0 responses so far ↓

• 1 Jackson // Dec 2, 2008 at 1:44 pm

  O’Fallon Brent is absolutely incorrect. The Congressional Caucus was conducted according to the rules that had been established for a very long time. The Ron Paul people, whose candidate had been rejected by 97% of the Republican voters in the state, wanted to change the rules while the game was in progress.

  What Kuypers said he did was not rig the caucus but applied rules that have been in place for years. O’Fallon Brent didn’t like it because he lost.

  Too bad. Play by the rules, support a candidate that more than 3% want to have and maybe you will get somewhere.

• 2 Paul Ground // Dec 2, 2008 at 5:22 pm

  The cute little inserted visual comments during the Tom Kuypers interview don’t change the fundamental facts. The editor apparently believes that denying convention delegates to a candidate who got 4.5% of the Missouri vote is somehow undemocratic or unfair. It isn’t.

  Moreover, the long-standing rules weren’t created as some overnight, knee-jerk response to a lot of screaming, angry Paul supporters. The rules were designed by a number of people both statewide and locally to do several things, one of which is to attract potential candidates to Missouri by awarding all the Missouri Republican delegates to the winner. This has the effect of making Missouri a more important state in which to campaign, to the benefit of all Republicans and, for that matter, all citizens. And arguably, the amount of time John McCain spent in Missouri was a factor in his eventual general election victory here.

  When Ron Paul filed for the Missouri primary, the rules were known, and the Paul people either knew tham or should have. But having been completely thrashed in the primary by not one but three other candidates, they decided the rules no longer applied to them. Mike Huckabee and his people, and Mitt Romney and his people, didn’t do that. They’re Republicans. A reasonable person, knowing that Paul once ran for President as a libertarian, would question the commitment of both the Congressman and his followers to the Republican Party.

  One final thought. One of the editor’s snide visual comments on the interview said something like “isn’t voting in the primary enough to make one a Republican?” Well, um, I don’t want to be abrasive, but no. In Missouri we don’t register by party, and anyone can walk in and take a Republican primary ballot. Just as Rush Limbaugh spent part of his spring urging Republicans to vote (for Hillary Clinton) in the Democratic primaries, voting in the Republican primary does not make one a Republican. Personally, I’m a former Republican County Chairman. Nothing keeps me from voting in a democratic primary — but doing so wouldn’t make me a Democrat.

• 3 Roland Wetzel // Dec 2, 2008 at 9:11 pm

  I agree totally with Jackson and Paul Ground. A few more corrections should be noted. When Tom responded to Sonderregger with his “about 3%” vote for Paul, he was probably noting the St. Charles County figure of 3.88%. (Romney actually won SC County with 37.72% of the vote, while McCain got 34.96% and Huckabee 21.83%. It should be obvious from these figures that Paul’s total was miniscule.) And Tom said nothing about “rigging” the Caucus — you and the blogger said that.
  Further, there were several challenges to various St. Louis County townships, as well as St. Charles County inside the Second Cong. District. In the St. Charles challenge, the delegates elected to the Second Cong. Caucus included non-registered voters, Libertarian candidates, and individuals who have never been known to attend or participate in any Republican activities or events — all of which are grounds for refusing to recognize delegates and delegations. Finally, the unchallenged delegates voted to dump Paul delegate groups (even though there were Paul delegates among those unchallenged delegates).
  Your blog has usually been a reliable source of information; but this time, you got conned with unreliable information.
  Oh yes … at least I have signed my real name — although I’m quite sure who “O’Fallon Brent” is. I do publish and edit The Republican — now preparing to enter our 16th year.

• 4 Corey Stinson // Dec 16, 2008 at 11:40 am

  There is a lot of talk among the first three comments about “the rules.” Why is it then that at the CD2 district convention, the district officers were so afraid of the St. Charles county delegation that they cordoned them off behind a fence of cafeteria tables and completely ignored the parliamentary rules of order in holding a meeting? Why was the agenda for the district convention meetings changed on the State GOP’s web site at 10pm the night before CD2 convention? Why were delegates to the CD2 convention being required to sign pledges of support to John McCain, and told they would not be seated w/o signing such a pledge, when there is no such provision in party rules. Why was I told by Mike Lera that I would be ejected from the premises simply for taking photographs of the event? If Ron Paul only had 3% of Republican support in St. Charles county, what did CD2 district officers have to fear in holding a fair, by-the-rules convention? Truth it, rules were completely ignored so that the entire process could be rigged to stamp out any dissenting opinions by those who _were_ following the rules.

  Sounds a lot like fascism to me! …and, you lost my vote in this recent election and the GOP ticket lost too. Keep shutting more voters out of the process, and keep losing elections.

• 5 Berk // Dec 16, 2008 at 2:46 pm

  These actions by the Ron Paul supporters were not an isolated incident. They attempted to change the rules at county and district caucuses all over the state.

• 6 DLWells // Dec 16, 2008 at 3:31 pm

  Au contraire, it was the Ron Paul supporters who upheld the Republican Party’s rules, and the radicals in the GOP who tried to keep us out.

  Your argument about how terrible Ron Paul is because he ran as a Libertarian in 1988 doesn’t hold water.

  A registered Democrat and admirer of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan supported the New Deal, then in the early 1950’s began to shift rightwards out of a desire for a more limited federal government.

  Are you saying you didn’t vote for Reagan? Tsk, tsk. You should be deeply ashamed.

  Please point to the exact rule where it states that that if individuals have never been known to attend or participate in any Republican activities or events is “grounds for refusing to recognize delegates and delegations.”

  Still waiting to see that one.

  You so-called GOP party people are killing our conservative roots in America.

• 7 Robyn Hamlin // Dec 16, 2008 at 5:27 pm

  Just because Ron Paul ran for president under the libertarian ticket in 1998 does not mean that his supporters were not Republicans. I have been a republican my entire life, was a precinct leader for the Republican Party for 8 years in Illinois, ran for County Council as a Republican in Illinois, moved to Missouri and joined the local Republican group, am in charge of publicity for the group, and was told that supporting the wrong candidate PRIOR to the primary was cause to question my loyalty to the party. I submit that MY party has been taken over by liberal democrats. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsUEvyDlvE8

  My party has left its conservative roots and I want my party back. The liberal democrats who have taken over my party need to go. John McCain said he was going to leave the party and become a democrat in 2003 or 2004 but it turned out that they didn’t have too. The dem’s infiltrated the conservate base and now the conservative’s don’t have a party anymore. This is sad and our country is going downhill because of this.

• 8 Josh Carter // Dec 16, 2008 at 11:21 pm

  I’d like to echo Robyn’s notions that liberals have taken over the Republican Party. Mr. Kuypers’ statement that McCain was “his type of Republican” should be troubling for those who wish to see this socialist megatrend discontinue, and Mr. Kuypers himself can go the way of McCain’s campaign as far as I’m concerned. Keep your fascism to yourselves, boys, real men have real work to do here.

  -Josh Carter

Leave a Comment