Patriot and TN contributors AAA, Chief, Kevin, Martin and SCSU Scholars King and Janet. So even though I was not there in person, I do think I have a good take on what happened last weekend and because of that I am dismayed at the actions of my "fellow Republicans".
One of the first things that I heard about was Friday's attempt by the State Executive Committee to totally usurp the autonomy of the individual BPOU's. Andy has a letter posted from one of the BPOU leaders that was the target of this takeover. Shortly after I heard about that I read a story from the Star Tribune that quoted one of the newcomers from my district that I had given up my seat for.
Emphasis mine. The irony of that statement is apparently lost on Ms. Witte (who has yet to show up for ANY activities in our BPOU other than the conventions and we have had LOTS of volunteer activities in the Savage Lands). She is so wrapped up in HER agenda that she does not see (none of the Paul supporters apparently see) that they are not the only ones being "shut out" by the State Party! Either that or she was so busy basking in the glow of her candidate's presence (more on THAT later) to pay attention to the floor battle on the Rules and Constitutional changes.
However, the State Party was not completely at fault. Yes, they made all the "right" procedural moves - moves that were guaranteed to shut ALL dissenting opinion out, but the Paul campaign does hold some blame for their being shut out of the Rules.
First and foremost was Marianne Stebbens (chair of Congressman Paul's MN Campaign) should have known to have someone parked at the Credentials table waiting for published copies of the agenda and the rules to be put out. After all, Marianne is (so she claims) to be a long time Republican Party activist. I have only been involved in the party for 6 years and I know that. She supposedly has 20 years on me - so why did she not know that? Her counterpart in Nevada certainly did. If she was going to wage an effective floor fight on the rules she needed to have her forces on the floor. Instead they were ALL out getting their pictures taken with their candidate. Then, when it was too late to make changes to the rules, the Paul supporters did everything in their power to turn the rest of the floor (many of whom were sympathetic after witnessing the Executive Committee's naked power grab and realizing that they could be next) against them and their candidate.
One of the first givens of politics is that it is a numbers game. He who has the most votes WINS. If you don't have the numbers, you are not going to win your battles - whether it is at the ballot box or on the convention floor. If the Paul campaign was smart, they would have had their candidate speak at a reception for supporters Thursday night so that their members could have all been on the floor, fresh and ready for the fight. If Ms. Witte wants to blame anyone for shutting the Paul supporters out, she needs to at least turn one eye toward the Paul campaign!
But again, the State Party needs to bear some of the blame. They made took every advantage that they had and used it against the Paul people. They made sure that agendas and copies of rules changes got out as "late" as possible so that as few convention attendees had them as possible. That should upset more than just the Paul supporters. They also made sure that there were no scheduled breaks. There was not even a break in the action for lunch! By manipulating what information got out and when and by manipulating the schedule, convention organizers made sure that the deck was always stacked in their favor.
One thing that was cemented in my mind as a result of the convention is this. The MNGOP is not about helping get Republicans get elected. If it was, they would be working with the BPOUs instead of against them. No, the state party - in it's current incarnation - is only out for itself. Self preservation is not always a bad thing, but in this case it does not instill much faith in the state party at all. I don't know what the motivation is, but that is the message that came out of Rochester last weekend.
One of the first things that I heard about was Friday's attempt by the State Executive Committee to totally usurp the autonomy of the individual BPOU's. Andy has a letter posted from one of the BPOU leaders that was the target of this takeover. Shortly after I heard about that I read a story from the Star Tribune that quoted one of the newcomers from my district that I had given up my seat for.
"You had your shot," said former state representative Fran Bradley, who was chairing the convention. "What happened is the will of the majority and it's time to move on."
That irked Paul supporters who said they were victims of an undemocratic process. "We've been completely shut out of the process," said Lara Witte, a Paul supporter from Savage.
Emphasis mine. The irony of that statement is apparently lost on Ms. Witte (who has yet to show up for ANY activities in our BPOU other than the conventions and we have had LOTS of volunteer activities in the Savage Lands). She is so wrapped up in HER agenda that she does not see (none of the Paul supporters apparently see) that they are not the only ones being "shut out" by the State Party! Either that or she was so busy basking in the glow of her candidate's presence (more on THAT later) to pay attention to the floor battle on the Rules and Constitutional changes.
However, the State Party was not completely at fault. Yes, they made all the "right" procedural moves - moves that were guaranteed to shut ALL dissenting opinion out, but the Paul campaign does hold some blame for their being shut out of the Rules.
First and foremost was Marianne Stebbens (chair of Congressman Paul's MN Campaign) should have known to have someone parked at the Credentials table waiting for published copies of the agenda and the rules to be put out. After all, Marianne is (so she claims) to be a long time Republican Party activist. I have only been involved in the party for 6 years and I know that. She supposedly has 20 years on me - so why did she not know that? Her counterpart in Nevada certainly did. If she was going to wage an effective floor fight on the rules she needed to have her forces on the floor. Instead they were ALL out getting their pictures taken with their candidate. Then, when it was too late to make changes to the rules, the Paul supporters did everything in their power to turn the rest of the floor (many of whom were sympathetic after witnessing the Executive Committee's naked power grab and realizing that they could be next) against them and their candidate.
One of the first givens of politics is that it is a numbers game. He who has the most votes WINS. If you don't have the numbers, you are not going to win your battles - whether it is at the ballot box or on the convention floor. If the Paul campaign was smart, they would have had their candidate speak at a reception for supporters Thursday night so that their members could have all been on the floor, fresh and ready for the fight. If Ms. Witte wants to blame anyone for shutting the Paul supporters out, she needs to at least turn one eye toward the Paul campaign!
But again, the State Party needs to bear some of the blame. They made took every advantage that they had and used it against the Paul people. They made sure that agendas and copies of rules changes got out as "late" as possible so that as few convention attendees had them as possible. That should upset more than just the Paul supporters. They also made sure that there were no scheduled breaks. There was not even a break in the action for lunch! By manipulating what information got out and when and by manipulating the schedule, convention organizers made sure that the deck was always stacked in their favor.
One thing that was cemented in my mind as a result of the convention is this. The MNGOP is not about helping get Republicans get elected. If it was, they would be working with the BPOUs instead of against them. No, the state party - in it's current incarnation - is only out for itself. Self preservation is not always a bad thing, but in this case it does not instill much faith in the state party at all. I don't know what the motivation is, but that is the message that came out of Rochester last weekend.
Labels: MNGOP
posted by The Lady Logician at
7:29 AM
6 Comments:
I've decided, after some considerable mental perambulation, that you are just plain wrong about the State Party. If this was the Democratic Party, we would be holding a banquet in honor of Ron Carey, because intentions are all that matter and his intentions are spot on, from my personal observation.
Unfortunately for all of us, Republicans want to focus on results and far too many of us are unhappy unless just plain everything comes out exactly as we like. We're a selfish, spoiled and ungrateful lot, often destructive of our stated aims while looking for somebody else to blame for it. Hmmm, maybe we ARE Democrats.
In any event, recriminations against the /State Party/ (as if that was somebody other than US) are not going to get one single voter to pull the lever (or mark the card or whatever) for a Republican in November. It's time to get focussed on victory, with the help of, forebearance of, or just plain in spite of leadership, if that's the way you see the situation.
It is what it is now, but it will be what you make of it.
J. Ewing
By
Anonymous, at 11:57 AM
That Paul-Bot from savage you mentioned or one just like her sat
right behind me in the SD35 section on the convention floor.
She was a whiney little um witch.
It was like dealing with a 9 year-old. She got out maneuvered, and then
out voted; didn’t like it, and threw a tantrum. She got all pissed off talking like
a typical moonbat about fascists and laws and other incoherent shit.
Laws don't apply, rules do. She didn’t quite comprehend the difference.
Getting out voted is not totalitarianism.
People in our area tried "splainin" stuff to her and she seemed to get
it for a while, but she just went right back around and repeated the same
unhinged statements.
I tried to tell her that no matter how unfair she thought is was, the
Governor was stayin on the delegate team even if the nominating
committee made an exception to the stated rules and didn't require
T-Paw to appear in person on Wednesday like everyone else.
The nominating committee should be criticized for this but T-paw is NOT going to be removed as a national delegate fur chrisakes!
She came in with visions of hijacking the convention, and instead she
got rolled by the machine.
At one point she started crying because it was all so unfair that she
couldn't have her way.
Considering the views she expressed during the 2 days I spent just a
few feet from her, she has not a conservative bone in her body. She is
an anti war socialist. Her only reason for being there was her
obsession with the Ron Paul she had built up in her head.
She was seriously disillusioned.
I don't expect to see her at the next caucus, she would most likely be much more comfortable in the green party.
By
sequel, at 1:17 PM
Paul finished speaking at 8:30. Most of us went inside at Marianne's urging.
We couldn't get in at first as the doors weren't open yet. One supporter had left the speech early to drop some lit on chairs, and was denied entry. Oddly enough, when the doors were opened, every chair had several pieces of lit, plus hit pieces against Paul. The convention started about an hour later than the posted 9AM. I missed an opportunity to meet Dr. Paul, as I assumed the convention would start on time. (Silly me.) I darted out a couple times to go to the bathroom, and grab a smoke. The 'proposed' revised rules were handed to me on of my return trips into the room. There was very little time to read through them. Realizing the Paul hit piece was in violation of rule #7, someone started removing them. He was stopped (quite rudely) by a sergeant in arms. When showed the rules, he stated, "Those aren't my rules." It was brought up several times by people on the floor, and finally something was done about it. Even the non Paul supporters in my BPOU were upset how things went.
I'm one of the Paul supporters in Wright County who's done phone bank work with MN Majority. I will volunteer to help Barb Davis White, even though she's not in my district, as well as Mark Olson, and any other true conservative. I will not however, give my time or money to any RINO. We Paul supporters tend to stand by our beliefs and principles, and won't blindly support just any 'Republican'. Give us real conservatives, and we'll be there, if the leadership will have us.
Unfortunately, the MNGOP leadership has abandoned the 'small government' part of the platform, with their attempted power grab of BPOUs. Ron Carey should just go ahead and use Bush's line, "I'm the decider." Perhaps he would do better in the Democratic party, where government knows what's best for you, aka Hillary style. But wait a minute, the Republican party has adopted that view, too.
Where did all the conservatives go?
SRM
By
Anonymous, at 10:26 PM
SRM - one thing I learned early on...political conventions NEVER EVER start on time. I think it is an unwritten rule somewhere. Even when I ran my BPOU convention and I was determined that I was going to buck the trend...well the trend bucked me! LOL
You ask where all of the "conservatives" went....a lot of them followed you out in disgust at the way this convention was run. I met with several "old timers" like myself tonight and that fiasco is STILL the number one topic of conversation.
My advise to you...my advise to everyone who was disgusted with how this convention was run is this...stay involved and get elected to State Central! The only way we are going to change this is to have more principled conservatives fighting to take back the party.
It's gonna be a long dirty slog, but it will be worth it in the end if you are willing to stick it out.
LL
By
The Lady Logician, at 11:07 PM
I understand the claim that the 'Paulians' got out smarted at the rules game. The Paul team did have a series of proposed amendments to the rules (like allowing nominations from the floor). What they did not expect was that the someone would call the question on the rules debate before the case against the rules could be made.
Allowing the nominations from the floor would not have been 'hijacking the convention'. It would have allowed a fair vote since those who were blocked by the nominating committee could have had a chance to run. The fact that the nominating committee allowed the establishment slate on the ballot but only half of the non-establishment slate on the ballot, effectively allowed them to 'steam roll' the minority. By the way, this was not a small minority. Marianne got votes from over 40% of the delegates.
Yes, the Paul team was out-witted. And they say all this is just politics as usual. Maybe so but it is completely incongruous with Carey's statement about how 'godly' the openings of the conventions were under his leadership. Nor is it compatible with his profession of faith in Jesus Christ (which he made from the podium at the convention). Someplace somewhere Jesus talked about how Christians should not seek to dominate one another and we should wash one another's feet.
By
Anonymous, at 3:31 PM
"What they did not expect was that the someone would call the question on the rules debate before the case against the rules could be made."
Unfortunately, as my SD learned at their convention, you have to expect it. There are more than a few "Roberts Rules" fanatics in this party. If we are going to take the party back we have to out "Roberts" them!
You hit on something that I have noted in conversations with others. In this kind of a leadership position, you have to have more of a "servant's heart". The spotlight is supposed to be on THE CANDIDATES not the Party......
LL
By
The Lady Logician, at 4:39 PM
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