"State GOP shouldn’t use tricks to defrock Ron Paul backers, June 04, 2012
Whether on the playground or in presidential politics, rules can’t be changed midway through the process just because they become inconvenient. But that’s what Massachusetts state Republican leaders are trying to do by invoking dubious technicalities to try to remove Ron Paul supporters who were chosen as delegates to the party’s national convention in Tampa.
The state GOP has good reason to be concerned about a process that allows fervent activists to flood local caucuses and play a disproportionate role in choosing convention delegates. Those delegates will nonetheless be pledged to Mitt Romney, who, after all, won 72 percent of votes in the March presidential primary, versus less than 10 percent for Paul. But according to party rules, Romney’s campaign had more to do to get its own people chosen as the delegates to the Tampa convention; they had to show up at local party caucuses, the obscure gatherings where delegates are actually chosen.
Yeah, what an inconvenience to have to go show up at a meeting instead of just citing a rigged election tally.
They didn’t, at least not to the degree that Paul’s supporters did. To the extent that Paul’s zealous supporters abided by the caucus rules in place, they deserve the delegates that they won. Attempts to throw out scores of caucus votes on technical issues, which is what party leaders would be doing by ignoring provisional ballots the rules had allowed for, should be abandoned.
By flooding caucuses in Massachusetts and some other states, Paul’s
supporters hoped to plant their own people on the convention floor to
influence the party platform and other ideological battles. But the
actual effect of Paul’s caucus wins in Massachusetts and a half-dozen or
so other states should be minimal. The vast majority of convention
delegates will still be bona fide Romney backers, so they can vote down
any embarrassing motion. Should things get out of hand after Romney is
officially nominated, national party leaders, now on notice for Paul’s
procedural moves, should have their own parliamentary measures at the
ready to stop them.
Doesn't seem to be a problem when it is billionaires, corporations, and AIPAC doing it to this government.
--more--"
What bothers me is the agenda-pushing a**holes say you must do things right, protest, participate in the political process for redress, do it by the rules -- and then when you do and they are not happy about it they bitch.
Yeah, thanks for your support, Globe.
Related: Massachusetts Stripping Ron Paul of Delegates
Also see: Massachusetts GOP upholds election of Ron Paul delegates in Mitt Romney’s congressional district
Never saw that in print.
