A Ron Pall Descends on Tampa

Now, just shut up and stay still!

Since I already wrote about this there’s very little need to add.

No Ron Paul revolution at convention
By: James Hohmann
Politico
August 23, 2012 06:20 PM EDT

TAMPA, Fla. — The Republican establishment has quelled the Ron Paul Revolution, at least for 2012.

Using a mix of charm and procedural hardball, Mitt Romney’s campaign and his allies who control the Republican National Committee have ensured that the Texas congressman will neither speak nor be formally nominated at next week’s convention. It’s a significant victory for Romney, who could have been faced with a raucous rebellion from the Paul crowd if he hadn’t extended an early, and diplomatic, olive branch to what’s become a key constituency.

The libertarian septuagenarian controls the state delegations from Nevada, Iowa and Minnesota. But a candidate needs five states to be officially recognized on the floor. Paul supporters have made claims to Louisiana, Massachusetts, Oregon, Oklahoma and Maine. But Romney’s coterie of lawyers skillfully used the rules and interpersonal negotiations to peel each away.

The 168-member Republican National Committee approved a report Thursday by the Romney-friendly “committee on contests” that invalidated Paul delegates elected in Maine based on irregularities at the state convention. The RNC voted to split the at-large delegation in half, effectively depriving Paul of control…

Ah, but listen to this section from “Smoked and Mirrored” (17 July 2012):

ii. Tricky Dick and his New Mexico minions

The nominee of the Republican Party in 1972 was not entirely approved of by the entire party. In fact, in my own household, my mother was mad as hell at him. I was soon to be up for the draft, and she had voted for him because he’d promised to end the Vietnam War. Four years later, it still wasn’t over.

Pete McCloskey

That’s the background. Here’s what happened. A decent and good man, Pete McCloskey was a Republican “maverick” a long time before John McCain decided to adopt the term as his marketing slogan in 2008. And Pete was a native Californian, like Nixon, born in Loma Linda, and then a congressman from Northern Calif0rnia, where he was challenging Nixon from. Wikipedia:

McCloskey voluntarily served in the U.S. Navy from 1945 to 1947, the U.S. Marine Corps from 1950 to 1952, the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve from 1952 to 1960 and the Ready Reserve from 1960 to 1967. He retired from the Marine Corps Reserve in 1974, having attained the rank of Colonel. He was awarded the Navy Cross and Silver Star decorations for heroism in combat and two Purple Hearts as a Marine during the Korean War. He then volunteered for the Vietnam War before eventually turning against it. 

In 1992, he wrote his fourth book, “The Taking of Hill 610″, describing some of his exploits in Korea.

Waving our signs like trained seals

McCloskey challenged Nixon on an anti-war platform, and in New Mexico, my parents were among those registered Republicans who voted McCloskey his sole delegate at the Republican National Convention. Here’s how Wikipediatells it, and then I’ll tell you what ACTUALLY happened:

He sought the 1972 Republican Presidential nomination on a pro-peace/anti-Vietnam War platform, and obtained 11% of the vote against incumbent President Richard M. Nixon in the New Hampshire primary. At the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida, Rep. McCloskey received one vote (out of 1324) from a New Mexico delegate. All other votes cast went to President Nixon, thus McCloskey finished second place in the race for the Presidential nomination. Congressman John Ashbrook of Ohio had also challenged President Nixon’s bid for re-nomination, albeit on a conservative platform.

But what happened in New Mexico seemed a victory at the time: McCloskey’s delegate could put Pete in nomination, and he’d get a speech, and with ANY second, McCloskey would get to speak (gasp!) that the VIETNAM WAS AN INSANE CLUSTERF**K AND SHOULD END NOW! (which Bobby Kennedy had been called a “Communist” for suggesting four years earlier.)

But never fear, the Republican Establishment was on the job.

UPRR party car!

At the New Mexico State convention, no McCl0sky delegate was selected. All Nixon men were sent to Bebe Rebozo’s backyard, and the New Mexico delegation would “vote” the delegate’s vote at the convention, but McClosky’s voice was silenced by the New Mexico state Republican Party (I am sure that the White House approved, or perhaps even suggested the Machiavellian ruse).

Thus, no dissent. No nomination. No embarrassing speeches. No hint of actual respectful dissent nor “democracy” in the Nixon Convention that year. Just a pageant, whose Roger Ailes scripted event was embarrassingly given (inadvertently) to a British radio network, who distributed it to other media, and we had radio commentary READING from the script before the trained seals barked lines like:

[SPONTANEOUS DEMONSTRATION FOR MRS. AGNEW  2 min.]

It was as fake as any sitcom. And the Republican voters of New Mexico were silenced. My PARENTS were silenced. It wasn’t just Pete McCloskey. And Pete continued to serve honorably, as the Wikipedia article notes:

[McCloskey's] book “The Taking of Hill 610″ put an end to Pat Robertson’s 1988 Presidential run.

McCloskey, who served with Robertson in Korea, wrote a public letter which said that Robertson was actually spared combat duty when his powerful father, a U.S. Senator, intervened on his behalf, and that Robertson spent most of his time in an office in Japan. According to McCloskey, his time in the service was not in combat but as the “liquor officer” responsible for keeping the officers’ clubs supplied with liquor. Robertson filed a $35 million libel suit against McCloskey in 1986. He dropped the case in 1988, before it came to trial and paid McCloskey’s court costs.

McCloskey was the first member of Congress to publicly call for the impeachment of President Nixon after the Watergate scandal and the Saturday Night Massacre. He was also the first lawmaker to call for a repeal of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that allowed for the War in Vietnam. An opponent of the Iraq War, McCloskey broke party ranks in 2004 to endorse John Kerry in his bid to unseat George W. Bush as President of the United States. [...]

The Sierra Club recognized McCloskey for helping to unseat Pombo with their 2006 Edgar Wayburn Award. In the spring of 2007, McCloskey announced that he had changed his party affiliation to the Democratic Party. In an email and letter to the Tracy Press, McCloskey stressed that the “new brand of Republicanism” had finally led him to abandon the party that he had joined in 1948.  He followed this up with an op-ed column in which he explained that “Disagreement [with party leadership] turned into disgust” and “I finally concluded that it was fraud for me to remain a member of this modern Republican Party”, although it was a “decision not easily taken.”

Nixon and McCain post reelection

Sadly, poor Pete had thought Nixon was an aberration. Turned out he was a prototype.

iii. So, Is Ron Paul Effectively silenced?

and here our July narrative ends.

Yes. Ron Paul is effectively silenced, but more importantly, his VOTERS have been silenced.

But, given that the Republicans clearly indicate with their voter suppression schemes that they believe that they cannot possibly win in any fair fight using rules and democratic (small ‘d’) principles, no one ought to be surprised.

However, we ALL ought to be enraged.

This is not the action of a party committed to government “of the people, by the people and for the people.” This is the machination of a banana republic dictator.

The banana republic salute

Courage.

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