First Principles

So today Nevada’s delegation to the National Republican Convention stole the votes of thousands of Nevada Republicans.  Caucus goers were promised that their delegates would honor their votes, and would vote on the floor of the convention in proportion to the vote in the caucuses.  The national delegates promised they would “play by the rules” […]

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Sadly, it seems clear from their actions that the answer is “no.”  Recently, Washoe County GOP Chair Dave Buell filed paperwork to make the Washoe County GOP a distinct entity from the State Party, disclaiming any intention to coordinate with or be controlled by the State.  While this Declaration of Independence has the advantage of […]

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Ron Paul supporters in Nevada had their crowning achievement this weekend – they “took over” the state party.  It took them four years of planning, coordination, and subterfuge, but they won a smashing victory over the weekend by sticking it to “The Establishment”. And in doing so, they (at best) did nothing.  At worst, they […]

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The goal of my last post on the Ron Paul Campaign’s exhortations to lie, cheat, and steal was to shine as bright a light as possible on their dishonorable and ultimately self destructive tactics.  I’m not alone amongst principled conservatives – Ned Barnett in particular has been doing yeoman’s work in ferreting out the hypocrisy […]

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I recently received an E-mail from a disaffected Ron Paul supporter that Nevada Paul Campaign Chair Carl Bunce recently sent out to his supporters.  The long and the short of it is that it’s a battle plan which encourages Paul folks to lie to pollsters to “fool” the Romney campaign, in order to make it […]

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My friend Elizabeth Crum shared a press release the other day from the “Ron Paul Nevada Team,” bragging about their continuing “takeover” of the state Republican party.  I have to ask – what’s their point? Fortunately, like all would-be-tyrants, they’re pretty open about it: “Republicans understand Ron Paul is the only candidate who can challenge […]

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This weekend I attended the Washoe County Republican Convention, and I have to say it was the smoothest, best organized one I’ve ever been to yet.  Once again Dave Buell, the Washoe Party Chair, proved he knows how to plan, build a great team, and put on a tremendous event.  The turnout was phenomenal – […]

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I only got home last night in time to see the second half of the Presidential debate.  I didn’t hear anything unexpected, although overall I thought it was substantive and good.  Will it matter?  Who can say.  But here are my thoughts. ~~~ The most compelling thing to me was in the part I missed, […]

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In a word, no, in spite of ridiculous and baseless allegations from various folks, including these national Ron Paul folks who make the accusations pretty directly. I take these allegations a little personally, since I was in the counting room in Washoe County.  So let me just say for the record that in Washoe we […]

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I wish this debate had happened sooner.  Although it definitely helped that there were fewer candidates on stage – it’s not an accident that fewer candidates and no absurd timeclock led to a far more substantive debate than we’ve seen in the past. I haven’t seen a lot of the post-debate spin from other people […]

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Over the weekend a Ron Paul supporter dropped off this brochure at my house.  And by “dropped off” I mean “jammed it under my front door so it was actually inside the house when my wife got home.”  (Note to all campaign volunteers – when you do something that creates even the slightest appearance of […]

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A reader recently E-mailed me with this question, and I thought the night before the Iowa caucus would be a time to reflect on it here. Is there a good “conservative” “Republican” in the race? As much as I’d like to think the guy currently in office is vulnerable, the Republicans seem to be trying […]

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Ron Anderson at Local So-and-So explains why he’s still in Paul’s camp, in spite of The Newsletters.  Ace of Spades explains why he is not.  (Hint:  It’s much, much, much more than newsletters.) I respect where Ron (Anderson) is coming from, but I’m with Ace. 

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When Bill Clinton was being impeached for perjury, I was beyond annoyed with the whole spectacle.  It’s not that I don’t think perjury should be taken seriously – it should.  And it wasn’t that I was a Bill Clinton fan – far from it. But the sanctimony and obvious political hackery at the heart of […]

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WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!  That’s thought one.  GOOD.  It’s nice when justice is served.  That’s thought two.  But this great moment is worth more comment and thought than that.  There are important political and policy lessons to be learned from this as the election to choose our next Commander in Chief heats up.  So, in no particular order… […]

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I got a campaign call yesterday from a supporter of local pawn shop manager and proud pit bull owner James Smack, a self-proclaimed “Constitutionalist” running against Dean Heller for his Congressional seat in the Republican primary.  He’s a Ron Paul type, and I’m not, so I politely told his supporter I was voting for the […]

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Thank God. I was worried – Paul would have been to McCain what Nader was to Gore.  And their black ops delegate recruiting efforts at state conventions nation wide would have been a slap in the face to the millions who voted in the primaries, but didn’t have the time to devote to all of […]

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The Paulestineans’ antics last weekend at the Nevada State GOP Convention have really left me thinking that they are more than just irritating oddballs, but are actually threat to conservatism in America, at least in the short term. Like the Jihadists who would rather blow themselves up than compromise with their neighbors or engage in […]

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I’m working on a longer post about the Paulestineans after their convention shenanigans this past weekend. In the meantime, I saw that the JBS has been endorsed by Ron Paul. How apt. How can the John Birch Society be an effective political instrument while it is led by a man whose views on current affairs […]

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Yesterday, my in-laws were harassed by a crazy Ron Paul phone banker. My father-in-law called the local paper, which gave a pretty nice summation in their political blog: Tom Gilb, a Reno Republican, said he received an automated solicitation phone call from the Paul campaign. Not being a Paul supporter, Gilb said he pushed ‘1’ […]

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