"Just late getting involved in the process" is code for "not in our little club." The people involved in the delegate process, for the most part, do it as a hobby. Many of us don't have time to "get involved" months or even years in advance. Doesn't mean we're dumb, it took me about an hour of research to get a good handle on how the process works, but it means the people who have been involved with the delegate process year after year, going to every convention, aren't going to give up *their* spot, their big toot, to some nobody.
I'm going to stand for delegate at my county caucus this weekend. Will I get chosen? Hell no. Not because I'm stupid, ignorant of the rules, or wobbly on conservatism, but because I haven't been coffee-klatching and butt-thumbing with the insiders for the past 10 years.
Another thing, it's a damned expensive hobby. I'm comfortable standing for delegate mainly because I know I probably won't be selected. In the unlikely event that I'm selected, I can afford the trip -- at the expense of things I'd rather spend money on.
No. It is not code for a little club. The delegate process is well-known and the people who have been involved in it have done it for a long time. These people are the ones who have been working to get all the lower level candidates elected for years. They know the ropes. In fact, these people have been the best defense fighting the GOPe, so much so, that Karl Rove and his ilk hates their guts because they constantly interrupt the GOPe plans.
Good Trump tactic. Try to make the entire delegate process the nexus of evil just because they are doing what they are supposed to do and he can't get them to do his will and just hand the entire thing to him.
Obama did a similar thing in 2008, but he was much better at upsetting the applecart.