An uprising in Tampa over proposed rule changes has grass roots activists in a lather. Mark Levin notes on his facebook page that a compromise has been reached, but the celebration may be premature: my understanding is that the Romney people / RNC compromised on one rule concerning delegates, but a second rule — an amendment to rule number 12 under this year’s convention — would allow the establishment to “make executive convention rule changes and rewrite the rules between conventions without any input/consultation with grass-roots, delegates, or state leadership on hand,” according to Michelle Malkin.
The RNC has never had this power before. And it’s not clear why they’d need it. Just as stable laws allow for equality of opportunity, stable rules prevent the kind of cronyism that, in DC and within the political ruling classes, is not Party specific.
Conservative activists are expected to file a minority report and bring the fight to the convention floor today at 2 et.
If you have a moment, contact your state party headquarters and tell them to oppose Romney’s new rule proposal. Importantly, this isn’t just about the Paulbots — though the establishment is selling it that way. This is an effort to control the Party and dampen the influence of conservative activists and the grass roots efforts that rewarded the GOP with the House in 2010.
— And the grass roots, in turn, were rewarded with epithets from their establishment betters — called Hobbits, knuckle draggers, “True believers,” “purists,” et al — in an effort to diminish their influence and crush their spirit and activism. Still, this election season’s Senate nominations showed Party insiders they hadn’t not done nearly enough to crush the movement uprising. And so predictably, they’re looking for ways to consolidate power and prevent challenges to their asserted authority.
But no worries. Inevitable!
Stand up now. Or shut up and “get your asses in line” forever. I’ve been arguing that there’s more to this Akin dustup than meets the eye — and that the very public and very coordinated ginned up outrage from some of our very own useful idiots over what was, in truth, a minor gaffe, was something of a trial balloon for party insiders looking to keep control of local rubes who insist on giving “us” nominees that don’t meet national GOP standards of approval. And those standards, believe me, have less to do with being witches or rape lovers than they do being on board with the ruling class status quo.
In many ways, John Boehner is an emblem of what the party elite has become: we’re given symbolic votes to appease the grass roots, comfortable in the knowledge that those votes are merely that: symbolism. When it comes to wielding actual power — be it through allocation of funds, shutting down the government, etc., — we’re told that we just don’t know How Things Work in DC, that we’re not terribly nuanced, that we need to let the grown-ups do their jobs.
And as a result, the country moves ever leftward, and the GOP raises money by pointing out how the country is moving leftward, without ever having actually to stop the consolidation of national political power. And that’s because they don’t want to stop it. They merely want to control it and manage it. For freedom!
At 2:00 p.m. today in Tampa, the Republican National Committee, led by Team Romney, is moving to shut down conservative grassroots activists. I’ve been on the phone with several individuals involved in the fight who tell me that the fight is not over, it is only just starting.
Specifically, the media is reporting that the rules fight is over because Team Romney is abandoning Ben Ginsberg’s effort to allow candidates to control delegates. Under an initial proposal, delegates would, in effect, be chosen by the presumed nominee’s campaign and not based on votes in the states and delegate selection processes in the states.
That issue appears resolved, but several people I’ve spoken to make clear that Team Romney and the RNC establishment are using that compromise as a red herring to distract from two major rules change proposals that would decimate Republican grassroots and prevent upstart political campaigns.
The first rule to be proposed is one that would give the Republican National Committee the power to change rules between conventions with a three-quarters vote of the RNC. One source tells me, “With a Republican President, of course this is doable. Everybody will roll over if a President Romney asks them too. They’ll be able to get Ben Ginsberg’s proposal next year.”
In other words, if Team Romney prevails in this rules change, they don’t have to worry about Ben Ginsberg not getting his way today on the delegate changes. They’ll be able to do it later when the press and grassroots are not watching.
Call.
Alabama (205) 212-5900
Alaska (907) 276-4467
Arizona (602) 957-7770
Arkansas (501) 372-7301
California (916) 448-9496
Colorado (303) 758-3333
Connecticut (860) 422-8211
Delaware (302) 668-1954
District of Columbia (202) 289-8005
Florida (850) 222-7920
Georgia (404) 257-5559
Hawaii (808) 593-8180
Idaho (208) 343-6405
Illinois (312) 201-9000
Indiana (317) 635-7561
Iowa (515) 282-8105
Kansas (785) 234-3456
Kentucky (502) 875-5130
Louisiana (225) 389-4495
Maine (207) 622-6247
Maryland (410) 263-2125
Massachusetts (617)-523-5005
Michigan (517) 487-5413
Minnesota (651) 222-0022
Mississippi (601) 948-5191
Missouri (573) 636-3146
Montana (406) 442-6469
Nebraska (402) 475-2122
New Hampshire (603) 225-9341
North Carolina (919) 828-6423
Oregon (503) 595-8881
South Dakota (605) 224-7347
Vermont (802) 223-3411
Wisconsin (608) 257-4765
Nevada (702) 258-9182
New Jersey (609) 989-7300
North Dakota (701) 255-0030
Pennsylvania (717) 234-4901
Tennessee (615) 269-4260
Virginia (804) 780-0111
Wyoming (307) 234-9166
New Mexico (505) 298-3662
Ohio (614) 228-2481
Rhode Island (401) 732-8282
Texas (512) 477-9821
Washington (425) 460-0570
New York (518) 462-2601
Oklahoma (518) 462-2601
South Carolina (803) 988-8440
Utah (801) 988-8440
West Virginia (304) 768-0493
(h/t JHo)
Romney really enjoys centralized power – that’s all this is. And we knew that when we nominated him didn’t we so he’s actually has won something of a mandate to do this sort of thing.
plus the nary a peep from Paul Ryan what you are hearing if you listen really really hard?
it’s called “foreshadowing”
The Establicans are desperate to not lose control.
On the eve of a mighty ORomney victory against the forces of American communism, ask yourself why establishment conservatism is concerned about its power.
ooh I know it’s cause of Ron Paul
Isn’t there a designer cupcake somewhere calling to you griefer?
cupcakes are so over Mr. Ernst no more sweets for me
my new thing is Hugo’s – there’s so much to explore!
plus also there’s Hugo’s Tacos around the corner – the torta is a treasure – don’t get the salads they’re very meh but *do* get some of their tasty sage white beans on the side
I wonder how to deal with these tactics (repeated across the country) without hurting the Tea party.
The RNC wants no doubt as to who’s convention this is. This is why working within the party won’t work for tea party types and conservative libertarians. There is a power structure in the GOP that has continuously tried to co-opt the TP for votes.
Remember the ugly primary fights and the pissy response from the career Republicans. The GOP isn’t the TP and the TP isn’t the GOP. Just look at the goddamn nominee. It’s their party and they’ll lose if they want to.
Honestly it’s like the GOP D.C. establishment and the Romney Campaign are just daring the base to sit it and reelect Obama.
That was an interesting read bh. Sorta suggests the whole rEVOLution thing is an Axelrod(esque) counterpart to Occupy, don’t it?
I suppose it’s only fitting that it bites Romney in the ass after successfully using Ron Paul against the other candidates in the primaries.
Rick Santorum is probably smiling a bit today.
My answer on first blush, bh, would be to tell them to give their delegates to the socialist, then. After which, if they ever again pretend to be in favor of liberty, private property, etc., they will be shown for what they really are: self-serving blackmailers who believe the ends justify the means. That is, right-leaning leftists who have become useful idiots for Marxism.
Which, congrats on that — though I doubt they’ll put it on the cover of their next pamphlet.
Utah (803) 988-8440 -> 801 is the area code. Malkin has it wrong, too.
Yeah, it’s that ends justify the means bit that bothers me, Jeff.
Want delegates? Win states. Want to defeat Romney? Don’t collaborate with him to knock off all the other candidates.
Let me pop a comment in here that Paul is a loony old Troother who doesn’t deserve the time of day. And who after four decades of service and Reagan’s endorsement, still can’t spell foreign policy.
The problem is the movement is right on all major issues, more so than any major party.
Hate the Troother, love the truth.
I wonder how to deal with these tactics (repeated across the country) without hurting the Tea party.
Hard work, mostly.
Put in the effort to ensure that local Tea Party voters are as well organized and motivated as the Ronulans. Make sure that they understand the rules of order, and make sure that the president of the proceedings isn’t afraid to use his gavel. Insist that there be a sergeant-at-arms handy to remove those who insist on disrupting the proceedings. Recruit and train a media specialist to get out ahead of the story about how the poor put-upon Ronulan lambs were thrown out by the jack-booted thugs. Basically, do everything the Ronulans are doing within the rules, but do it better, and with more people.
Or I suppose we could just get Old Man Paul to hand-pick a successor who could carry the Tea Party banner, and just leave the Ronulans to do what they’re doing now, except in a manner congruent with our interests. But that might be tricksy.
The point? Republican tactics.
Yeah, more hard work is probably the answer, Squid. It would have been nice to only have the establishment GOP and the left on our plates. I guess it is what it is though.
“would allow the establishment to “make executive convention rule changes and rewrite the rules between conventions without any input/consultation with grass-roots, delegates, or state leadership on hand,”
We’ll have to starve the GOP of money then and make them beg for super-pac funds and control the super-pacs at the grass roots level by region then.
No donations with representation.
Hey, man — the People’s Front of Judea has always been at loggerheads with the Judean People’s Front. It’s the way of things.
Some tender hearted advice for the GOP establishment, offered in the spirit of brotherly love and and compassion, which should be easy and painless to follow since it doesn’t exist :
“I don’t need your forgiveness
I don’t need your hate
I don’t need your acceptance
So what should I do
I don’t need your resistance
I don’t need your prayers
I don’t need your religion
I don’t need a thing from you
I don’t do what I’ve been told
Your so lame why don’t you
Just go
Die mother fucker die mother fucker die “
What to we do about those Fedykin death commandos of his storming the precinct caucuses?
Get out our broadest brushes, Ernst. Thereby to protect Team R.
Did you read the bit bh linked, JHo?
Fascinating stuff. Could be I misread the situation, but it sure seems as though this is further confirmation the GOP doesn’t grasp its own peril.
They said I was like an American taliban,
A source of shame that this country’d never understand
Blackened my name, made my opinions contraband
Now they want my vote so THEY can make their final stand,
Turn out then hide,
The opponent’s a nice guy,
Etch a sketch my hate
So they can replay ’08.
They tell me I owe them my vote, my time, my money
to help them fuck me over while they claim to save my country.
I got to be quiet ’till they cue me to cheer,
Then it’s back in the box for at least two years.
I did and then posted those three clips. I’m less impressed by Geller’s breathless reportage of tit for tat then I am the GOP’s subterfuge. What happened in Nevada in 08 — at the least — may have alerted the grassroots that this was war.
Wow, Team Romney pulls this crap just after Palin suggests that Romney should be given a chance.
The GOP claims there is no establishment, yet is trying to insert a rule that favors the establishment.
I was starting to have some sympathy for Team Romney, but no more.
It doesn’t matter if rule 12 is withdrawn, it should never have been proposed in the first place.
This virtually assures there will be a solid third party in 2016, providing the country survives that long.
I missed your clips.
I don’t think it was Geller’s own reportage. I think it was from somebody on the ground.
Oh, I see why. I read comments inside WP. The vid doesn’t show up there.
Let us remember what we’re buying with Romney and his GOP. If you want some cold water in your face, have a listen:
http://www.coffeeandmarkets.com/CoffeeandMarkets082812.mp3
Romney is not going to repeal Son of Romneycare. Certainly not if the GOP fails to win the Senate, and even if it does, don’t count on Mittens picking a fight right away. Son of Romneycare is here to stay.
On Sunday, Romney himself defended the law, saying he was “very proud” of the legislation known as “Romneycare” during an interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace.
snip
Romney cited his health care law as an example of how he has protected health care for women.
“First of all, with regards to women’s health care, look, I’m the guy that was about to get health care for all of the women — and men — in my state,” Romney said. “They’re talking about it on the federal level, we actually did something. And we did it without cutting Medicare and raising taxes.”
“So you’re saying, ‘Look at Romneycare?'” Wallace interjected.
“Absolutely. I am very proud of what we did, and the fact that we helped women and men and children in our state. And we did it without cutting Medicare.”
http://www.businessinsider.com/mitt-romney-romneycare-andrea-saul-health-care-obamacare-conservatives-2012-8#ixzz24rDqXnYs
Notice that Mittens does not bring up the fact that fully $385 million of Romneycare’s cost was paid for by you, the taxpayer of the other 49 states.
An additional $385 million comes from federal Medicaid funds that Massachusetts redirects into its uncompensated care pool.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/bp/bp97.pdf
page 4
So Romneycare used federal money granted to Massachusetts by Mike Leavitt, formerly Bush 43’s HHS Sec’y and currently heading up Mittens’ transition team. Leavitt is also the guy who advised every state to set up insurance exchanges just like Oromneycare requires. Oh, and Leavitt’s consultancy company profits from this.
McKeown, who still works with Leavitt at his Utah-based health care consultancy, acknowledged that the former governor does not want to undo one key part of the controversial legislation.
“We believe that the exchanges are the solution to small business insurance market and that’s gotten us sideways with some conservatives,” he said.
The exchanges are not only a matter of principle for Leavitt — they’re also a cash cow.
The size of his firm, Leavitt Partners, doubled in the year after the bill was signed as they won contracts to help states set up the exchanges funded by the legislation.
http://ricochet.com/main-feed/Romney-s-Transition-Leader-Favors-Implementing-Obamacare/(page)/2
But don’t think Romney isn’t trying to burnish the contours of the story. That doesn’t prevent mistakes, though.
On page 177 of the hardcover version of No Apology that’s being given out at the RNC, Romney describes his Massachusetts health care law and writes: “We can accomplish the same thing for everyone in the country, and it can be done without letting government take over health care.”
This language was problematic, because it implied, contrary to what Romney has said elsewhere, that Romney thought his Massachusetts health care law could be a model for the nation. Such phrasing complicated his argument for why his law was different from President Obama’s national one.
The paperback version of the book was edited to read, “And it was done without government taking over health care,” thus removing the reference to “accomplish(ing) the same thing for everyone in the country.”
http://bit.ly/Ppaou1
People can google for reports of the behavior of Paul supporters at the caucuses. Don’t have to rely on me, Geller, or her correspondent.
Likewise, they can google for videos of Paul talking about our policies of torture, the martyrdom of Bradley Manning, the right’s Islamophobia, questions over the truth of 9/11, or Iran getting nuclear weapons.
Jeff, Laura S. is credited for reporting on the chaos caused by Paulbots.
The easiest way for Romney to be Not Obama is to do what Obama is doing, only better. And what are we told the theme for the convention is going to be?
Obama’s a nice guy, but he’s incompetent.
It’s a time for choosing alright.
Obama’s a nice guy, but he’s incompetent.
Because what we really need is a competent Obama. Someone competent like Mitt. Someone who really knows how to make the ever-growing tentacles of government into efficient tentacles.
Thank Gaia I don’t have to vote for either of these fuckers. In Clownifornia voting R is just a stunt vote, anyway.
Judas Maude, bh, people can “Google” for a universe of American statism led by the ostensible right too. Including caucus dicking and rules dicking and gosh, original principles dicking.
If you had a point I’m afraid your sheer obtuseness concealed it.
RONPAUL!
Obama’s incompetence is a feature, not a bug. What I object to are the things Obama would be getting done if he weren’t incompetent.
Give me a choice between a competent Obama and the one we’ve got, I sure don’t see why I should vote for the competent one.
I thought Romney couldn’t repeal Obamacare? That’s what you guys told me, anyway.
He cn issue waivers to all 57 (sic) states, but a straight up repeal is stepping outside his authority as putative president.
JHo, my brother, I will never be convinced that Ron Paul is anything other than a charlatan.
He has some good ideas, true, but he too often veers off into Crazy Uncle Ron territory for my tastes.
It’s always such a pleasure to comment here when JHo is pounding the table.
Romney won’t sign a repeal bill because he won’t get one on his desk, and he may not have his people even push all that hard for Congress to seriously foot a repeal bill. Look at his history. Look at his associates.
No one said he could repeal it on his own. Any guesses on how quickly the Democrats will have his administration in court if he tries an XO to waive the requirements for state exchanges? His whole waiver strategy sounds fishy to begin with.
When Son of Romneycare entered law in 2010, it became a boulder so large no one knows what kind of crowbar can dislodge it.
In case you missed it.
Bh, when isn’t he? I can’t go through my life being perpetually wound up and ready to go ballistic on people.
I guess by 2:00PM I’ll know whether I should even follow the election or not.
…and I’m even less impressed by Your Inevitable Opinion, leigh, weighty as you evidently expect it be.
I assume that’s 2:00pm Eastern right? So an hour to go to see if I have a horse in this race. Or even a rumor of a wispy, ghostly, faded image of a shadow of one.
That list of telephone numbers is missing a couple of states. Mine for instance.
Reddest state in the country and no phone number.
I’m sure leigh’s convinced that’s not important, Jeff.
Not everyone has reached perfection, leigh. Maybe cut the mortals here still trying to negotiate the facts of loss of liberty and country some slack, what’s say?
JHo, I don’t care about impressing you or anyone else for that matter.
We are dust and to dust we shall return.
I just called and was told that the texas delegation is already voting against the compromise. Rush just said that attempts are being made to thin out the committee heads before the vote.
You do what you need ot do Jeff. I’m not the one with a messiah complex.
How about providing it? I fixed the area code error dicentra alerted me to.
Bullshit, leigh. You weigh in with the loftiest of opinions and apparently expect they reflect reality on that basis alone. Me, I dig around and offer what I can.
No I don’t,. JHo. I weigh in with my opinions. I’m not seeking concensus.
You’re seeking condescention.
My mistake, Jeff. I see Oklahoma on there. The list is not alphabetical as I had presumed.
God damn it. I want to go home and get piss drunk on something tropical.
Who is?
Why do you say that? You dismiss everyone else who disagrees with you, then take your ball and jacks and go home.
FreedomWorks: 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.
No doubt this is just the way adults run the show. Relax and don’t interfere.
Venture socialism to be replaced by conventional cronyism. All is well.
JHo.
As far as I know we’re not in the market for another thor. Maybe everybody could try taking it down a thousand or so.
Yep. Now I’m at work punching myself in the nuts. Great Tuesday. Just great.
Fucking rhinos. I don’t even consider myself a republican anymore and my bowels still clench.
Thanks, GO. I linked that in my latest post and put the link here in the comments but I probably should have made it more clear what’s going on, exactly.
I’m surprised it’s not me causing trouble this time.
Well, no. I do neither. In fact I offer to respect the PW brand and not opine on what I know little of. If you’d been reading, a handful of posts ago, in a thread I believe you attended, I wrote about the hope we all have in the very grassroots being torn out by the roots. Today.
And while I cartoon Paul, I do so preemptively because those of us who haven’t bothered to check haven’t yet found just what I reported in that thread. This isn’t about Paul. I said that. (And I’ll add that Ryan should be Rand Paul’s personal assistant. Keep an eye on this guy.)
Which is that the grassroots is working. It speaks with one unified voice. It is a spirit. It is right on all the issues we here at PW agree about. And it has a plan.
No sooner than I get that out — three times now — but I’m invited to Google Paulbot mania and The Very Breakdown of Civil Politics.
I mean, come on.
Oh, and to answer your question, I said that because in your esteemed view, I have a Messiah complex.
BTW, I think this is the GOP finally committing suicide. They’ve been cutting themselves for a long time, and apparently cannot take it any more.
I’d comment but I’m likely to not have a point and if I did I’d probably be too obtuse to convey it anyways.
I’ll Google it.
I’ve never let that stop me, bh.
Heh.
Ace doesn’t seem to think this is worth a post much less a burning skull.
I must admit that this HAS got me wanting to spit on my hands and hoist the black flag.
You know, that’s an unfair advantage you hall monitors have; being able to go in and correct your spelling and add zingers that weren’t there before.
But I’m sure my opinions aren’t in tune with your zeitgeist so never mind.
“I wonder how to deal with these tactics… (repeated across the country)”
bh,
The best way to defeat a bad idea (anarchy) is with a better one (liberty).
…without hurting the Tea party.”
Maybe it’s time for the Tea Party to up the ante and become an official party. They can caucus with the GOP (at least initially) to prevent the Dems from controlling the House and Senate.
Plus, I’m diggin Squid’s seargent-at-arms recommendation. Could be a new calling;)
Power Line is silent about it. Mirengoff and Hinderaker seem be in accord on it’s lack of newsworthiness.
I don’t see anything on PJmedia either.
Instapundit IS bringing it up, as is Malkin.
Surprisingly Hot Air has THIS from Byron York.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/conservatives-charge-team-romney-with-political-malpractice-nasty-fight-possible-at-rnc/article/2506155#.UD0AbdutMT6
I’m not seeing it on the Corner or at NRO though.
“Maybe it’s time for the Tea Party to up the ante and become an official party. They can caucus with the GOP (at least initially) to prevent the Dems from controlling the House and Senate.”
Cheers Danger, though I believe it’s not quite time yet, though it is a time for planning for that eventuality. I think we can see the time coming, in other words, but that this moment of crisis in the Republic, standing in the person of Barack Obama, precludes that motion now. To say plainly, it’s another matter after the election is over and Barack Obama a near thing of the past.
One thing only now dawning on me though, is the wonder how matters will go if very large numbers of people rise up to create a new party, with no small number of those formally defecting from the GOP — yet suppose this all successful, here we have elected to office men still beholden to an older order, and the levers of state power in their hands?
You think I’d be here without it?
That might very well be the answer, Danger. I wonder about the details of how that would work in terms of all the two party rules out there because they’re byzantine but I don’t think they’re insurmountable. I certainly like the idea of using a coalition government to shuffle the old GOP off the stage. (Though not as much as I like the idea of you being the seargent-at-arms at some random precinct. In a Tea party I think you’d be holding a pitchfork.)
The national GOP took an approach here that wasn’t necessary just to deal with the Paul people. It’s hard not to see their antagonism to the Tea party in it.
Yeah,
I’d go along with that line of thinking sdferr but I’d like to see it happen before it’s too late. Romney will likely slow down the cliff-bound train but we really need to switch tracks. Pronto!
“http://revealingpolitics.com/blog/video/reince-priebus-on-akin-he-can-be-tied-were-not-gonna-send-him-a-penny/”
Yep. Party radio silence after TUESDAY continues.
Virtual GOP rooting for McCaskill remins disproven by power of SCIENCE!(TM).
Mmm hmm.
Palaeomerus —
They win conservative awards, many of those sites. Given by each other. Therefore they are conservative. QED.
Stop being so fringe-y and embarrassing.
Of course we hope against the utter dissolution of the Republic Danger, but I can see no way forward to achieve the creation of a novel political party in the time between now and the Federal elections in Nov., simply in logistical terms, even supposing the boost to communicative speed our modern systems afford.
Well has the GOP cats its vote for self immolation as a means of curing the purist infestation yet? Am I super-double plus outlaw yet?
I’m not sure how to interpret Priebus’ statement as something other than a desire to lose Missouri.
“Stop being so fringe-y and embarrassing.”
I saw the video. It wasn’t even a flyer, it was VIDEO! Shit now we’re gonna have to knock the stadium wall down to move the goal posts where they need to be. But Akin is so incredibly relativistically cosmically stupid I guess it’s worth it.
Akin’s stupidity might be the only think binding the GOP together not. Sort of like recalling that we both sort of liked Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Mickey Rooney’s revolting display of Asianophobia not withstanding) in that song that I sort of hate.
Isn’t beating McCaskill important? Isn’t taking the Senate important?
I could swear I’ve been hearing that somewhere.
Where Pablo? I need his white hot slaps on my naughty cheeks.
“. . . other than a desire to lose Missouri.”
We might charitably call it resignation.
Because political science!
I see a bright future for the Squid Co. Riot Gear and Cranky Cudgels market.
Anarchists to the right and Socialist to the left. Batten down the hatches Outlaws it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.
“Well has the GOP cats its vote” -> cast its vote.
But thinking of cats did lower my blood pressure a little.
Last dinosaur is patiently waiting for his tail gunner meteor to come and finish nature’s job. Please SMOD. Make the pounding in my head go away. I believe in you now. Do I need to build a rocket and go to you? I don’t think I slice my nuts off an eat poisoned apple sauce. I’m not staunch enough. Please SMOD. Send me micro-impacter. Snipe me. Whatever you call it. I don’t think I can make it to Dec 21 and those Mayas’ll probably let me down anyway like the Y2K bug and that planetary alignment.
I gots me no party. I’m a political stag. All I can hear is coyotes howling.
You’ll always have Ace, palaeomerus.
No, ACE didn’t think the issue was worth a mention. He’s probably happy that Romney did this.
Ace did care enough about Romney’s advisor picks to post THIS. In the side bar.
http://dailycaller.com/2012/08/27/a-storm-is-brewing-inside-the-romney-transition/
Ah, well then, apart from the sense in which he sees himself as ‘there for us’, perhaps he too isn’t worth a mention. Again.
If they don’t blog about us we’ll disappear.
Poof.
* The list of words never to shout in a crowded theater keeps growing:
– Akin
– Legitimate
– Abortion
– Caucas
– Ron Paul
– Man. I said I hoped for a floorfight, but jesus Ryan, next time write a memo.
Palaeo,
If you’re gonna go into exhile you’ll miss the counterattack.
Can you know the triumph of high achievement if you spend your time hiding in a bunker?
Can you fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds’ worth of distance run on a broken treadmill?
Can you slip the surly bonds of earth and touch the very face of God from the seat of a Moped?
and finally,
Can you rain volleys down range from a circular firing squad?
Well then how ‘bout getting with the program? Why don’t you jump on the team and come on in for the big win? /;)
The team done jumped on me.
Then pick em up and carry em across the goal line Mr!
I’ll treat them how they treated Akin and me.
Only in smaller scale.
The Power Line guys outed themselves as
RINO Republicanssensible conservatives during the MN gubernatorial election in 2010. The only guy, in my view, over there who’s worth reading is Stephen Hayward.I’ll treat them how they treated Akin and me.
Then you need to join the team with a winning objective and get to recruiting.
Ya trackin?
“Then you need to join the team with a winning objective and get to recruiting.”
I don’t need that.
http://michellemalkin.com/
The dynamite has gone boom.
Fuck Romney.
Fuck the GOP.
Pox, houses, etc.
I’d be organizing a walkout for the middle of Romney’s acceptance speech if I was down there.
Bye bye, GOP.
“I’d be organizing a walkout for the middle of Romney’s acceptance speech if I was down there.”
The third party should call itself the No Longer Republican Party to make a point.
A very recent phone conversation:
Her: Hi, is this [cranky-d]?
Me: Yes.
Her: I’m calling in behalf of Mitt Romney. How are you?
Me: I’m not happy with what he did with the delegates, and he won’t be getting any money from me. Bye!
GOP Rep. Marsha Blackburn just declared that “this has been a great
exercise inexorcise the grass-roots” and that GOP stands for “Great Opportunity Party.”Of course she did. She’s part of that establishment that doesn’t exist even though they just proved again it does.
[…] Update: This PW post is a better source of argument […]
Rush (and Michelle Malkin) thought people should know about this.
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2012/08/28/gop_establishment_tries_to_change_delegate_rules_to_marginalize_conservatives
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2012/08/28/a_unified_convention_torn_apart
Everybody else seems really quiet about it.
Romneybots have consistently derided me when I’ve told them that I’m tired of being blamed for GOP losses and I’m also tired of being the one who has to compromise for the “greater good.”
Every single Romneybot, after this power grab at the convention, can fuck themselves sideways with a swordfish while staring at a nude picture of Helen Thomas.
Neither transcript has the quippiest thing Rush said today.
“The Democrats and Republicans have the same fatal weakness. They both believe the Democrats’ press.”
(approximately)
I feel like I just $#@%ed a volcano and my $#@# is on fire. I really should have seen it coming. The elephant has been forgetting like a mother $#@$er the last two years.
They are singing Amazing Grace behind Krauthammer right now. I guess its an impromptu funeral for the party.
I chased my husband off into the other room to watch the convention coverage which is adjourned for a few hours that they are filling with Shemp standing around in New Orleans in a rain slicker in the sun.
Did anyone think Romney and Co were going to be the salvation of the GOP? Really?
What, exactly, are you disappointed in or disillusioned by?
The very best thing I can say about a Romney presidency is that he’s not Barack Obama. If Romney wins, Job #1 beginning 1/21/2013 is riding Romney’s ass. #2 is retiring the likes of Boehner and McConnell.
The only thing beating Obama does is give us more opportunity to play the long game.
Danger says August 28, 2012 at 1:37 pm
You can’t simultaneously be pouting and winning.
What, exactly, are you disappointed in or disillusioned by?
nomination power grabs for 2016 and beyond
The worst thing for me is that if not for Michelle Malkin and Rush Limbaugh I would not have even known this ever happened.
I’d probably be watching the convention thinking “Maybe Romney can pull this together”.
That sums it up pretty well, Pablo. The GOP has been on life-support for ages.
(apologies for the analogy)
Time to pull the plug then.
Sadly, yes.
I urge us all to remember the good times we had with the GOP. The heady days of Reagan, for example.
The only thing beating Obama does is, umm…… uhh…..
lemme see here………..
hmmm……..
erm, uh…
I give up?
Time for mutiny. Insurrection. Infiltration. Overwhelming. And not by footstomping like Branch Paulinians have been doing.
Too many of us have been sleeping through the games, expecting that we’d win by acclamation. Ain’t gonna happen.
B Moe, if he wins again, it’s over. We’ve lost America.
I am voting for Johnson. He matches up to most of my positions better than anybody.
I am not so sure Obama with a contrarian legislature will do more damage than Romney with a compliant one.
I know all about the executive order business, but we have a chance to fight that. Boehner, McConnell and Romney would have free rein to do it legitimately.
Pablo, I was not expecting Romney to save the party. I was hoping Romney would be just enough to give the TEA party time to take over the GOP.
Obviously, the GOP and Romney have other plans.
By the way, I admit I should have known better.
It’s liberating to live in a state whose electoral outcome is already decided, isn’t it? I feel for you swing state folks who need to think about this.
Of course Romney does. And the GOP has the plans of whoever has the reins. Which, I don’t see why the TEA Party should stop working to take them. This movement is 3 years old. This is not a short game.
Liberating is a good word.
Romney is who we thought he was. That was settled months ago. What was unexpected was the decision to neuter the grassroots conservatives. I’ve just been told that the price of saving America from four more years of Obama is accepting the Arlen Specter was right: The Republican Party is no longer conservative. That price is too high.
Especiallty because Romney’s idea of saving the country is finding a competent version of Obama-ism.
If the country can’t survive four more years of Obama, then we’ve already lost it. Because Mitt won’t save it.
I think you overestimate what happened here. It was a bullshit power grab, no doubt. But I just checked and my balls are still intact. You?
Yeah, and I’m not inclined to surrender them for a guy running on competence and a smaller appetite for fundamental transformation.
I don’t expect Mitt to save it. We need to do it, while there’s still time. Part of that is cleaning out the modern day Augean stables that is DC and it’s lesser satellite the GOP.
It’s that or surrender. Or we could try Reform Party II.
We should be up President Romney’s ass all day every day. We should be the polar opposite of Obamabots. Unless Obama wins again, in which case I’m going to be figuring out where to go Galt.
I’m sure the birchers still had their balls too. It’s not really a question of a ball check. The party just admitted its too stupid to live. 2010 = nothing is now the official above board no exceptions policy of the party. Romney is the guy who pushed the plunger and finally blew it up.
Sooooooo, whatcha gonna do?
Hey, you remember how Bush wanted to do amnesty? And do you remember why he couldn’t get it done?
We have the power. We just need to learn how to properly wield it.
You say that as though something new and different happened. Since when is a power grab exceptional?
It is something new. I can’t speak as to power grabs being exceptional or not but this was not what we were talking about yesterday.
rick santorum is giving a great speach
“. . . whatcha gonna do?”
On the upside, the simple thing is we do what men — or political men in particular as political men — have always done. We do what Tocqueville noted especially about Americans in particular: we associate.
And we do this with careful discrimination as to our ends, which is mostly only to say not willy-nilly, but picking and choosing carefully. For after all, we here at least do not have a need to reinvent the wheel, as the saying goes, but can lean upon — though perhaps only so far as we work to better understand — the founding and framing documents of our not so old history as a nation. Our aim is to reestablish formerly well understood principles and modes of political conduct which themselves had proven possible over many years of trial.
I’ve already pretty much gone Galt. So that part’s done.
I don’t expect much out of our president anymore. Whoever he may be. I do think Romney would be an improvement over Obama. If nothing else, he won’t be bowing to any douce-y Saudi princes or promising to be flexible with Commie dictators.
He’s a rah-rah U!S!A! guy and that will cheer some people. His family isn’t embarassing. So there’s that.
Under normal circumstances it isn’t. But we keep getting told that this is the most important election ever, and then the Romney camp the Professional Republicans go and alienate the conservative grassroots.
I’m supposed to accept that Akin speaking his mind about an issue near and dear to him was unacceptable, inexcusable and beyond the pale; so much so that the Chairman of the RNC has publically said he’d rather lose Missouri than help Akin win under any circumstances. And yet at the very same time I’m supposed to accept that Establicans making a power play precisely when we all need to focused on the twin goals of defeating Barak Obama and retaking the Senate, because if we don’t the Nation is Lost?
One’s an unnecessary and perhaps ruinous distraction and the other’s no big deal, just business as usual?
FUCK THAT I’m not buying it, and I won’t buy into it.
That Ted Cruz knows how to speak.
But we keep getting told that this is the most important election ever
And you believed this? Ernst, I am surprised at you.
cruz is cruising i’ll say
Yes, Ted Cruz gets it. He’s saying what needs to be said, not what the Party wants to hear. He’s pointing out the path, though not as explicitly as we might like.
This was fun to watch.
That Ted Cruz is even on this stage? Bit of a victory.
Stop it Pablo! They’re still passing the crying towel around.
Crying is for losers.
A bit of victory? Booby prize is the word.
Crying is for losers.
Got that right.
I’d suggest that characterizing people’s reasonable dissatisfaction as crying is a great way to encourage them to not listen to other things you might have to say.
At least we talk big when we lose. That’s winning-ish.
It is. If America doesn’t repudiate Obama and his “fundamental transformation” we will be irretrievably changed. America as we know it will be gone.
If I lived in a swing state, I’d be voting Romney. As it is, I can tell him to go fuck himself and I will.
If you’re under the impression that there are any more than two people who might be inaugurated on 1/20, you really need to check your head. Which of these assholes would you rather be beating on? That’s a question you might want to ask yourself. If you live in a swing state. Me, I’m torn between Gary Johnson and writing Palin in. In fact, I’m thinking Palin/Ryan, for the lulz.
Bad News Bears “Wait’ll next year! We’ve got moxie! We tried our best, now we’ll try even harder! Yay team spirit! “
You’re missing my point in your haste to tease me leigh.
If this isn’t the most important election ever, then there’s no need for me to compromise my principles and support the lesser of two
evilsstatists, is there?That’s part of what these establishment Republicans don’t get. I can’t loath Obama any more than I already do, and I still won’t vote for Romney. Because replacing a bureacratic social welfare liberal fascist with a bureaucratic social welfare corporate statist isn’t sufficient reason to vote from him, no matter how much Rich Lowry thinks he’s a swell guy. It’s up to Romney to give me a reason to vote for him. Not only has Romeny not done that, today he signaled he’s not interested in having my vote. So I won’t, and he won’t either.
What do you think about “pouting”, bh?
Missed a “technocrat” in that adjective string, Ernst.
Pouting < bravado
Pouting < fighting.
“. . . then States have to take it upon ourselves,” she said. Good on her.
Bravado only sounds like fighting.
I’ve not missed your point, Ernst. I’ve read all your arguments over the months and they are sound.
I’m just not going to tie myself in knots about it an election that is largely, okay entirely, out of my control. Always has been, always will be.
I apologize for calling anyone a crybaby.
It is my honest, no shit assessment that Mitt Romney will not repudiate Obama’s “fundamental transformation,” he’ll confirm it. I’m telling you that this man wants to play Eisenhower to Obama’s Roosevelt.
If I lived in a swing state, I still wouldn’t vote for him.
Nicer but still same same-ish, Pablo.
Am I suggesting that shit isn’t flying from all directions? Of course not.
“It is my honest, no shit assessment that Mitt Romney will not repudiate Obama’s “fundamental transformation,” he’ll confirm it.”
Soften it, adjust it. Leave it as a starting point for the next would be transformational figure. Then the “not america as we know it” will be the new normal that must be half heartedly defended and slowly given up. Lucy has a football Charlie Brown!
No. A welfare state is not within Romney’s ideology. He’s a Mormon, and they don’t brook that shit. He’s a business guy and he understands economics. Business guys don’t brook that shit either. If he wasn’t a progressive, I’d consider voting for him, despite not being in a swing state. Is he a power grabber? Hell yes. But he isn’t a Marxist, and if America doesn’t puke up our Marxist-In-Chief, it’s over.
the bar is not set very high for this Mitt Romney
The GOP will let us pick, within reason, what color smoke they blow in our face.
Ann Romney inna house.
Pablo, I was planning to write in Palin, but hadn’t thought about writing in Ryan for VP.
Thanks for the suggestion.
So, which is the more disturbing scenario? A Romney presidency with a GOP house and Senate or President Executive Order with a GOP House and Senate?
I think I much prefer President EO to Romney with a compliant House and Senate.
Pablo, all due respect, but how is Romneycare not a (expensibe bureaucratic inefficient) welfare state program?
Granted, he’s not a marxist, but he is a manager. Or as bh might say, a technocrat. He’s going to run the welfare state that his predecessors built. Sure, he’ll make it leaner, more efficient (to the extent a government the size of ours can be made efficient), but what he won’t do is start dismantling it. I don’t even think he’ll make the case for starting to dismantle it so that somebody else, Paul Ryan maybe, could start to dismantle it.
ann romney meh
The ideal scenario would be Romney with an angry and resentful House and Senate.
But that depends on a lot of House and Senate candidates reaching out to the base and asking that they be sent to D.C. so that they can piss in the Romney —Boehner—Mitchell cornflakes.
So maybe getting angry enough to punch back —make me leave— instead of allowing ourselves to get beat down —fine, you don’t want me, I’ll go home makes sense for those who have that option.
My Congresscritter a tea-party tease, who does as she’s told. Which is why I might vote for her Democrat opponent —I expect that from them.
krispy creme looks fatter on hdtv
I might fucking vote for Obama now. I want the GOP to fucking lose.
Assholes.
Clearly the tea party movement, as well as conservatives in general, are going to have to decide if their best interests are served by remaining inside the Republican party, or if they’ve both outlived their usefulness to each other.
I’m mulling now about which way is best for punishing the GOP in the near term.
Christie has the crowd fired up.
5 standing ovations for Ann Romney.
I liked both their speeches.
mittbots
I’m mulling now about which way is best for punishing the GOP in the near term.
replacing the current speaker of the house
Who did you expect to be there or speak there?
Paulbots?
I guess tea party folks need to get together and do a hand count of people who ain’t gonna take it, go to Romney’s office discreetly and show him that number if it looks like it might be a problem. Then they remind that Tea Party can do stuff in public if it comes to that and they can mention their problems with what Romney said he wants and make a point of distinguishing between THAT and that they want any time a camera is pointed at them, which will happen more and more. Then they can complain about the changes to the republican rules and suggest that it might affect contributions and lead to even MORE local primary-ing and a VISIBLY terse relationship on display for anyone who wants to see it. Like the PRESS. Because a republican party that won’t listen must be MADE to listen. And Does the GOP want Glen Beck doing a special on why they aren’t going to fix anything THIS close to an election?
I dunno. I’d say try that before going nuts but be prepared to go nuts de tout suite if they try to bluff their way out of it.
Just send the message: Yes. We’ll fuck you over right back. You guessed wrong about what we’d swallow. 2008. Ditch. Nice numbers. It’d be a shame if something happened to them. What do we have to lose? How many times can we be exiled?
i been so busy today what’s this about a Dev sex tape nobody tells me anything
palaeomerus, I’d agree with your tactics if Mittens hadn’t stuck his thumb in the eye of conservatives so many times. The man does not give a shit about conservative values. Currently, we’ve got Candidate Executive Order running against Candidate Bottom Line.
Candidate EO refuses to admit we’re a nation of laws, not men, and Candidate BL refuses to admit that top down control won’t fix the problems currently facing America.
I think that’s a good question in a game theory sense (and others). Want influence that actually corresponds to our actual majority in the party? Want to be taken seriously at the negotiation table? We need to present negative scenarios that will result from their negative actions. First rule has always been being willing to walk away.
At the same time (this isn’t a but or a contradicting thought), the ability of our children to bear the weight of these no win scenarios weighs in my mind. I don’t relish hitting the wall. I’ve been dirt poor and miserable and survived. Does that relate to my personal 8 on a 1 to Lord Humongous scale? Yeah, I’m pretty sure it did.
“discovering” at this late date that Mitt Romney is a whore is like “discovering” that Vladimir Putin is gay
hf, I cannot imagine you being interested in a sex tape unless it involves red velvet cake and whip cream served on a naked woman.
please to not imagine me being interested in sex tapes
I think this is best for everyone
bh, Palin has the correct formula, competitive primaries. Palin does seem to have an eye for non establishment candidates. That woman continues to stick her thumb right back in the eye of the GOP establishment.
I like everything about that palaeomarus except the discrete trip to Romney’s office. He’s a smart boy, he’ll figure it out sooner or later.
Palin has the correct formula
and she’s sharp as a tack
she’s playing
with her jewelery
she’s putting up her hair
she’s touring the facilities
and picking up slack
Bite me.
*jewelry* I mean
One way to punish the GOP would be to send money to the unacceptable troglodyte in Missouri, just so he can continue to embarrass by his mere presence.
there are so many better ways to spend money I can’t even tell you
“I’d agree with your tactics if Mittens hadn’t stuck his thumb in the eye of conservatives so many times. ”
I think he might drop that broken bottle if someone sets the top surface of the bar and the juke box on fire. I could be wrong. Just let him see the potential consequences and the will to make them happen at the worst possible time. If he’s smart he’ll blink and come to terms. If he’s not then Obama will probably make a balloon animal out of him once he finds ( or Mitt graciously makes) an opening anyway. But he’s shown more deference and cordiality to his opponent than his supposed allies. The time to try and fuck us over was AFTER the election.
Of course maybe he thought Rush and Michelle wouldn’t get the word out and would cover for him. A few days of bad or ambivalent Tea party people talking to the press might put him in a negotiating mood.
Like I said, ” Nice convention bounce. It’d be a real SHAME if something happened to it.”
I look at this way. We know our kids are fucked if we do nothing. We know our kids are fucked at a slightly later period if we acquiesce to tinkering at the margins, kicking the can down the road, or trying to put entitlements on more stable footing.
Either way our kids are fucked.
So if we do the right thing, promote self reliance, individual responsibility, sound money, limited, representative government and all the other things we kick around here (when we’re not too busy disagreeing with each other about who’s fucking over whom in the great conservative/establishment Republican fuckfest,) what’s the worst that could happen?
We fail, and our kids wind up fucked. Which we know they already are.
At least we’ll have laid down markers and offered up explanations for why they’re fucked. Then maybe they’ll find a way to unfuck themselves instead of sitting passively by while our grandchildren get fucked.
palaeomerus, that only works if Romney recognizes the bar is on fire. In this case, Romney set the fire himself and told the fireman they aren’t needed.
At the same time, we also know that the typical politician only cares about being dead or safely ensconced elsewhere when the Great Lord Humungous National Number Six Dance-Off begins in earnest.
Whereas the ambitious ones, they plan on winning it.
So we have further motivation to change their political calculus.
Agreed, Blake. I wonder how we might pump that strategy full of steroids, play death metal in its weight room, and — wait, I forgot something, I want to splice Dick Butkus’ genes into this strategy — let it loose.
Unfortunately that’s an empty threat. Something WILL happen to it.
The Democrat Convention.
bh..sitting here chuckling as I sign off for the evening.
later.
newrouter says August 28, 2012 at 7:30 pm
rick santorum is giving a great speach
Did ya’ll see what nr did there?
I did and I’ll add a
Keep Firing like that Mr! ;)
Ok, back to catching up.
if Romney recognizes the bar is on fire.
not mittens
Romney’s critics say what he calls “not lighting hair on fire” is really his past history of inconsistencies and of side-switching on issues, the Daily News says. They point to these as reasons for voter disconnects.
link
I hear you. (Throughout the comment, not just my easy blockquote.) (I’d add more but sometimes that’s all there is. I hear you.) (Parens, ladies and gentleman!)
I do sometimes wonder if people know what fucked is though. I’m dead positive that many, many people talking about “bring it on” don’t know what that will entail.
Later, Blake.
If we wanted to send something of a Sicilian message, we could pick a RINO squish Establican in the leadership and go to work getting his Democrat challenger elected. And be very open about why we were doing what we were doing.
I think nr had a good suggestion in mind for that as well.
On the to-do questions, I still harbor a deep suspicion that our best bets are at right angles to the more obvious paths. And that despite the surface appearance those better solutions won’t yield quick results, if any desired results at all, in fact are means and measures without which no proper gain can possibly be made.
I think nr had a good suggestion in mind for that as well.
well levin and me. but maybe a pw “cause” going FORWARD
I do sometimes wonder if people know what fucked is though. I’m dead positive that many, many people talking about “bring it on” don’t know what that will entail.
Oh, this is most definately true, bh. Having been stone-broke myself for many years, I felt sorry for myself until I was whining to my grandmother one day and she told me how she lived in a garage with her three children and cut grapes and chopped cotton for two years dueing the Depression. So, shut up, she explained to me.
Same’s true about many of the people talking about “keeping it going” or “adding to it” (mostly Democrats) or even, so to speak, “slap on a new coat of paint” or “change the kitchen cabinets”(mostly moderate and sensible Republicans).
The Blue Model social welfare state doesn’t work anymore, it’s not a fixer-upper in need of TLC from an enthusiastic do-it-yourselfer.
Except that it is, because when you see that in the real estate listings, you know it’s a derelict property.
Heh, I think we might chance into false disagreement by alternating our visions of what might well go wrong on both sides, Ernst, when we’d both agree about how fighting over rat meat is sub-optimal.
Good times.
rat meat is sub-optimal.
marinade in a lemon/pepper vinaigrette makes the feet happy
I hear you. All I’m saying is that it’s human to think “it can’t get worse than this”
right up to the moment the boxcar door opens up and you see Arbeit macht Frei over the gate.
And if that’s too Godwin-y,
Better a short sharp recession followed by a robust recovery,
but not for the politicians and their phony-baloney jobs when the bottom is falling out.
And thus was born the zombie recovery of 2009-????
Shit, no need to worry about Godwin, Ernst.
I’m quite sure that Selma Hayek discussed this progression in her classic graphic novel, The Road to Surfing.
(Search for that on Wikipedia, Zachriel 2.0!)