Posted on 08/28/2012 5:17:51 AM PDT by xzins
Fresh from the 2010 Tea Party wave that brought millions of new conservative voters into the Republican ranks and restored the GOP to control of the House of Representatives, Washington’s Republican political class is wasting no time in ensuring that the same grassroots conservative voters who have brought them to the threshold of capturing all three branches of government are permanently frozen out of influence in the Republican Party apparatus.
In response, grassroots conservatives have launched an unprecedented Rules fight that threatens to up-end the carefully choreographed coronation of Mitt Romney.
The Rules Committee report, which is set to be adopted Tuesday, includes Rules changes that shift the balance of power away from state and local Republican committees, who elect delegates to the National Convention every four years, in favor of DC’s permanent political class.
The Rules changes would:
Principled conservative Republican Party leaders Morton Blackwell of Virginia and Jim Bopp of Indiana are spearheading the drive to gather the votes necessary to adopt a Minority Rules Report and defeat the proposed rules changes on the floor during Tuesday’s procedural sessions.
To read Morton Blackwell’s letter to Republican National Convention delegates go here http://mranalogblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Morton-RNC-Letter.pdf
To read Jim Bopp’s email to Republican National Convention delegates go here:
http://www.conservativehq.com/article/9513-james-bopp-jr-letter
Indiana’s National Committeeman, James Bopp, who also serves as Vice Chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in an email to delegates, “This is the biggest power grab in the history of the Republican Party because it shifts the power to select delegates from the state party to the candidate. And it would make the Republican Party a top down, not bottom up party.”
Virginia’s Morton Blackwell, a member of the Republican National Committee’s Standing Committee on Rules and on the National Convention's Committee on Rules and Order of Business said these are “rules changes that could fundamentally change our Republican Party -- and not for the better.”
Blackwell noted that DC election lawyer Ben Ginsberg brought these proposals to the Rules Committee where “he represented himself as the leader on the Committee for the Romney Campaign.”
Ginsberg, Blackwell observed, had earlier this year worked for conservative Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s presidential campaign, “is unencumbered by principle.” “After working for Bachmann’s grassroots campaign he is advocating Rules that would centralize power, restrain and eliminate grassroots influence and create a top-down, rather than bottom-up Party – the very antithesis of what allowed a candidate like Michele Bachmann to run,” said Blackwell.
RNC Vice Chairman Bopp dismissed any notion that the Rules changes had an ideological motivation, noting that they represent “a threat to both moderates and conservatives who could be purged, depending on who is the Republican Presidential nominee” and that to preserve the bottom-up nature of the Party the issues raised should be taken care of by changes to state laws and state GOP rules governing the selection of their state’s delegates to the national convention.
To oppose this power grab by Washington’s permanent political class grassroots GOP activists must shine the light of day on this behind the scenes power grab; call your Republican National Convention delegates, blog about, email it to your friends and contacts, post it on your Facebook page and social media sites and call your local and national conservative talk radio programs.
Romney Camp Removing Rules Committee Members
By Michael Duncan on August 28, 2012
I just got off the phone with a concerned Florida activist, Laura Noble, who informed me that both of Florida’s Rules Committee members, Peter Feaman and Kathleen King, have been removed from the Rules committee and replaced with Romney-appointed delegates.
Clearly anticipating a grassroots backlash against the “compromise” on Rule 15 and the changes on Rule 12 has caused the Romney camp to preemptively replace delegates to ensure they have support on the Rules Committee.
It’s enough to make your blood boil. Please call your state’s Rules Committee delegates here and ask that they oppose the “compromise” on Rule 15, oppose the changes to Rule 12, and support the full Minority Reports on the Rules.
UPDATE: Delegations we should be focusing on include the following states: North Carolina, Oregon, Indiana, Ohio, Nebraska, Kansas, Arkansas, Tennessee, and West Virginia.
Follow our coverage of the fallout between the Romney camp and grassroots activists at these links:
http://www.freedomworks.org/blog/jimhoft/gop-rules-change-update-victory-or-farce
http://www.freedomworks.org/blog/mduncan/stop-the-establishments-shell-game-at-the-rnc
http://www.freedomworks.org/blog/jimhoft/urgent-action-needed-rnc-is-pushing-to-eliminate-g
http://www.freedomworks.org/blog/mduncan/stop-the-establishment-from-rewriting-the-rnc-rule
Limbaugh now speaking about RNC trying to stack the vote this afternoon. They do not want any influence from the “regular” Tea Party and other conservative and libertarian groups. They think we are amateurs and should not put in “our two cents worth”.
Your argument is much the same as "what happens if juries are unconvinced by the prosecution that the bad-guy is bad and let the guilty go?" with the 'solution' of forcing them to convict of breaking a law even in the case where that law is itself contrary to the [supposedly higher] law that is the Constitution.
The answer is the same: it is inherent in the position that they have the ability to decide. (Whether guilty/not-guilty in a juror's case or for whom to vote in the delegate's.) Anything which allows the arbitrary removal from such positions, and make no mistake the rule proposed is arbitrary, ought to be fought.
Indeed this is directly analogous to a juror prerequisite abrogating the powers of nullification (have you read some of the documentation you sign to be a juror?); nullification is something many courts try to sweep under the rug and keep out of the general knowledge. Why? Because nullification is the power of the jury to judge the law itself, and as that is where the courts gain their powers it is relinquishing power to have to submit to a jury's nullification.
The American Ammo Party.
Simply because it'll make the MSM crap its pants.
But it won't, you see, he doesn't have the people. More and more they are playing a game amongst themselves with the ire of over 75% of the country up against them. They are out of touch losers with no idea how to fix anything wrong with this country. The grassroots may tolerate him to get the commie out but the next president is necessarily going to preside over a time when the power of the presidency is diminished, as after FDR.
I enlisted during Nam, so forget your attempts to characterize my patriotism.
Your hatred for Romney blinds you to the level of threat Obama is to America.
That might be true for some definition of "Not Productive", but some things which could-be/are termed "not productive" actually are productive because the metrics for deciding what is/isn't productive are different as applied to different people. A good example would be writing a bunch of simple "throw-away" computer code; it's never used for anything after it's gotten to its complete/correct state -- and yet it is a good method for teaching yourself a new programming language, and therefore productive.
Now, as it applies to votes, let us consider the "voting for someone who cannot win is a useless vote" argument you made.
In computer science there is a lot of inertia for C-like languages, and even though there are some serious deficiencies in the foundations of it there's a lot of people who have the idea that "if it doesn't look like C it isn't efficient" this is despite that one of the most un-C-like languages (Ada) is the language that the C++ standards are moving towards. It's doubly ironic that Ada addressed problems 30 years ago that are now the main "next big thing" in the software industry: parallelism; so, what does the industry base it's new "geared for parallelism" languages on? C, obviously. I mean it's stupid to base it on a language that has been around for 30 years, faced these problems, and come up with solutions -- no, we've got to get behind C/C++ because that's the only style that can win [become useful/popular].
See how stupid that argument sounds?
The jurors are picked to have an opinion. As much as I hate it, the people voted for Romney. I don’t know why this is so hard. If it were the opposite like I described, you would probably be the first one on the rooftop screaming that they didn’t listen to what we picked at the polls. What’s the point of polls if they can choose for themselves?
Thank you for that.
Your hatred for Romney blinds you to the level of threat Obama is to America.
As much of a threat as Obama is, I'm not sure that Romney isn't a greater threat. Obama makes a great enemy because when you're against him, you're against him; he makes no real effort to hide what he's for -- you know where he stands. Romney, on the other hand, makes a horrible ally because his words mean nothing, any actions he made that aren't conservative are explained away or rationalized that he's better than Obama -- but you don't really know where he stands... his record speaks volumes that he is very much a political clone of Obama (saying that he's for America and will help businesses doesn't mean jack -- the reason businesses are floundering is because of the high regulatory [and tax] demands, which I do not believe Romney will ease).
I have one thing to say, then I’ll shut up.
There are many of us here on this forum who basically swore that we wouldn’t vote for Romney. Who feel that the man is your basic RINO and can’t be trusted once in office, e.g. that he’ll appoint liberal judges etc etc.
I was one of these people...until he chose Paul Ryan. Now I’m so fired up, that I feel like rolling around in the grass with my legs in the air.
Please, FOLKS. Let’s give the guy a chance. He still needs to win over a huge group of Independents in there. Once he’s elected he will tack back to the right as people like Ryan and others will assure that.
I also think that he will do some things, like appoint Sarah and Newt, Huck and others in his administration.
I’m just saying, now is a time to unite, get the imposter out, and start three generations of prosperity that will remind the world of what it was like to live in the Age of Pericles.
Isn't that the complaint of those that want direct election instead of our current electoral system?
The jurors are picked to have an opinion. As much as I hate it, the people voted for Romney. I don’t know why this is so hard.
Hm, this is interesting; but let me ask: should the delegates that Ron Paul legitimately got be disbarred because they took advantage of their systems to get the results they wanted? (i.e. should the IRS be allowed to abrogate tax shelters because people examine the laws and use legitimate tax-shelters? There's a rule/law that lets them do this: meaning that all tax-shelters are, in effect, at the discretion of the IRS... as applied to the individual tax-payer.)
If it were the opposite like I described, you would probably be the first one on the rooftop screaming that they didn’t listen to what we picked at the polls.
If it were opposite, then what would be the point of a delegate? Just write your state's vote down on a paper and send that to the convention. We use people precisely because they are not pre-programmed machines, incapable of dealing with unexpected data/situations.
Nik, you sound like a nice guy, but it’s gonna be a cold day in the hot place before romney appoints palin or gingrich to anything important.
Sarah might get dog sled ambassador and Newt might get an honorary debate champ certificate, but that’s it.
What are you talking about? We still go to the polls to tell the electoral college who we want chosen. They comply. It is not the same. Polls would be meaningless if we allowed them to pick whoever they choose.
I dont’ care whether Paul get’s his few delegates or not. If he won them fair and square, then sure. Whatever. But so did Romney.
I meant opposite as in a conservative being displaced by a RINO. We are selecting them to be pre-programmed machines. We voted for the candidate we wanted. They are selected to chose to do that. They are not an elected position in which they campaign on which delegate they would choose.
I think you’re being overly optimistic about Willard. He’s not shown an ounce of holding firm to any conservative ideal. He back peddles on EVERYTHING I find important. And I see Willard actually stiffling Ryan’s conservative beliefs.
I wish your scenario could happen. I just have very strong doubts that Willard will hold true to any conservative beliefs.
Once again I out my ignorance on display. I apologize for my earlier post. Your concern is completely warranted.
Votes ain’t code.
And I believe my simple summary stands.
This is NOT a “perception” thing.
It’s a reality thing.
You’re either helping to kick the clown out of office, or you’re doing something else.
Then watch and see as he grants Obamacare waivers to all 50 States. (D.C. deserves it)
He will take down the Regulatory burdens to real energy development.
He will fire the unconstitutional czars.
Romney will stop federally funded abortion.
He won’t be looking for opportunities to enrich the union thugs, in or out of government.
He WILL respect the Constitutional constraints and separation of powers.
So, some of the areas where he and I disagree, I don’t believe we have to worry about the House and Senate supporting him on.
....mmmmmmm, because they are not a conservative???
Seems to me a time to get things rolling on a third party...
I see it as an instant boom for conservatism, because most elected officials we know would probably jump at the chance to take the “R” off their political names and put on something that allows them to really represent their constituency...
Plus, it’ll frap the moderate republican party to no end to know they’ll have to caucus with the true conservatives from a position of minority...
That’s just the way I see it...
I was thinking there might very well be some fists flying in Tampa today over this political atrocity...
But then again, what would make it worthwhile???
What will change???
Who will get hurt the most???
It is not that I am concerned about whatever outcome may insue because of these shinanigans, but hey, we all got suckered in by the same GOP elitist/leadership that has failed us more than anyone else...We gave them 2010 on a silver platter, and they are spitting on us now...
I wonder if anyone will really get upset about that...
More thn likely they just ensured a Romney failure, nd an Obama second term...
Just my opinion...
There is an antidote:
Jesus loves me this I know, For the Bible....
No!
AIEEEEEEEEEE!!!
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