Ron Paul supporters have their day in court, er, armory
Here’s the scene: About 45 Ron Paul supporters, most of them from Republican hotbeds Greene County or St. Charles, are gathering in the gymnasium of the Jefferson City armory awaiting their fate as challenged delegates to the Republican state convention.
There’s an 80-year-old man who made the jaunt on a Monday at 10 a.m. There is Curtis Abbott, one of the Greene County ringleaders. There’s a group holding a prayer circle as the first delegate is led upstairs.
And over on the floor playing with his 3-and-a-half-year-old son Andy is Brent Stafford of St. Charles. Stafford was chairman of the St. Charles County Conference, which elected 137 delegates to the state convention, nearly all of them supporters of the failed presidential candidate, Paul.
Stafford and others believe the state party is ignoring it’s “open door” platform by challenging delegates without a reason. All of the challenged delegates in the Armory received a letter from Richard C. Peerson, the chairman of the Republican convention credentials committee. The letter did not state any reasons for the challenge.
“At least they’re giving us the illusion of due process,” Stafford said. He was referring to the 2nd Congressional District convention in which all the St. Charles delegates were unceremoniously tossed out.
The first to be called before the credentials committee today was Barry Pulley of St. Peters. Pully tried to bring Peggy Young with him. Young is an expert in parliamentary procedure who agreed to represent the challenged delegates in their secret meetings, but she was not allowed to join Pulley.
“Effectively, they were saying I was there because the entire group (of Paul delegates) was challenged,” Pulley said. He stated his case and the meeting ended. He said he still plans to attend the state convention.
Republican Party Executive Director Jared Craighead could not be reached for comment. He was in the closed-door meetings upstairs at the Armory, according to one of the Republican Party officials running the meeting.
Well it looks to me that if you can’t win fairly, CHEAT!!
Any Paul delegate called in for credential checking should be allowed to appear with legal representation.
Lets see how long this will go on when attorneys forcing legal transparency start to appear.
You are allowed legal representation in this country, no matter what the case.
And come to think of it All people are considered innocent and those making accusations must make prove them otherwise. Let’s see how much money the Republican credentials committee is willing to burn up on this witch hunt of theirs.
Fellow Paul supporters, It’s time to introduce the Republican Ringleaders to the legal system.
Dr Dave
Fed-up,
The only people disrupting the conventions are the GOP apparatchiks who break their own organization’s rules to guarantee a result they want pre-ordained. If there is a legitimate challenge to be made to a delegate make it and back it up. Don’t do blanket and blank challenges and deny the challenged the right to defend themselves and stop accusing good people of being dishonorable. Ron Paul supporters have the right to participate, they have the right to submit resolutions, they have the right to run to be delegates. They have the right to do anything the rules allow as long as they follow the rules. They would ask that the Republican party stop acting like cheating scum and follow their own rules. If the Republican party cannot do that, they have no right to act self-righteous about Paul supporters hoping to debate the way that delegates are bound.
“Simon Jester - Will we see conservative heaven under a McCain administration? Unlikely. But the changes that would take place under Obama are broad and sweeping. Under McCain, none of those things would happen. And we would see, at least for four years, an elimination of earmarks, which is more than President Bush ever did.”
See, that’s just it. Call me crazy, but I really don’t think any of the three candidates will actually do ANYTHING different. It’s all rhetoric. They take their marching orders from somewhere else. They all believe in this globalist agenda. Next, we have the League of Democracies. What do you have to do to be able to vote for a legit candidate, who actually wants to be a President and not an emperor? I’m sorry, but I don’t believe McCain would actually do half of what he says he would. On top of that, I think you would have to be pretty naive to trust McCain as a conservative given his political history.
Seriously, didn’t Bush just increase the size of the Fed more than any other President in history? Didn’t he do… Well… Basically nothing that he said he would? Well, other than give us a slight tax break… That he made up for in hidden taxes elsewhere. Didn’t he promise us no nation building? Can we please have some “real” conservatism in the Republican party soon?
“What’s the purpose of having the Convention if the nominee is already decided”, said Ron Paul. Why are “good” Republicans those who support the supposed nominee? What’s the purpose of electing delegates and pretending to have some kind of democratic process if all is decided?! Just let the democratic process take it’s natural course. This type of “fixing” and “tweaking” of delegate results by party officials is so undemocratic, I’m ashamed to be called a Republican. Even if McCain gets the majority of votes at the convention, I’m hoping there are enough Ron Paul delegates to vote in more democratic resolutions that will bring the Republican Party back to it’s old principles again.
These Old Guard power grabbers need to stop their games and move on down the road. They have ruined our Party and have stained our good name. We were once great under Goldwater & Reagan.
Our Party has deserted us. Just yesterday, we lost 2 more conservatives from a 7th-generation Republican family.
I’ve never before been so embarassed to call myself a Republican after what has happened to these people.
I can’t believe the crap that is being spread here. You can hide behind life, liberty and justice for all, but how can you justify changing tthe rules on an election after over 5 million people have voted. Ask the Ron Paul supporters (just over 4% of the Missouri vote) if they would like to change the rules?
“Hide behind life, liberty and justice”? Not even close. Try ….. We wear it as our armband! Besides state party rules can be changed, they were changed in past state conventions! I didnt’ hear anyone complaining too much then.