RedStateEclectic

Romney’s Foreign-Policy Speech: More War, Bigger Budgets

(The American Conservative is the only print publication I get these days, and I can't recommend it enough, especially since they're running a $10 special on an annual subscription. (No, that's not a referal link - I just love the magazine.))

Daniel McCarthy, over at The American Conservative, didn't waste any time - almost as soon as Mitt finished giving his foreign policy speech, McCarthy had his take up.

This was not a speech he had to make — a speech distracting from the ground Romney had recently made up by refocusing his attention on the plight of America’s middle class. And if he had to make a foreign-policy speech, it did not have to cater to the neoconservatives and pork hawks already on his team. Nothing in this speech appeals to a war-weary and economically troubled people. It’s politically damaging. But he gave this speech anyway, and the only reasonable explanation is either that Mitt really believes — zealously — what he says, or else he’s entirely compliant to the ideological demands of right-wing Wilsonians.

Read the whole thing.

Obama's domestic policy is horrible, but if you've been tempted into settling for Mitt - don't.  He's GWBII.

Great Minds Think Alike

My comment on Ryan as veep:

Mr. Budget joins Mandate Mitt. Whoopdeedo.

Justin Raimondo’s comment:

That some “libertarians” are ready, willing, and able to swallow this guff, I have no doubt. They claim Ryan “gets the free market.” Well, whoop-de-doo! So does the Chinese Communist party, these days.

Of course, the hyphens add a touch of class. Maybe I should start a PAC: Whoop-dee-doers for Freedom.

Sununu Back in the Saddle

Mandate Mitt has appointed him chairman of the Committee on Rules and Order of Business at the Republican National Convention.

Political insider Roger Stone reports on the appointment, which he sees as yet another sign of Romney’s less-than-conservative attitude concerning meaningful change. There is no love-loss here:

In my 40 years in national politics through nine national presidential campaigns, I have never met a more arrogant, unprincipled, duplicitous, and self-important jerk than John Sununu. After you shake his hand, I suggest you count your fingers.

Mr. Stone goes on to make the case that Sununu was Bush 39’s blocker – keeping freedom advocates away from the president’s ear. He’s indicative of Romney’s political bent as well:

Sununu's appearance high in the Romney entourage demonstrates again that Romney is no conservative and that his rhetoric regarding spending and tax policy is just that - rhetoric.

Some supporters of Ron Paul are guessing that the appointment of such a flagrantly statist attack dog signals Romney’s unwillingness to play nice at the convention; not so surprising as it is characteristic of the GOP.

Outside of the Tunnel—Lessons Learned & Where We Go From Here

What follows here will probably be a little bit disjointed, but will cover some of the things that I’ve previously mentioned only briefly in the earlier pieces—or in some cases, maybe haven’t mentioned at all.  If you’re just now stumbling onto this, I’d suggest giving a quick read to the following (in order):

Part 1  (Setting the stage—Pre-conventions)

Part 2  (Getting ready for County Conventions/county conventions)

Part 3 (Post County conventions-Night before State Convention—Dr. Paul’s Call)

Part 4 (State Convention Day)

 

The Rest of the Story

• We lost the delegate race.  We lost fair and square—of that I have no doubt.  I have taken slings and arrows from Paul supporters around the country who have criticized us for not demanding a hand counted vote. But the numbers just weren’t in our favor, and the Romney forces were as well organized and stable in their vote for their slate, as we were in ours.  At least one commenter to one of the earlier pieces will claim vote fraud occurred (or at least that it likely occurred, or that it might have occurred, so we should have preemptively demanded the hand count).  We were prepared to raise the issue if there was any hint that there were problems, but there just wasn’t, and since we had already started looking to the future of the movement within the Party (rather than one candidate alone), we decided not to start implying that they were cheating us when our observations and intuition suggested that they weren’t. 
• Strategic, temporary alliances are sometimes necessary.  By the time our conventions came around, there were no visible signs of any other campaigns operating here.  Even the Romney campaign hadn’t done much of anything in Nebraska, until (maybe) the last few days—unless you count the Governor’s efforts.  We knew our numbers (critical, in any political operation), and we knew that we didn’t have the majority.  There was no “Santorum group” or “Gingrich group” or “Bachmann group” that we could reach out to in order to form something of a “unity slate”.  It was us, and the Romney people.
• Ultimately, we made some deals with some folks who wouldn’t otherwise have been able to get to the national convention, we don’t think, if they didn’t have our assistance.  They were Romney committed, but at least non-hostile—perhaps even friendly--to our group.  Their inclusion on our slate of people to vote for (in 2 out of 3 cases, for alternate delegates) represented our trying to look look ahead and build bridges to the larger party, rather than going it completely alone in the future.
• The temptation to blame everyone but yourself is commonplace.
• The “establishment”, if you will, here in Nebraska, has gotten lazy.  Because we’re a late primary/convention state, we have slipped into irrelevance most of the time.  State law for filing for the county conventions is often ignored, because there is such a culture of just seating everyone.  Our folks filed, and yet when they got there—in some cases, in the majority in their counties—considerable hostility was directed their way in some places.  The “new kids”/”Paul people”/”Liberty Caucus” got blamed for upsetting the normal structure of things, but really, all we did was follow the rules—it was those who couldn’t be bothered to follow the rules who howled the loudest.
• That said, “Paul people” outside of Nebraska, occasionally engaged in their own brand of histrionics.  In the weeks before the state conventions, I was taking phone calls and e-mails, and Facebook messages from (sometimes) a dozen different people a day.  “Invite Ron Paul”; “Call out supporters from around the country to form a barrier of intimidation”; “Threaten lawsuits”; “Find ways of wearing the old guard down and having them go home till you have the majority.”  All of this assumed that we could have come up with a majority—or that we at least had enough votes to change agendas, fight rules, etc.  That prospect was tenuous at best, since we only had 40% of the delegates to the state convention at best, and our rules didn’t require any 2/3 votes—in other words, a simple majority could have shut us down.
• I find myself, quite frankly, perplexed by some of the reaction from the Paul contingent around the country.  Within minutes (literally), of our convention ending, I was getting Facebook messages and e-mails, calling me a traitor, suggesting that I had somehow been “bought” when I forged a joint statement with the state GOP Chair that would relieve some of the tension surrounding the event.  Of course I’m still taking some heat in the local blogs (and in the comments section), as well—but those bother me far less than the attacks from the “Paul folks.”  I have, after all, been playing in the Paul sandbox since 2007—first as a blogger, then as an organizer in Nebraska, then as Nebraska RLC Chair, and then as C4L State Coordinator.  I’ll admit that I had sort of hoped that Ron wouldn’t run again this year—not because I thought any less of him, but because I feared that something could happen which would end up discrediting him and the movement. I took the “gambler” approach—I thought that it was important to “know when to hold ‘em; know when to fold ‘em; know when to walk away…..” But once he was the only liberty Republican game in town (and the RLC national had endorsed him), I was all-in, and have spent countless hours over the last 7 months traveling, training, writing, etc., on his behalf.
• In the days leading up to the convention, as people were still messaging me, I started either ignoring them, or telling them “we’ve got a plan we’ve been working for the last 3 months, and it’s not going to work to change it now.”   In a few instances, when I was particularly tired, and weary of taking these phone calls, I ended up saying something along the lines of: “Nebraska is the last state to choose national delegates, if we’re the magic 5th, then that means 45 other states have failed to do THEIR jobs, and if we mess up, we’ll be joining a large group.” 
• While I’m all for exploiting the rules to the extent possible, it’s still unclear to me how people can truly think that Ron Paul would get the nomination (I know, our comments section is going to get blasted with that one).  He didn’t win the popular vote in a single state.  Without that, how can we credibly claim that it’s the will of the people that he get the nomination? (No, I don’t believe that the primaries were rigged in all 50 states.) Would I like to see all sorts of things happen at the RNC next month?  Sure.  Would I like to see a truly brokered convention?  Of course—I’m a political scientist by training, and a political nerd by nature—those are things I’d love to watch happen—in either party.  But do I really believe it’s going to happen?  No.  I can only imagine one scenario where it would even be conceivable for us to end up in a brokered convention—and that possibility is so remote, that it’s really not worth gaming.
• So why did we do all of this?  Why—if Nebraska is at the end of the list, and irrelevant anyway, did a small group of 6 of us (initially)—joined by odds and ends of others later—decide to organize for Ron Paul way back in January?  A couple of reasons:
• Some fights—even when you lose (or even suspect you’ll lose)—are worth the effort.  The liberty movement in the Republican Party of Nebraska is now an element of the Party that needs to be considered.  The Party tent has to get just a little bigger now, because while we see things similarly to the Tea Party in some areas, we are far less (I think) co-optable than the Tea Party.  We (RLCNE-related folks who supported Ron Paul, primarily) now hold a number of State Central Committee seats.  Our folks control a number of County Republican Parties.  Whether the “old guard” likes it or not, the GOP in Nebraska is changing.  I’m the “mom” of the group—the “kids” are the 20-30-somethings who have been inspired to get involved, and who have started forming the backbone of the Party organization that will just grow, and become a major voice in the Party for the next 30 years.  I really do believe that—and have told some of our folks that it’s critical to remember what it was like today, when THEY were on the outside fighting for a seat at the table, when a new group tries to break through in 25 or 35 years, and THEY are the “establishment.”
• In other words, we lost the battle for delegates, but I think we won a lot over the last 6 months—and the Republican Party of Nebraska will be stronger (eventually) because of that—as soon as some of the “regulars” realize that we’re not the enemy; we’re the next wave…the reinforcements.
• Principle.  Sometimes, you do things, even when you know it’s going to be painful, for what you believe to be the right reasons.  Not everyone agrees with those principles, unfortunately.  Our continued effort—even when the delegate race nationally looked hopeless—was done because we wanted to take a stand, and show that we weren’t just flashes in the pan.  My personal refusal (supported, for the most part, by my fellow Nebraskans), to engage in preemptive demands upon the party (like hand counting of ballots, or repeated pointless parliamentary maneuvering), was based on principle, as well.  Have some NEGOP regulars been hostile?  Sure.  But did I think they’d deliberately cheat?  Well, I didn’t think most of them would, and I believed that we could do things the “Nebraska way”—with a sense of cordiality and agreeing to disagree and letting the chips fall where they may.  I think my trust for my fellow Nebraskans—in spite of what happened in some places around the country—has been justified, on the whole.  And the truth is, I don’t think the political culture in our state nurtures an atmosphere where people really know how to cheat well—yeah, I know that sounds funny.  But it’s true. We’re not Chicago; we’re “Nebraska nice”—and even those few counties where there was some “funny business”—they didn’t do it well.  It was obvious to anyone who knew anything about the rules.  We just lost on the credentials battles on those (probably because the credentials committees seldom have anything controversial to deal with)—but even if we’d won those battles, the numbers wouldn’t have been enough to make up the difference.
• So, what’s next in Nebraska?  I’m not sure, in total.  But here are some thoughts.
• The RLCNE paid membership has quadrupled in the last 6 months.  Those identifying themselves as “RLC” but not having paid dues yet, increase our reach even further.  The RLCNE is healthy, and getting healthier.  At some level, we’re becoming the “shadow party”—although we have a lot of work to do, yet.
• The big question for many of us is the role of the C4L.  What’s become clear is that among the “core group” of organizers for this year’s effort, our primary interest is in playing party politics—issue advocacy is important, but none of us are really eager to jump back in to that.  I expect that in the next few months, some of us will have some discussions about the C4L’s future in Nebraska.  I’d hate to see it disappear altogether, but how to deal with it is the unknown.  The answer would probably be more apparent if there was more than $200 in the bank, and if there was a donor base that would allow for the hiring of an executive director for the organization who could take on a lot of the issue advocacy goals.  But there again, it’s been primarily a volunteer organization, thus far, and the leadership has been all volunteer.
• Our NEGOP State Central Committee members will start having a voice in the Party.  They’ll elect a new Chair next January or February—perhaps someone who is friendlier to us (or perhaps not). 
• In the counties where we control County Party organizations, I’ve seen Facebook pages popping up, and have been on the receiving end of e-mails organizing activities.  These are usually counties where the party organizations have been pretty dormant, so it’s exciting to see some new life in some of these counties, and especially to know that they’re being led by younger men and women who are committed to the principles of conservatism that were widely known 40 and 50 years ago, rather than the “expedient conservatism” that seems to be so in vogue today.  I’m sure that party regulars will follow—eventually—if our folks prove to be effective leaders and organizers.
• On whole, I have a great sense of hope about what’s going to happen in our state.  It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen, I believe.

And finally, I feel the need to make some truly personal comments about the last 7 months….

I am, by nature, something of a loner.  I’m not anti-social, but I’m not exactly a gregarious person, either.  My Myers Briggs tests always show me as an INTJ—which basically suggests that I’m a planner/organizer/strategist who lives in my own head.  I don’t think the last 7 months have changed that, but I do have to say that for an introvert, I’ve now got more people I count as friends who I would walk through the gates of hell with, than I’ve ever had in my life.

The men and women who I have worked with over the last 7 months—ranging in age from 17 year olds who were eligible for the process only because they’ll turn 18  before the General Election, to the 90-something Pearl Harbor survivor—are the finest men and women who I have ever had the privilege of knowing.  They inspired me to write late night e-mails, and go through lists one more time, looking for people who might be “ours.”  They inspire me to do more—even in my own Democratically controlled county (ironically, I live in one of the few counties in the state where Democrats outnumber Republicans).  We didn’t always agree on strategy or tactics, but almost to a person, we could talk through our differences rationally—and when it came time for the convention, they were almost always “on board”, and worked the plan.

Ron Paul supporters and those in the “liberty movement”  take a lot of heat from the “regulars.”  We’re called “Paulistas” and “Paulbots”; it’s implied that we’re all a bunch of wild-eyed drug addicts because we believe that the war on drugs is an abysmal failure; we’re accused of being immoral, because we don’t want government legislating morality.

Yes, we have some on the “fringe”—as do all emerging movements—but the vast majority of the folks I’ve worked with are wise beyond their years, are well-informed on a broad array of topics, and are scared to death that the opportunities that their parents and grandparents had aren’t going to be available for them or their children, if we don’t return to sound constitutionally limited governance.

Sometimes, the Paul phenomenon is likened to a “cult” of sorts.  I’ll acknowledge that there are some who do seem to be almost cult-like in their devotion.  But I think that most of the comments—which oftentimes sound so hysterical—are really just signs of how truly desperate people are to be heard, and to have others understand (even if they don’t agree) how scared we are for the future of our country.  My INTJ personality doesn’t let me show that level of emotion, as a rule—I tend to stay on an even-keel most of the time—but I think I’m coming to understand at least some of my fellow Paul supporters.

When I called Dr. Paul back the day before the convention (after ignoring his call), the first question that he asked me was “how are things going in Nebraska?”  I kind of laughed, and he said something like “Just another normal day, right?”

I don’t think that things will ever be politically “normal” again around here—or at least not until the “new normal” is well established.  There are too many new people who have taken on too many new roles in the liberty movement and the greater Republican Party in the the state, for things to ever go back to normal.  But that’s o.k.—normal isn’t always fun—and boy, have we had some fun!  Dreadlocks, body piercings, mohawks are all part of the new Republican landscape in Nebraska.  Will they stay?  Probably not—we all tend to grow out of those things eventually, and the look will morph into something more conventional.  But it’s great to see new ideas—to see Young Republicans who aren’t just trying to be “mini-me’s” of the “big Republicans.” 

I wouldn’t give up the friendships that I’ve made in the last 7 months for anything in the world.  Even those amongst us who drive me a little crazy, I can’t imagine not having around.  They’re good, solid people, who want to make a difference, and if I’m asked to predict, I think they will.

Nebraska’s in the center of it all (no, really, just look at your map ).  If we’re any indication, the future is bright for the liberty movement.

Tales from the Other Side of the Tunnel—the Convention

So, our last piece of this little serialized account of Nebraska’s convention process ended with Ron Paul’s call to our delegates this past Friday night (July 13), and with our formation of “the slate.”

A bit of a discussion about the “slate creation” process here.  First, we wanted to make sure that everyone who we put on the Paul slate was absolutely, positively committed to going to Tampa, if elected.  We found that we had a good number of folks who were willing to go as delegates, but not as alternates, so that stymied some of our slate creation efforts.

Second, we were also trying to create a geographically and demographically diverse slate.  We didn’t want just us “old folks” on the slate, nor did we want just the “young guns”—we thought that diversity would make us stronger in the long run.

Third, we knew, going in, that we didn’t have a majority of the delegates to the state convention.  40% was about the best number we could come up with, if EVERYONE showed up, and voted for the slate.  We knew that if the other side was organized and cohesive, that we were in trouble—by the same token, we knew that if they WEREN’T organized, that we had a pretty good chance of capturing a sizable chunk of the delegates.  Much would depend on how well the “establishment” dug in.

Fourth, we DID make some “deals” with other people—some who were committed to Romney.  Our goal in doing that was to try and get them to bring some people over to our slate and boost our numbers a bit.  Coalition building seemed to be our best opportunity, if the Romney forces were organized.

Fifth (related to #1) we only put people on the slate who we knew were fully qualified to serve.  Nebraska’s party rules call for the Letter of Intent to run to be filed before the County Conventions in May, and then a Notice of Commitment to be filed in early July.  We knew who had told us that they had filed those forms, but we managed to get a list a few days before the convention, from the state party, of all who would be on the ballot for national convention delegates.  Unfortunately, the list that we got apparently wasn’t completely accurate, and a few of our folks showed up on the ballot, who we hadn’t put on the slate because we thought that the Party hadn’t gotten their forms (and didn’t have them listed as qualified).

To come up with our slates, we had asked our known delegates to fill out a brief questionnaire via a web form we created.  Then we started double checking with the state party’s names.  Because we knew that we didn’t have the majority of the delegates, we couldn’t do what the governor ended up doing—creating a single slate, which was put on the ballot—for delegates and alternates.  We had a hierarchy of folks who we wanted to get to the top of our list, based on how much they’d helped us, and how able they were to go.

Our first priority was our Congressional District candidates.  But we needed to leave room on our At-Large slate to see to it that if they weren’t elected, that we could slide them over to the At-large slate.  More on all of that later.

Registration for our convention began at 7 a.m.  We attempted to gather our forces for a 6:30 tailgating breakfast of donuts and juice, and a little bit more discussion and pep talk.  We handed out special pins (see photo below) which would help us to identify one another.

Once registered, we organized by Congressional District, and seated ourselves in that manner.  We had a text messaging system set up, so I was able to send out “flash” messages to everyone who had signed up—almost 2/3 of our delegates.  We’d handed the “final” slates out, which included 7 Ron Paul supporters and 2 “friendly” Romney folks on the Congressional District slate, and 15 or 16 RP supporters and a few “friendlies” on the At-Large slate.  And we had some others—spouses or “maybe willing to attend” folks on the Alternate slate that we’d put together.

We made sure that there was room for “failed candidates” at the CD level, to be moved to at-large, because we had a limited number of people who were willing and able to go to National under any circumstances.  In one or two instances, we stuck one spouse on the Delegate list, and one on the Alternate list.  We didn’t have 64 people who we could have plugged in to ALL of the Delegate and Alternate positions—we had about 35 people who had various levels of commitment to attend, if need be.

The first round of voting—for Congressional District Candidates: we managed to get two delegates elected from the 2nd Congressional District (the Omaha area, which you’ll recall from an earlier installment had a lot of success in the County conventions).  The 3rd Delegate from that district was one who we made the strategic decision to support, even though he was a Romney supporter.  He is an icon in the GOP in the 2nd District, and it was obvious that he wasn’t going to win if we didn’t support him.  After a brief phone conversation, and consultation with a few others, it made sense to have him generally on our side.  If we’d replaced him with a pure Ron Paul supporter, we would have gotten one more delegate, but it wouldn’t have made any difference in the final results in terms of the “majority/plurality state” issue—and again, since our efforts were not just for the delegates, but to improve the standing of the RLC, this seemed a sign of goodwill for the long term.  We’ll see how that plays out.

We slid our unsuccessful Paul delegates into the at-large slate (we’d fortunately left enough room for all of us), and had at the second round before lunch.  The results were even more dismal.  The Governor’s slate held together, and Romney people continued to get elected.

After lunch we had CD alternate votes, and, since our hopes were pretty well dashed, we looked to building alliances for later.  We elected one Ron Paul supporter as an alternate, and 2 friendly non-slate Romney supporters as 2nd CD alternates.  None of our folks got elected anywhere else, in either the CD or At-large alternate races.

Some (mostly outside of the state) criticized us because we did not demand a hand count of the delegate votes.  I suppose we could have pushed for that, but it seemed pretty pointless, and something that would have likely drug things on longer, and caused irritation amongst those with whom we will be working with in the future.  We did run some test votes—just to see how strong the organization of the “other side” was.  One was a credentials committee challenge.  We lost on voice vote, called for division, and went with standing votes.  The numbers showed about 38% to 62%, not in our favor.  Both “our folks” and the Romney folks had vote clues available—people raising signs suggesting “vote yes” or “vote no”.

A second vote, on a rule which we challenged, turned out similarly, about 42% to 58%.  It was pretty clear after those votes that our 40% estimate of power was pretty darned close.

Delegate votes (in the at-large) showed that the slates were holding.  The spread between the Paul slate and the Romney slate votes were very close to that 40-60 split.  Could we—hypothetically—have been cheated by the voting machines?  I suppose so.  Do I think we were?  No.

Platform-wise, we’d had two members on the platform committee (including myself).  We made some suggestions, got most of what we wanted, and declared it a success. 

In the end, the RLC-associated folks (mostly Paul folks), comported themselves with great dignity and grace—even though we were all disappointed in the delegate results.  Our folks left eager to stay involved, and happy with the place we’d earned at the table.  There’s no denying that some on the other side were hostile, and will remain so.  But many of the “regulars” who were there—even though they voted with the Governor’s slate—treated us cordially, and in the end, the State Chair took a moment to thank the new folks for showing up, and the “liberty caucus folks” were given a standing ovation. 

Afterwards, I had the chance to talk to those of our folks who weren’t otherwise occupied by the State Central Committee that was taking place (a goodly number of our folks now sit on the State Central Committee).  There was disappointment, yes.  But no regret in what we had done, and no sign that they were ready to give up the fight.

This post has gotten long…so the last one will deal with some of the lessons learned, and prognostications for the future of the liberty movement in Nebraska, and some reflections on the liberty movement nationwide.

Tales from the Other Side of the Tunnel—Convention Madness #2

(The last installment of this little story ended with the completion of our county conventions, and faced with the reality that while we probably didn’t have a majority of the votes, we did have a pretty decent sized minority.  This installment is going to carry us through the month between about June 15, and up to our GOP State Convention this past Saturday, July 14.  Later (maybe tomorrow), I’ll post the final installment—a discussion of the convention itself, of what went wrong, what went right, and where we in Nebraska go from here.)

So, the county conventions are done, and results start coming in.  Finding the results was easy in the counties where we’d specifically organized and knew people—the big counties, especially.  And the numbers in those counties alone were encouraging.

The last couple of weeks of June, I started getting emails and Facebook messages from others around the state, which oftentimes said something like this: “Dear Laura, my name is ____, and I’ve been elected as a delegate to the state convention from ____County.  I’m a Ron Paul supporter, and have been trying to find out how to connect up with others.”  Hmm.  Maybe we were going to have even more than I thought.

We had our “secret” Facebook page for delegates, so as those new folks came to us, we did a little vetting, tried to make sure that we weren’t going to be adding people who weren’t really Paul supporters, and then included them in the communications that way.  We held a pre-state convention training session, and about a third of our RLC associated delegates showed up to a small retreat center held in the middle of nowhere, close to none of our delegates, to talk about the possibilities.

In the meantime, I began getting calls from National Committeeman and Committeewoman candidates—both of our incumbents opted not to run, so those offices were wide open. 

The Committeeman’s seat was originally going to go to our current State Chair.  He had expressed an interest in running for that, and leaving the Chairmanship early (typically the Chair’s term is up in January or February of odd-numbered years, and elected by the State Central Committee).  The Governor had endorsed him, and then tapped his own favorite candidate to be the “new” State Chair.

But, there were forces who weren’t excited about the replacement, who thought that if there was going to be a change of Chairs, that a *real* change ought to occur.  I was called shortly after our Douglas County triumphs, and after it became clear that we were going to have some influence at the convention, to see if we would be interested in supporting one or another  possible candidates. 

Ultimately, we decided that if the State Chair’s position was open, we’d support a fellow by the name of John Orr.  John is not exactly one of “us”, but he’s certainly friendly to us—and pretty close to being one of us.  He’s been supportive of Tea Party groups in his part of the state, and happens to be the son of former Gov. Kay Orr.  We believed that he would be friendly to us, if elected to the chairmanship, and that he would include some of our members on the State Executive Committee, much of which the chair appoints.

It was early during this period (within a week of the conclusion of our County Conventions), that the staffer from the Campaign who had been consulting with us, was pulled—apparently the campaign had decided to take people off the payroll in order to save money for the national convention…Except we had a lot of politicking to go.

The support for John Orr is where we started running into trouble.  Not because it was John, but because it WASN’T the Governor’s preference.  A few of us were called to a meeting with…the Governor.  Face to face, 8 of us present (the Governor, the current State Chair, and one of the Governor’s aides), and 5 of the “coup.”  Seriously, the blogs in Omaha started taking aim at us, and referring to our effort to try and elect John Orr as Chair as the “coup” in the GOP.

The discussion with the Governor was largely a one way conversation. He told us he wasn’t pleased with our challenging *his* candidate for State Chair, and that *he* was the head of the Party in Nebraska.  We sat for an hour, then he left, and we decided to proceed as planned.  About a week later, the current chair announced that he wouldn’t be running for National Committeeman, thus eliminating a race for State Chair at this point in time.  The Chair said that he was withdrawing to prevent the distraction of a challenged race; I suspect that he withdrew because the Governor didn’t want to risk losing the chairmanship.

While the question of the Chair race was bubbling up, the Executive Director of the Party made an unfortunate comment to a reporter, announcing that the Party was going to “double its security” to make sure that everything was “orderly.”  There were suggestions that Paul folks were “rowdy” or “anarchical”.  That’s when all hell started to break loose.

The Paul folks (via the Daily Paul and elsewhere) started to look to Nebraska as “the hope” for state #5.  So, in addition to the press that had started to make calls as a result of the conflict with the Governor over the State Chair’s race, I started getting calls from press about whether or not there would be contentiousness, what I thought the results would be, blah, blah.

I started to get nervous, because I knew we didn’t have a majority of the delegates.  I also knew just how upset the Governor was with us (he told me he “knows what you Paul people are up to”).  I tried to start playing the possibilities down, because Nebraska is a small state with a largely popular Governor, and I knew that if he got actively involved in the delegate games, that we could have a really hard time.

The irony is, the press coverage probably hurt us—at least on the delegate race, because it caused the non-Ron Paul forces to organize as well as we were (or better).  In a typical year, even when there’s a “slate” for the presumptive nominee, enough people are upset about not being on the slate, that votes get splintered.  If we’d gone to the convention in 2008 with the number of delegates we had this year, we would have taken almost the whole delegation.  But alas, things were to be different.

The last week to ten days before the state convention was a whirlwind, during which time, I slept an average of about 4 hours per night.  The talk of violence was crazy, so I sat down with NEGOP Chair Mark Fahleson, and we worked out a statement which basically said that the State Party would withdraw its plans for expanded security, and we would discourage “outsiders” (i.e. Paul people from around the country) from coming in and causing a scene, as well as trying to exert some level of moderating influence on our folks.  I should note at this point that with one or two exceptions, our folks exhibited a great deal of grace and class.  We knew early on that we were beat, and so we accepted it with good grace, stuck with the plan, let chips fall where they would, and then walked out with a resolve to show that we deserved a place at the table.

At this point before the convention—including yet the day before—I started getting countless phone calls, Facebook messages, and e-mails from people all over the country.  Some were merely “we’re praying for you.”  Others were people who were telling us the things that we “must” do, if we wanted to win.  All of them were, of course, Paul supporters, who failed to realize that while the RLC forces were Paul supporters, that we had the larger goal of working within the Party, so some of their tactics would have served only to hurt our position long-term.  Delaying tactics, repeated extraneous motions—even the insistence that we must ask for a hand count of all the ballots—just left us with the impression that we would be asking for trouble (of course we were willing to do that if there was even a small indication that there was cheating going on).

Likewise, most of these “helpful hints” failed to consider the political culture of Nebraska.  We were treated as though we were clueless about how our state’s convention would work.  Perhaps the most interesting thing (from my perspective), were the calls I got from folks who insisted that we needed to get Ron Paul to come to Nebraska for the convention.  Some volunteered that they could contact Carol Paul directly, and get Ron out there for us.

My question to those who were pushing for a Paul visit (even up to the night before ) was a practical one (or two): Where would we do this?  Grand Island is a town of about 50,000, in the middle of its county fair (in addition to having several conventions going on)—even if he could come, I  wasn’t sure where we’d go with it.  And then another question I had: to what end? The answer always seemed to go along the lines of “If people just hear Dr. Paul, they’ll make the switch.”  Seriously, people thought that if Ron Paul could come and speak to delegates, that Romney people would all of a sudden have the scales fall from their eyes, and they’d vote for the Paul slate.  Nope, I said, not gonna happen.  Indeed, I was (and still am) convinced that if Ron Paul had shown up at our convention, that it would have made things worse rather than better.

We hired a couple of parliamentarians with money from a money bomb that was promoted on the Daily Paul. We flew them in from another state, and while they were helpful, the nature of our State Convention was such that they weren’t really needed—but since we had the money, we thought it prudent to be prepared.

The Friday morning before the convention activities started (they start on Friday evening, with the main convention taking place on Saturday), I was sitting at breakfast with what I affectionately refer to as my Little Old Ladies.  Not all of them are that much older than me, but there are several of them who are well into their 80s, and one who is 90, and we have breakfast every Friday.  I was telling them about the convention that would take place the next day, because all of the media coverage in the state had finally outed me as a political activist.  And a “Restricted Number” phone call popped up on my cell phone.  I ignored it, as I usually do those, and let it go over to voice mail.  About 30 seconds later, I got a text message from my contact in the campaign: “If you get a call from a Restricted number, it’s Ron.”

Crap.  I’d just ignored a call from Ron Paul.  And then, a voice mail notification popped up.  And guess what?  It was Ron Paul!  Gave me his phone number, asked me to call him back, which I did shortly thereafter, and had a perfectly delightful conversation with him.  He said that he’d been hearing a lot from people who thought he should be in Nebraska.  I explained to him that while we’d certainly welcome him, I wasn’t sure at this point that it would be helpful.  He seemed relieved to hear that, and asked about the possibility of calling in on speaker phone for our supporters.  I allowed that I thought that would be an outstanding idea, and that we had a hospitality suite and other things happening later in the evening.  He left it to me and the campaign staffer to work out the details. 

Friday night, I’d told all of our folks to meet at the hospitality suite at 8:50 to discuss last minute strategy.  We set up a PA system outside (not enough room for everyone in the two rooms that we had), and spilled out onto the hotel lawn—probably almost 100 people there (our folks, plus a few semi-friendlies who had just shown up to enjoy some refreshments with us).  I talked a little bit about what was going to happen the next day, and then was going to pass the the mic off to the staffer, who would say a few words, and then introduce Dr. Paul when he called.  We had some technical difficulties, but eventually got them worked out. 

Our group was ecstatic.  The non Paul folks in the crowd were terribly impressed that he’d take the time to call.  All in all, I think we played that one just right.

After things dissipated, some of us strategized final plans for some challenges to the credentials (the counties mentioned in an earlier post), and we put the finishing touches on our delegate slate.  And then we all went to our different rooms, and tried to sleep.

The next installment tomorrow will will talk about the convention itself.

Fishing in Nebraska - GOP 33, Ron Paul 2

One day, when I was a boy, I was taken by Austrian friends to a pier at the Attersee, to catch fish at the crack of dawn. Handling the fishing rod absorbed all of my attention and when I was retrieving the line once again, I suddenly felt weightless. In an instant, the world turned cold and wet: I had ended up in the lake. I took the incident as a sign from higher spheres never to pursue the practice of fishing again:

However, for some people fishing seems to be a most exquisite form of relaxation.

Maybe some of us need some chilling out after all this (see below) - perhaps even just looking at these pictures of cormorant fishing might do the trick:

Phew! By denying Ron Paul a majority of the 35 delegates at its state convention, the Nebraska Republican party saved itself, and the rest of the national GOP, the embarrassment not only of having Ron speak at the national convention, but of having his name placed in nomination. 90% of the party constituents, and 100% of its establishment hierarchy, will now be saved the pain of listening to ideas that express philosophic principles that were once popular among the GOPers. Wars, police-state practices, torture, presidentially-decreed assassinations, imprisonment without trial, censorship, etc., represent the "new world order" that will bring conservatives to their feet. No more will these people have to suffer the indignity of having to listen to Ron suggest that the peaceful thinking of Jesus should govern American foreign policy! ("Ain't that treasonous, Ralph?" "Well, it's at least blasphemous, Martha!")

The source.

Laura in the News - Via Lew Rockwell

Reports Lew Rockwell:

As the Gratuitous Omnivorous Parasites threaten violence against the Paulians. Of course, violence and the threat of violence are government's method, and the method of government's political parties, too. if the fat cats' hold on you is ever threatened.

The source.

To find Laura in the news, click on the link above or here.

All Eyes On Nebraska

What we’re up to…

I fear, though, that it could get a little bit ugly.  Hopefully the state party will follow its own rules, and not provoke anything.  Our folks are solid, and peaceful, and not going to “start anything.  If the party  is anticipating conflict, perhaps it’s the party officials who are looking to start it through blatant violation of their own rules.

Politics Ain’t Beanbag

I’m not going to go into details of the political battle front that Nebraska has become.   Eric provided a little bit of insight from afar into what is happening, and my unintended infamy (in some circles), here.  {excuse this rather disjointed narrative that follows—I’m trying to get some sort of update to our readers out there, without great attention to flow}

As a student of politics, I guess I’ve known all along that politics could get ugly, but I always maintained this fantasy that we Nebraskans were (as one acquaintance from Iowa pointed out to me) “too nice” to let things get really nasty—especially in our internal battles.  I thought we’d play tough, but fair, and in the end, whoever won would shake hands with the losing side, and we’d come together.  Sort of like Saturdays at Memorial Stadium when we applaud the other side as they leave the field, whether we’ve won (usually) or lost.

I’m getting the distinct impression that this will be an historic GOP Convention (the last GOP State convention in the country, I believe) on the 14th.

Eric (in his article linked above) linked to a few of the stories/blogs that are covering what we’ve been up to.  There have been others, as well.

I am apparently part of the “conspiracy” (or coup), to take down the GOP establishment.  And while I will gladly claim a role in the organization of liberty delegates this year, I had no idea what we were getting ourselves into—and frankly, had no idea that our level of influence could be as large as it has become.  To the extent that there is any plan to take on the establishment, it’s one that’s been developed on the fly.

It’s kind of sad, really…not that we have reached a level of influence in the Party that we could have only dreamed about four years ago, but that some in state leadership are being downright hostile to the “liberty faction” of the Party.  I sat in a meeting recently with one high placed official, and was treated like I was some sort of freak.  I--a 50 year old, lifelong Republican, small-town living, 3 kids, 1 husband, 1 dog, 2 cats, churchgoing, scout leading, school board member—was castigated and told “I know what you Ron Paul people are up to.”  Geez, I thought I was helping to get people active in the GOP.  I guess I missed that third eyeball in the center of my forehead.

Now, Nebraska (rather than remaining what I had hoped would be a low-key convention where we could deliver some pleasing and surprising results), is becoming a battle ground.  Will we become the magic “State #5” that makes Ron Paul eligible to have his name put into nomination?

The Daily Paul folks have picked up on this.  I’ve been contacted by Paul supporters from both Iowa and Colorado who want to come and “help” us.  The folks from “Liberty Live Stream” out of Louisiana are planning on coming to Nebraska (I’m told by some of our folks—I’ve had no direct contact) to live stream our convention over the web.  Our Convention is now being referred to as “Bastille Day” in the comments section.  Not what I had hoped for—indeed, I prefer things to be quiet rather than “explosive” (as one writer suggested that our convention would be).

On the links Eric listed above, I (and the other “co-conspirators”) have been the subject of ad-hominem attacks in comment sections.  Oh well.  But the bottom line is that if you claim to be for “liberty” in Nebraska, you’re apparently a freak. 

Readers of this blog will know that last year at this time, I was pretty firmly on the Gary Johnson bandwagon—not that I didn’t like Ron Paul, but I just thought that it was time for him to cede the movement to someone younger.  When Johnson left the GOP—as much as I liked him, I didn’t follow: I am, after all, a Republican.  I returned to the Paul bandwagon, although tried to stay out of it actively for as long as I could.  Filing deadlines for delegates were approaching, though, and something had to be done, so I and a few others jumped in.

We were the only ones in the state who really organized for our conventions.  And now we’re being criticized for wanting our organization to pay off.  Anyone can organize, but it occurred to me last night the reason why they don’t: because Nebraska’s primary is late (mid May, and non-binding), all of our decisions are made through the convention process, which doesn’t really even start until June 1.  By that time, the ultimate nominee of the Party is already pretty well known.  So establishment Republicans who want to go to the National convention have the advantage of waiting around until all of the other states have done their thing, and decided for us, and then they’re happy to sell Nebraska’s delegate votes to the nominee.  Oh, and if we don’t jump on board, we’re being “bad sports” and are going to “embarrass” the state and the Governor.

Maybe Nebraskan’s are the ones who should be embarrassed—by a system that says that you have to file for your County Conventions before March 1, yet concludes so late in the delegate selection process that those who filed are expected to just toss aside their convictions, not play the whole game, and forfeit.  We’d be ready to fire our football coaches if there was even an inkling that they let their team give up—even if the odds were against them making a comeback—before the final buzzer.  Even if there were no chance of going to a bowl game, we’d expect our teams to keep playing and finish as strongly as possible.  And yet that’s what the Nebraska GOP..and the Governor…are asking us to do:  give up, don’t embarrass the state, be good sports.

I don’t know whether we’ll win or lose (or play to a draw and end up in overtime) in Nebraska, a week from Saturday.  Stay tuned—sounds like it may even be covered “live” (Although I would expect an effort to prohibit recording/streaming, I hope we won’t go down that path—talk about embarrassing, the internets will be alive with the sound of embarrassment for the NEGOP if they try to prohibit transparency.).

LLE