“Did anyone think the GOPe was going to go away quietly, even though they are on a fool’s mission?”
If you are following the who’s who in this, the GOP-E (the RNC) is vigorously fighting against any rule changes alongside Trump. Rance Priebus et al.
I agree they’re an a quixotic mission that will almost certainly fail. But I know Kendal Unruh and Guy Short (two of the leading “fools” you refer to) and they are emphatically not establishment—they drive the GOP establishment in CO crazy.
That said, the old-time RINO’s like McCain, Bush and Graham and even newer ones like Flake (very establishment) are boycotting the convention and therefore Trump. But as far as I know, none of them are involved in the Rules battle.
So this looks to me more like a split in the GOP-E. The elected officials in the GOP-E are boycotting Trump and the RNC employee types (very GOP-E) are supporting Trump hard. OTOH, the folks leading the rules fight are mostly liberty conservatives out of the Colorado Tea Party movement.
That's how it looks to me, too. Priebus will be judged by whether we win or lose in November, so he wants to win. But the permanent GOPe (i.e. UniParty) will support Hillary if they can't deny the nomination to Trump. Damn them.
“OTOH, the folks leading the rules fight are mostly liberty conservatives out of the Colorado Tea Party movement.”
Caucus scum are not liberty anything. They are failed apparatchiki, trying to usurp the results of the states where people actually voted.
May they all be rewarded as they deserve.