Posted on 08/28/2012 2:15:07 PM PDT by STARWISE
Complete title
Floor fight: Grass-roots activists battle attempt to rig RNC delegate rules Updated: Palin: “direct attack on the grass-roots;” RNC power grab showdown 2pm; Rush weighs in; purge underway?; Rules Cmte votes 78-14 for deal; dissidents gather sigs for floor fight; Boehner/Sununu declare”no objections” over massive boos on floor
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*snip*
Update 3:34pm Eastern Dissidents have until 3:47pm Eastern to gather enough signatures to force the floor vote, according to right-leaning Examiner’s Tim Carney, who is on scene. Left-leaning BuzzFeed’s Zeke Miller, also on scene, says it appears dissidents have gathered enough signatures for minority report on Rule 12, but not yet on Rule 15(16).
Carney says that Drew McKissck has emailed a minority report to RNC leaders within the rules deadline…
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Update: 4:34pm Eastern Well, that was…something else. First, Maine delegates were replaced with Romney people. Then, rules chairman John Sununu and GOP Speaker of the House John Boehner stood on stage at the RNC to rule on the compromise rules report. No minority report was mentioned. When asked for yeas and nays on the report, the room seemed equally divided. Boehner forged ahead and approved the report over loud boos and calls of “point of order” from activists on the floor.
No vote on the minority report.
FW’s Dean Clancy observes: “If @SpeakerBoehner had been wielding the Speaker’s gavel instead of the GOP convention gavel, he wouldn’t have gotten away with that trick.”
And the show went on…GOP Rep. Marsha Blackburn just declared that “this has been a great exercise in grass-roots” and that GOP stands for “Great Opportunity Party.”
Rob Port:
Watch until about 2:39:00 when Speaker of the House John Boehner takes the podium and asks for a voice vote on the rules. The “nays” from the floor were at least as loud as the “yeas,” but Boehner approved the rules “without objection.”
What a joke.
Meanwhile, a North Dakota delegate texted me from the floor of the convention saying that they were instructed to chant “USA” (you can hear it during the video) to drown out the dissenters.
I am really tired of explaining this to you. I have said this many times today. The Paulers didn’t expect to win, they never expect to win. They just want to hurt Romney and divide the party. This is a long term plan for them, taking over the GOP. They expect their reward in 2016.
The Libertarians have been planning to take over the GOP from within, just the same way the Progressives took over the Democrat Party, one election at a time. The idea is to destroy both sides of the GOP, get them fighting each other and step in and take control. The Libertarians know that a third party is a losing proposition, but if they can drive the social conservatives to a third party, so much the better.
Ken is a man I trust, and I’m looking forward to reading his take on this (he sends out regular e-mail blasts, and I’m sure there will be one about this).
I still think that if it wasn’t for what the Paul folks had planned, the conservatives could have won compromises on all of this. I think the party bosses panicked because of the havoc that was planned for tonight.
They couldn’t imagine, on top of the “Hurricane Katrina” coverage that will already overwhelm the convention, that the ONLY thing the media would talk about from the convention was a huge floor fight over the nomination. And instead, they ended up with a floor fight over the rules.
On the other hand, the media can’t really make a rules fight “sexy”, like they could have on a nomination fight. So in that sense, they succeeded, at the cost of pissing off a bunch of conservatives that they just got on board with the Ryan pick.
Then stop trying to explain. I’d take almost any libertarian over Romney. He is obviously a really lousy chess player if he knew this was their plan all along. Not a clever boy at all.
As far as the rule changes, here was the compromise rule.
Rule 16(a)(2).
For any manner of binding or allocating delegates under these Rules, if a delegate
(i) casts a vote for a presidential candidate at the National Convention inconsistent with the delegate’s obligation under state law or state party rule,
(ii) nominates or demonstrates support under Rule 40 for a presidential candidate other than the one to whom the delegate is bound or allocated under state law or state party rule, or
(iii) fails in some other way to carry out the delegate’s affirmative duty under state law or state party rule to cast a vote at the National Convention for a particular presidential candidate,
the delegate shall be deemed to have concurrently resigned as a delegate and the delegate’s improper vote or nomination shall be null and void. Thereafter the Secretary of the Convention shall record the delegate’s vote or nomination in accordance with the delegate’s obligation under state law or state party rule. This subsection does not apply to delegates who are bound to a candidate who has withdrawn his or her candidacy, suspended or terminated his or her campaign, or publicly released his or her delegates.
The rule chage this afternoon would have permitted the rules committee to change the rules with 85% of the vote of the committee.
Good point on falling back on the States.
But your reasoning about incandescent light bulbs to general ineffectiveness with RONBAMA is a non sequitur.
The light bulb lobby put the kabash on the incandescent legislation.
But when RONBAMA tries to fund and implement Obamacare, the House can withhold payment. When RONBAMA tries to give away strategic advantages in military assets and infrastructure, the Senate can stop him.
I look at the trouble that RONBAMA can cause in the next years as opportunities to gain more voters and to bring impeachment to the House floor as well as having Sheriff Arpaio finally paid attention to.
I see conservatives making great strides of progress in Voter ID and this fact alone is going to shift power away from the Statists in DC.
Unlike cheerleaders for RONBAMA, I know that the political fighting is NEVER SETTLED. Electing RONBAMA only ensures the intensity of the fighting will increase and I look forward to it.
Worse, they have actually taken over several state parties. We conservatives think we are making headway in the party apparatus, but in fact we are being taken for a ride by Paul supporters, who pretend to be good conservatives but will back his policies down the line.
I don’t support the rules changes, but I understand the danger we are facing in the next 4 years as we see the “fruits” of the Ron Paul campaign — multiple states where they now control the party apparatus, and can force the nomination of like-minded individuals who are half-good conservatives, half-crazy-OWS types.
There had to be a better way to handle this. But when your candidate essentially ties in two states, and yet Ron Paul takes a vast majority of the delegates in those states, you can begin to see the magnitude of the problem.
THe fix was for the states to correct the problems that allowed this to happen, not for a federal takeover. This does not bode well for the movement toward limited government, not at all.
Are still pushing this Libertarian BS?
This was about the dirty tricks of Willard ROmneyCARE.
You know him. He is the AUTHOR of DEATH PANELS.
LOL! There, you said it. You’re a Romney hater.
EVERYONE knew it was their plan. It’s all over the internet. All you have to do is a little google work. it was all laid out on the Ron Paul web sites. There have been law suits over it. Yet, conservatives were still fooled.
Ron Paul is evil. He’s like the Joker, messing with Republicans because he hate everyone.
Do a google search on Wisconsin delegates for Ron Paul and you will see that he was working on getting enough delegates from Wisconsin to use them instead of Maine.
Oh, and if you are a social conservative and a Christian, Ron Paul hates you, too.
Yes. Get your grass roots organizations out there, outwork the Paulbots and win back control. Don't rule by edict. That's how liberals work.
Today conservatives were told to choose whether they prefer their statism red colored or blue. And as the new leader of the Republican Party, Mitt Romney cannot escape his share of responsibility for this fiasco.
That must be the rule 15 item. Frankly, I don’t think 85% would have helped that much (I believe the current proposal was 75%). The problem is that you can almost always get a near-unanimous vote of the party committee as chair. I guess 85% is harder than 75%, but it still isn’t insurmountable.
On the other hand, I’m not sure it is a good idea that the rules get chosen by the convention and have no way of getting amended if needed. But the downside seems too great.
I think the compromise on rule 12 was a good one, because it does solve the problem of delegates pretending to support a candidate. Of course, a better organization could ensure that your own delegates are your delegates, but with 50 states setting their own rules, it is very hard to put together a good organization.
IN fact, I think conservatives were really hurt this year by how hard it was to deal with 50 state rules. Like how all the conservatives failed to understand Virginia rules, and ended up off the ballot. Or how Santorum failed to get delegates on the ballot in multiple states or parts of states.
Maybe the national party should work on some minimum standards candidates can follow that would at least get their delegate slates on the ballots, to make it easier for upstart conservatives to compete against the Romney-type national organization. But I don’t expect any rule like THAT will get out of this convention.
Blaming Ron Paul and his mob zombies is convenient politics.
Some of us remember the contempt Romney, his handlers and the Ruling Class have for Conservatives and how , going all the way back to 2006 the handwriting was on the wall for what the GOP-e would do come the national election cycles.
Don’t try and foist what the Ruling Class oligarchs in the RNC actually did today on Ron Paul and his mob zombies.
You are simply making him the convenient excuse for the ouster of Conservatism into political irrelevancy that the RNC, GOP-e and the Libertarian Leftists have all been working towards together. Useful idiots for one another and all.
It ‘aint Ron Paul that did this, though he is your convenient scapegoat.
The Ruling Class did this, and would have done it even if Ron Paul and his horde never existed.
Oh no! I feel so abused by the non candidate Ron Paul! But I must be honest and and say that I am a social and fiscal conservative but not Christian and I feel more abused by the GOP elitist that feel that have some unspoken right to my life and property. They are not much different from any democrat I know and are just as abusive as anything Ron Paul might think to say. Hating Christians and Social conservatives seem to be a priority for most politicians these days.
I am thinking the same thing at this point. We should start out with just one candidate...the presidential one in 2016. The GOPe just jumped the shark in the way this went down. I am more pissed about that. The Nays had it and were overruled as if they didn’t even exist!!
Boehner has to go!!
GOPe screwing the little people again? What else is new? I am so happy I am no longer a Republican. Enjoy the screw those of you still dumb enough to be Republicans.
Posted earlier
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MORTON C. BLACKWELL
Dear Fellow Delegate,
On Tuesday of this week, as Republican National Convention delegates, you and I will be voting on rules changes that could fundamentally change our Republican Party — and not for the better.
Over the years, I’ve served on the Louisiana and Virginia GOP Rules Committees. I currently serve on both the Republican National Committee’s Standing Committee on Rules and on the National Convention’s Committee on Rules and Order of Business.
I was Barry Goldwater’s youngest elected delegate in 1964, I was honored to serve on President Ronald Reagan’s White House Staff from 1981-1984, and I have attended every Republican National Convention Rules Committee meeting since 1972. My wife and I have contributed major donations to the Romney-Ryan campaign.
These rule changes are the most awful I’ve ever seen come before any National Convention.
I’m writing you today to urge you to join the growing effort to stop the worst-ever changes in this Rules Committee’s Report and to vote in favor of amendments to Rules 12 and 15. The Minority Reports will restore important rights and protections which state parties and grassroots Republicans would lose under the Rules Committee Report as written.
These amendments to Rules 12 and 15 are contained in Minority Reports supported by at least 25% of the members of this convention’s Committee on Rules and Order of Business.
It’s rare for Minority Reports to come before our national convention, but the issues involved here are vital to the future of our party.
I must tell you there is tremendous arm-twisting now to peel signers off of the Minority Reports.
Finally, whether on Minority Reports or on voting down the Rules, it will require at least six states’ delegations to insist upon a roll call vote.
I will not pretend that the deck is not stacked against us.
But many state leaders, liberty-minded activists, and grass-roots conservatives are up-in-arms as word of this power grab spreads.
Our convention will make this important decision Tuesday as some of our first work. Many folks skip these procedural sessions thinking nothing of importance occurs.
This year, that is far from the truth.
If the Rules Committee Report were to pass without adoption of the Minority Reports, it would amount to a power grab by Washington, D.C. party insiders and consultants designed to silence the voice of state party activists and Republican grassroots by:
*** Handing national party officials the power to change national party rules adopted by state and grassroots leaders at the Republican National Convention. For generations, the prohibition of manipulated changes in the national Rules of the Republican Party between national conventions has served as one of the crown jewels of our party. It’s a power grab which opens the door to many future power grabs.
*** Stripping state parties in all states with binding primaries of the power of choosing who will represent their states as national delegates and alternate delegates.
This outrageous change would empower presidential campaigns to disapprove and remove delegates and alternate delegates selected by rules adopted by state Republican parties. Rather than grassroots activists who won delegate and alternate delegate slots by following state party rules, a large majority of positions would be handed to top donors of the winning campaign.
Rest here:
http://beforeitsnews.com/tea-party/2012/08/rnc-urgent-rules-vote-tuesday-2451244.html
New party. Kill the old.
Morton Blackwell is another of Virginia’s great men, and one I’ve had the privilege of meeting personally on more than one occasion. I respect his opinion on this matter, as well as that of Ken Cuccinelli, another of the great Virginia conservatives.
I also agree that the real problem rule was not rule 12 (the one for which there was a compromise) but rule 15, the one allowing easy changes to the rules by the RNC.
I still hope a challenge can be mounted, one that doesn’t have to involve giving the Ron Paul delegates any power or ability to screw up the convention or damage the republican candidate in front of a national audience.
When an entire state delegation is ready to oppose a rule, I think it is a serious thing — especially when you consider that the Governor and Lt Governor of that state were both solid Romney supporters. This isn’t about Romney, it’s about a misguided attempt to “fix” the Ron Paul Delegate problem.
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