In one more blow, I learned today that Reno attorney David O’Mara, who has contributed his legal services to the State party since 2004, sent a letter to the state party informing them that he would no longer make himself or his firm available to the State GOP.  O’Mara successfully defended the state party against a pointless lawsuit from a few Ron Paul supporters in 2008, and often provided his legal acumen to the party at little or no cost.  He was “on call” for the party, even when another general counsel had been appointed.  Not only is he a great lawyer, but he has a tremendous amount of institutional knowledge about the party itself, local political players, and the state’s legal culture.

McDonald and Company might be able to replace the legal services IF they can find the money to do it, but that would, of course, take tens of thousands of dollars away from other things the party might want to spend money on (like rent and staff and voter registration efforts).  But election law is an area very few Nevada attorneys are experienced with, and finding someone with those skills who are also sympathetic to the Ron Paul campaign personality cult would probably be a pretty tough job.  And you can’t replace the experience and knowledge O’Mara has, no matter how much money you spend. Not anytime soon, anyway.

I wonder – did the Ron Paul goofballs who “took over” the party and “overthrew the Establishment” understand that this is what they were throwing away? I get the urge to shake things up, but you still have a mission to accomplish.  How many other David O’Maras did they drive away?  Who did they think they were going to get to replace the lawyers and secretaries and fundraisers and accountants and PR people and donors they drove out as being “too Establishment”?

~~~

The implosion of the state party is happening faster and furiouser that I thought possible.  And in a way, this is giving me cause for hope.

Either this is a goose being cooked in a pan or a phoenix rising from the ashes. Either one is a potential symbol for the State GOP - let's hope we pick the right interpretation.

Since October, I’ve suspected that that party needed to just completely burn down in order to rebuild from scratch, but since the election of McDonald, that path was a certainty.  I was just worried the implosion would take long enough that it would impact this and maybe even the next election cycle.

The Romney Campaign/RNC will be focused on the federal races, and it’s been apparent for some time that those organizations have never planned on using or trusting the state party (smart on them).  But the problem with this is the down ticket races.   Really, only a state party can effectively tie candidates together up and down the ticket.  And if PACs are utilized by the national folks, they may not even be allowed to coordinate with local candidates at all.

But now?  The implosion is happening to fast and so catastrophically that the rebuilding might begin sooner than I thought possible.  And we have Dave Buell ALREADY running the kernel (the Washoe County Republican Party) around which a new, relevant state party can form, and form pretty quickly.

~~~

A lot of people contacted me after my posts last week about the Ron Paul Revolutionaries, wondering what actual conservatives who were interested in actually winning elections could do.  Well, here it is.  We have a lot of good organizations to work with, from AFP to the Romney Campaign to the Washoe County GOP. The David O’Maras of our party have a lot of other options now, and I know David at least will likely involve himself in other ways to get Republicans elected where and when he can.

In the meantime, I intend to continue shining a spotlight on the absurdity that the state party has now become – nothing disinfects like sunlight.  And the faster the state party is fully disinfected of the fools who have so spectacularly obliterated its credibility and relevance, the sooner we can rebuild a state GOP that lives up to the potential we began to see last year – one that understands its primary, fundamental purpose is to win elections.

Our unemployment rate is officially dropping, but the economy isn’t adding enough jobs to keep up with new entrants into the workforce – a net loss.  It’s only because so many potential productive workers are just dropping out of the economy altogether that the math works out for the administration.  The bottom line from the Washington Post?

If the same percentage of adults were in the workforce today as when Barack Obama took office, the unemployment rate would be 11.1 percent. If the percentage was where it was when George W. Bush took office, the unemployment rate would be 13.1 percent.

The Washington Post gives some demographic excuses for this, but even they have to admit that it’s bad for the economy.  And it’s not what President Obama and his supporters are claiming – they’re claiming the jobs picture is getting better and the economy more productive, when neither claim is accurate.

Ed Morrissey has a great roundup on this issue in The Financial Times as well, with more stats and charts.  Here’s the guts of it, though.

But what about the claim that this is all a result of public sector layoffs (Aiieee!!!  Scary Austerity!!!)?

Not so much – at the federal, state, and local level, the actual numbers of government employees is either rising or standing relatively steady.

Besides – government employees are on the expense side of the overall economic growth ledger.  They are a cost to the economy, which is why it’s so important to minimize government agencies and programs (and yes, the people who staff them) when their economic drag doesn’t pay for itself by substantially empowering or protecting the private economy.   In other words, you don’t grow an economy by increasing public employees just for the sake of increasing employment – quite the opposite, in fact.  If centrally managed and mandated government employment was economically beneficial, that whole Cold War thing would have worked out a little differently…

~~~

I do want to take a second to thank Chris Wicker and Elisa Cafferata, who were on the panel with me.  I disagree with them both fundamentally about many many many things, but they’re both particularly smart, thoughtful folks who care deeply about our public policies, and are fun and interesting to spar with to boot.  It’s a shame there isn’t time in the show for the many fascinating off-line discussions I’ve had with these and other amateur (but brilliant and knowledgeable) wonks and pundits in our community.  I’m very grateful to Sam Shad and the rest of the folks at NNM for letting me come play in their sandbox from time to time!

And in doing so, they (at best) did nothing.  At worst, they immeasurably damaged the cause of liberty in this state, and indeed, perhaps the entire nation.

~~~

Some commentators, like the Reno Gazette-Journal’s editorial today, have risably claimed that the Ron Paul contingent “understands the dynamics of party politics better than the party rank and file”.  But this is simply untrue, because the Paul people forgot the underlying purpose of the party in the first place.  What they did was the equivalent of singing a song in a foreign language you don’t know – you can learn to mimic the sounds perfectly, but that doesn’t mean you understand the meaning of the lyrics.

Ron Paul state campaign chair Carl Bunce proudly says that his people are "driving the car" now that they've caught it. Does he know they're driving it off the cliff?

Let’s review.  The purpose of a political party is to help candidates from that party win elections.  Period.  If you can’t influence election outcomes, you are irrelevant in politics and policy debates.  Party members, committees, and delegates don’t set tax rates, ratify treaties, confirm judges, pass or repeal regulations, produce budgets, select cabinet appointments, or in any other way directly control the actual policies which govern our everyday lives and our economic futures.

The only way a party influences actual policy is if it influences elections.  The only way for a party to do that is to have power and influence over who runs and who can get elected.  Traditionally, parties do that by raising money for candidates, and by making themselves indispensable to the actual job of winning an election via volunteers, influence, credibility, and resources like walk lists, voter rolls, and precinct maps.

The Ron Paul Revolutionaries, however have shown a remarkable INability to accomplish any of the things that influences candidates.  Consider:

• Ron Paul supporter James Smack took over as temporary chairman back in February, and then promptly fired the Finance Chair – very likely costing the state party tens of thousands of dollars.  Since that decision, the party’s fundraising has been nothing short of pathetic ($53K cash on hand in March compared to $400,000 for the Dems, as reported by Jon Ralston a few weeks ago) – exactly as I had predicted.
• Speaking of Smack, his tenure coincided with an actual reverse in the progress Republicans had been making in closing the registration gap with Democrats statewide.  Attempts to use the caucus as a tool to register additional Republicans were rejected by these folks on the most distant paranoia of voter fraud.  (How ironic that these same people are now claiming the caucus vote didn’t matter anyway…)
• Ron Paul state campaign chair Carl Bunce recently told Steve Sebelius, when asked about the ability to raise funds, “I don’t care, first of all.”  Yeah – no one needs money to win elections in this media age!  Bunce went on to imagine a fantasy world where secret and wealthy Paul supporters come out of the woodwork when “they see the party running like-minded candidates,” in spite of this never happening in history even where “like minded candidates” have run for office.
• The state GOP will get a fundraising boost from the convention fees collected this weekend (that’s one of the purposes of a convention), and I’m sure Paulestinean-supported GOP state chair Michael McDonald will claim it’s part of a trend.  But with no other major fundraising event between now and November, such a “trend” will almost certainly be ephemeral.  McDonald himself only recently emerged from bankruptcy, has a history of ethics issues related to public funds, and would have lost his house but for a shortsale bailout from an old political crony.  It’s hard to see any serious donor handing significant amounts of money to a guy like that, particularly when there are plenty of alternatives.
• Ron Paul himself has failed to win a single primary or caucus.  Even where he and Romney were (or effectively were) the only two on the ballot, voters rejected the Paul message (and his supporters) by wide, wide margins.  Today was Indiana’s primary, and voters there overwhelmingly voted for Romney while also (rightly) turning out Richard Lugar for not being conservative enough.  Paul came in a distant second – fewer people voted for him than voted for people not even in the race any more (same for West Virginia and North Carolina today).  Why would any candidate think this “machine” could deliver for them here or anywhere?
• The caucus results here in Nevada showed that the vast majority of even the most dedicated Republican activists (those who came out to vote in a low-turnout caucus) were not Paul fans.  In November (and even in June), it will be these types of regular voters who decide the outcome, not 1,000 Council on Foreign Relations fearing, wild-eyed anti-Republicans.  Candidates will recognize (because they talk to more people than just the hard line activists) that more people are actively repulsed by what they saw this weekend than are energized by it.
• Many Paul supporters are quite open that they’ll vote for Paul or no one, and even if they don’t, the Paul campaign already has been caught urging supporters to lie about their true plans.  Any candidate for public office will assume at this point that Paul supporters are unreliable at best, dishonest at worst, and will act accordingly – just as Governor Sandoval, Dean Heller, and Joe Heck did by finding other things to do over the weekend of the convention.
• Carl Bunce already announced that the long term plan is to oust guys like Dean Heller and Joe Heck for their insufficient purity.  Why would any candidate or official adjust his policy positions to please a group already dedicated to their ouster?
• Ron Paul candidates have already run against more traditional conservatives (in a real vote amongst the general public, of course), and when they do, they lose miserably.  Smack lost to Dean Heller by over 76 percentage points back in 2008.  No leading GOP candidate for any state or local office that I’m aware of claims to be a member of the Paul Revolution (even if some candidates may be carefully courting Paul voters).
• Nevada Republicans learned a hard, hard, hard lesson in 2010 – a candidate who is able to be painted as too fringe, too crazy, and insufficiently competent will lose winnable races to unpopular liberal Democrats.  Visit the comments in any Ron Paul-supporting website, twitter feed, or Facebook group – the crazy is built right in.  I’m all for tackling our debt in a more serious way than most GOP candidates seem to want to, but I’m not so into blaming America for 9/11 (or suggesting it was an “inside job”), or worrying about the CFR, the Bilderbergs, or the Jooooooooos (always politely referred to as “Zionists,” of course).  Even if these legitimate nutters are in the minority in Paul circles, they are a significant enough minority (and are tolerated and accepted without rebuke by the majority, to be sure) to easily paint the whole movement with that brush.

During a GOP meeting in Vegas, I saw a car in a parking lot with his Ron Paul bumper sticker prominently displayed beside his "9/11 Was An Inside Job" bumper sticker. I certainly would be embarassed to be associated with a campaign that drew ANY number of these types of folks.

• The apparatus of the party has never been less of a monopoly.  Obtaining voter data in a format easily manipulable and targetable is now something any moderately competent campaign manager can do, and do inexpensively.  Presumptive legislative caucus leaders Pat Hickey and Mike Roberson are already aggressively assuming the roles of statewide coordinators for various campaigns, sharing message discipline and resources and doling out endorsements even in primary races.  And many folks who would otherwise volunteer with the party will no longer do so in a party bent on self destruction (count me among that number), and will instead volunteer directly with individual campaigns.  The National Republican Party has deployed its own independent staff to assist Republican candidates in Nevada independently of the state party – further underscoring the expected ineffectiveness of the Revolutionaries.
• The Paul folks simply have no intellectual credibility.  For people who wave around the Constitution like a bloody shirt, prominent Paul folks (like James Smack) are astoundingly ignorant of what that document actually contains.  That even goes for Paul himself.  Locally, our governor is the first in our state’s history to actually decrease the size of our state government (by $500 million!) – but many Paul folks still wanted to pass a resolution censuring him for being insufficiently fiscally conservative – are you kidding?
• Paul folks don’t have any moral credibility, either.  There are plenty of people fed up with corruption and elitism in politics.  But given the Paul campaign’s previous exhortations to lie in order to get ahead (and not just here), as well as their tortured and infinitely flexible logic in justifying their plan of disregarding every binding primary vote when they get to Tampa, even those who might be convinced by the Paul message will know that no one in the Paul camp can be trusted to stick to principle or to keep their word.  As a local example, how many of those Ron Paul delegate candidates informed their precinct caucuses that they’d be fighting to unbind state delegates in favor of Paul even if he lost the vote?  I bet it’s a big fat zero – a lie by omission if ever there was one.

The only thing Paul folks showed they could do was make a ruckus at a convention that most Republicans didn’t think was meaningful enough to attend in the first place (given their expectation that their delegates were bound by their votes in the caucuses).  The Paul folks did displace our national party representatives, but given new National Committeeman James Smack’s demonstrated inability to raise money, win elections, register new voters, or so much as get the sitting governor and US Senator of his own party to attend the convention he planned, it’s doubtful either he or new National Committeewoman Diana Orrock would have any influence.  Performance, merit, and results matter to true conservatives, after all.

In short, nothing that happened in Sparks this weekend eliminated a dime in wasteful government spending, reduced a tax rate by an iota, or simplified a single regulatory scheme. Indeed, by pushing Republican candidates away from the putative base of the party, it probably made those things less likely to happen.

~~~

So why am I upset by all of this if the Paul people can’t get their way in the end?  Ironically, it has a lot to do with the fact that I agree with many of the Paul campaign’s broader thrusts.

By marginalizing themselves, these Paul folks are marginalizing libertarianism in general.  I’m not a libertarian in the strictest sense (I think they ignore the importance of culture and tradition in protecting liberty), but the GOP needs more of that philosophy infused into the party as a check against the “Big Government in the Name of Jesus” types – particularly if we’re to have credibility on debt and spending issues.

It was a good idea to work within the party and pull the center of gravity further to the right, as opposed to just running third party.  But instead of working with existing party folks who are sympathetic to the economic arguments Paul makes, the Paulestineans attack them for insufficient purity if they haven’t yet learned to worship fully and unquestioningly the Gospel According to St. Paul.   (“Paulestinean” because they’ll blow themselves up along with everything around them if they can’t get 100% of everything they want.)  This drives away far more volunteers or even new registrants than it attracts, and will make more traditional GOP activists far more reluctant to trust the younger generation, as they eventually must.

That’s true of candidates and elected officials too.  The more insane “The Party” looks, the more distant these folks (aware of the lesson of Sharron Angle) will want to get in order to stay viable in a general election.  That’s true both organizationally and in terms of policy positions – does anyone think this weekend’s embarrassment will make Governor Sandoval re-think his stance on the tax sunset extensions?  How ironic that the Republican Party is pushing Republican candidates farther to the left.

Finally, by making the party irrelevant, they’ve completely wasted the last year or two of hard work many of us have done in trying to rebuild the party’s strength and credibility.  And even though candidates have other tools available to them, The Paul folks have taken away what should be one of the most effective tools (the party organization) away from GOP candidates who actually want to win elections but can’t afford to be seen too close to a group widely viewed as self-destructive and crazy.

Nationally, the most Paul supporters can do is be embarrassing at the convention – sending signals to independent voters who may not like Obama that the alternative party as a whole is untrustworthy and downright crazy/scary.  That’s what happened to the Democrats in 1968 when their convention descended into chaos.  Such a scenario wouldn’t just hurt Romney – it would negatively impact Republicans up and down ballots nationwide.  Even in the unlikely event Paul supporters could wrangle the nomination for him, most Republicans would never view a “win” in this manner as legitimate, and would not support him in the general.  You don’t advance the cause of liberty by functionally stealing elections.

"Is the dark side stronger?" "No, no, no. Quicker, easier, more seductive... Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny."

In other words, the Paul folks can hurt, even if they can’t help.  They can destroy, but they can’t create.  They set back the cause of liberty, even while claiming to champion it.  How terribly frustrating this all is to a true conservative who gets that his cause is nothing without being able to win elections.

~~~

So tell me again – just what exactly did all these Ron Paul supporters actually “win”?

You could argue that the Paul campaign’s delegate strategy is odious and unethical, but that at least they’re “playing by the rules.”  (Paul supporters are the first to scream bloody murder if another candidate plays the insider rules to their advantage, but when the Paul folks do it they’re JUST like the Founding Fathers (cue eye roll here).)

But then I saw this article from Ray Hagar, in which the Paul Campaign (not some random supporter, the state campaign chair) all but announced they would be ignoring even that fig leaf of legitimacy.

[Carl] Bunce, [chairman of Congressman Paul's Nevada campaign,] said the campaign will play by the rules but can’t answer for every Ron Paul supporter who is also a national delegate.

“People have a choice,” Bunce said about a first-ballot decision. “It is their vote. When people show up to vote, they vote their conscience, right?

When reminded of the RNC rules that apply to the first ballot vote, Bunce questions the binding rule.

“What is the punishment?” Bunce asked rhetorically, referring to the binding rule for the first ballot. “It (switching votes) is not something that I condone. There are a lot of rules, RNC, state bylaws. But the binding is kind of superficial as well.

First of all, if the word “but” appears after the phrase “I don’t condone that,” then you ARE, in fact, condoning whatever it is that you’re talking about.  And remember, this is from the same guy who specifically urged his fellow travelers to be dishonest in a previous, meant-to-be-secret E-mail.

But it’s that last paragraph that’s really distressing.  When you muse openly about the lack of consequences and suggest that the wrong thing is really the right thing, don’t tell me you aren’t giving a wink and a nudge.  The Ron Paul campaign, which came in third place in this state, is fully signalling, “Our people are going to vote for Ron Paul, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

The tacit support for violating every election rule in place in order to manufacture victory for a guy who can’t win an election is unmistakable.  And in doing so, the Paul Campaign is attempting to steal an election just as surely as if they stuffed ballot boxes back in February.

(Remember, this was the same crowd who went apoplectic (sometimes quite dishonestly so) over the mere possibility that registering new Republicans on the day of the caucus was terrible because it introduced the remotest possibility of “voter fraud”.  Apparently actively working to subvert the will of Nevada Republican voters is only bad when not done in the service of the Cult of Personality that is the Paul campaign.)

~~~

Incidentally, there in all likelihood WOULD be consequences.  It’s my understanding from talking to people familiar with RNC rules that Nevada could lose half – if not more – of its delegates should this cheating attempt be carried out in Tampa.

~~~

My post got linked around nationally (thanks, Politico!), and as a result, the Paul faithful came of of the woodwork to punish me for having a dissenting viewpoint (gee, thanks, Politico.)

The comments are generally a case study in rationalizing bad acts.  Mostly, they suggest that the system is hopelessly corrupt, so they feel justified in cheating in return.  The 80% of the Republicans who didn’t vote for Paul (and who would be necessary to win if Paul somehow pulled off a nomination at the convention) are endlessly derided as sheep-like neocon RINO shills, or other such nonsense.  In any event, they find endless ways to justify in their minds why my vote (and the vast vast vast majority of GOP voters’ votes) shouldn’t count at all.

Great.  So we replace the current corruption with new corruption?

You want, but can’t earn, so you’re gonna take.  I tell you what, guys – if you don’t want me to say you’re acting like a bunch of leftist revolutionaries or self-entitled Occupiers, then stop acting like leftist revolutionaries or self-entitled Occupiers.

Look – if we truly are to build a new political paradigm that breaks the old patterns that have led to the mess America finds itself in now, it has to be built on a foundation of honor and integrity, and it has to earn popular support.

Is Romney the savior of America?  Hardly, and I’ve made quite plain on this blog that Romney just isn’t a conservative.  But he is a “fix it” guy, and he’ll at least slow the bleeding for a bit while support for real reform builds, if the allegedly liberty minded don’t completely self-destruct and discredit the entire movement along with them, that is.

~~~

For the record, I would be just as outraged if Ron Paul won the caucus vote and some other candidate tried to stack the delegates while telegraphing a refusal to honor the outcome of the vote.  Paul supporters certainly are, in the rare cases (like North Dakota) where Paul bested Romney.

I tell you what, fellas.  I’ll agree that you should have proportional, binding representation of your delegates in North Dakota (although there the state party chose NOT to bind their delegates), if you’ll agree to abide by the vote proportions EVERYWHERE ELSE.

~~~

The other excuse I often see is some version of, “Hey – if you were dedicated enough to have your voice count, you’d show up and be a delegate.  Romney supporters just don’t care enough to be delegates, so therefore, they can be ignored.”

Let me explain why I find this, of all the excuses, so particularly disgusting and immoral.

Two weeks ago, my wife and I had a new baby.  Knowing the little guy would be here, and further knowing I would have family in town to meet him, I did not put my name in for consideration to be a delegate to the state GOP convention in Sparks next week.  Certainly I had put in my fair share (and then some!) of volunteer time with the party, and I had carefully considered each candidate in the runup to our caucuses.

A couple of years before I had also found myself elected to the state Central Committee after having complained about the way the 2008 caucuses and conventions had been handled, and I made a point to do what I could to avert a repeat of that craziness.  During one of the Central Committee planning meetings for the caucuses, I was outspoken about the need to bind our delegates to the caucus vote, specifically to obviate any purpose for any faction within the party to “take over” the convention or try to push delegates who didn’t represent Nevada GOP voters.  I also argued against “winner take all,” noting that less well funded candidates in small, early primary states can use those pledged delegates to build momentum, even if they can’t win outright due to funding issues or the lack of media exposure.  (That’s right.  I argued in favor of that specifically for the benefit of Ron Paul’s campaign.)

The Central Committee overwhelmingly agreed with me, and those rules were set in place.

So – I got involved, help solidify rules which would address my concerns, helped build a consensus behind those rules in order to get them passed, and then spent hundreds of volunteer hours away from my family to execute the plan.

If Ron Paul or any of his supporters think I am insufficiently dedicated, let me know.  I’ll share some phrases with you that I learned in the Navy.

But even if I hadn’t done that, it would still be an outrage.  Most voters don’t have that sort of time to dedicate, for a whole host of reasons.  Republican voters were explicitly told – and therefore believed – that their votes would be binding on the national delegates, and that the party would follow its own rules.  Do you Ron Paul folks think they will ever trust or support you after they found out you didn’t, and cheated your way to “victory”?  Again, how in the hell would you ever expect to win in the general?

You can’t even win a single Republican primary.  What are you going to do in November?  Try to crash the Electoral College?

~~~

Ultimately, it will be up to our intrepid new state party chair Michael McDonald to ensure the rules are followed, and that no delegate who goes to Tampa to represent the will of Nevada Republicans is a cheater. What’s scary is that the Ron Paul supporters who largely “took over” the party were responsible for McDonald being elected.

They bought him.  They think they own him.  They’re counting on that purchase to clear their way for a full, rules-disregarding Ron Paul delegation to go to Tampa.

Here’s McDonald’s chance to prove me wrong about my opinion of his integrity.

Sigh.

Remember, folks. We borrowed money from China to pay the people who put this together, edited it, and cleared it for the airwaves. Maybe next time we can just recycle some old School House Rock – we seem to need to go back to some basics…

I’m sure similar attention to detail will be applied when these folks fully take over our health care system.

(In the interests of full disclosure, I must admit that I made that same spelling error so often in law school that I finally set up a custom auto-correct to fix it.  But then, I probably would have spell checked my notes if I was going to, like, put them on TV or something…)

Well, secret’s out, you dishonest goofballs.  Everyone knows your game.

I’ve already detailed how these people have no respect for elections, the express will of an electorate, or anyone’s liberty except their own.  Bunce signs his E-mails “In Liberty” – what a bunch of bullcrap.  (I guess it’s kind of like how they call it the “People’s Republic.”)  This E-mail provides ample proof that these people don’t care about winning elections or building majorities, but simply want to throw temper tantrums like entitled babies, all the while thinking they’re oh so clever.  They don’t just think they’re entitled to vote, they think they have some God-given entitlement to win every election just because they showed up!  Honestly – they’re much, much more akin to Occupy Wall Street hippies than any recognizable brand of libertarianism or conservatism.

Don’t these people realize that if they had a winning message, they wouldn’t have the need for all the secrecy?  Don’t they see what hypocrites they look like when they cry about dishonesty and lack of transparency in government?  And remember, this isn’t just some independent Paul supporter.  This IS the Ron Paul campaign, and Ron Paul himself is directly responsible for it.  Either the Congressman is blind to these types of shenanigans, or he endorses it.  Which is it, Good Doctor?  Will you renounce this assault on actual liberty being perpetuated in your name?  There’s certainly nothing “libertarian” about any of this.

Nevada Republicans were promised by their Central Committee that their caucus votes would be proportionally binding all the way through the first round of voting at the national convention.  I have to wonder – if these Paul people wind up going to the national convention, will they honor that promise?  Or will they just openly betray the Nevadans they claim to want to represent?

Just remember this – people willing to lie, cheat, or steal in order to get power will lie, cheat and steal once they’re in power.  Even if you find Paul’s platform compelling, after this there’s no way you could trust he’d follow through with any of it.

~~~

Speaking of lying, cheating, and stealing, I wonder if our new state party chair Michael McDonald will try to crack down on this nonsense.  He’s certainly painted himself in a corner.  If he stands up to these petty thugs, he’ll lose his entire base of support.  If he stand with the thugs, the convention will be a national embarrassment to make 2008 look like a garden party, and the 81% of Nevada Republicans who DIDN’T support Ron Paul will take their time and energy elsewhere.

It almost – almost – makes me sorry I’m going to miss the fireworks.  I can only hope the ensuing chaos will finally put an end to this perennial nonsense.

I honestly and truly want to see a single Ron Paul supporter justify this nonsense, or explain how – even if this plan succeeds and Ron Paul upsets Mitt Romney on the convention floor to be the GOP nominee against Obama – Paul could go to the general election with a single shred of legitimacy.

~~~

Here’s the E-mail in its entirety.  Enjoy!

Taken in the kindest possible light, new GOP Chair Michael McDonald’s past and current “property development” activities proves that he’s all for government-forced redistribution of wealth.  A more honest assessment would be that he’s all about brazenly using positions of political power to enrich himself and/or his friends at taxpayer expense to the tune of millions of dollars.

Either way, he’s EVERYTHING the Tea Party Movement – and conservatism generally – is supposed to be against.  And yet he was elected supposedly as the tea party, anti-establishment, “true conservative” option to chair the Nevada Republican Party.  How did this happen?

The Nevada State GOP began hemorrhaging credibility back in October.  With McDonald’s election, they’ve officially eliminated it completely.  This will end badly for the state party, and for any politician stupid enough to get to close to Mr. McDonald.  When it does, I just hope there are enough Republicans left untainted by this to save the conservative movement from total irrelevance for the foreseeable future.

~~~

Back in 2000, Mr. McDonald was a City Councilman in Las Vegas.  McDonald’s employer (being on the City Council is a part time gig) made a bad investment in a piece of property, and was losing money.  It just so happened that the City had a few million tax dollars laying around for “economic redevelopment”.  You can read about the whole affair here, but you can see where it’s going.  McDonald used his position on the Council to lobby his colleagues to get the taxpayers to buy the  property and bail out his boss.  And it wasn’t small change – he was looking to spend over $7 million in Other People’s Money.

Fortunately, the rest of the City Council ultimately rejected the bailout, and the Nevada Commission on Ethics unanimously determined that McDonald violated the law and acted unethically.  (In spite of this, many McDonald supporters responded to concerns about his ethics issues on Facebook and elsewhere by falsely insisting that he was “fully exonerated” in this and other matters.  Either they were lying, or they carelessly bought someone else’s lie.)

~~~

This is exactly why these big economic development funds – and big government generally – are so dangerous.  They usually wind up being slush funds for political cronyism, and returns on investment are rarely seen (at least not by us unwilling investors).  Even in the most benign and well meaning of circumstances, they make little long term economic sense.

But let’s just pretend for a minute that McDonald legitimately believed that this “investment” would pay off for the taxpayers, and that he was acting with only the loftiest of intentions.  You still have to accept that he thinks nothing of Big Government taking money away from productive citizens and then redistributing wealth to other folks favored by government officials.

This is the guy who is going to “stick it to all the RINOs”?

That’s not conservative.  Indeed, it’s philosophically repugnant to any true movement conservative.  And in practice, this is exactly the sort of thing both parties have engaged in that have led to the trillions of dollars in debt and economic crises we now face as a nation.

But to be fair, maybe that was less obvious back in 2000, when we weren’t yet reaping the full economic hardship such waste ultimately produces.  Surely McDonald has learned since then, no?

~~~

Fast forward to this month.  McDonald approached the Las Vegas City Council with an “economic development” plan to build low income apartments.  (Remember, this is in a city so wracked by foreclosures and recession that 13.5% of the city’s apartments were vacant last year, the second worst in the nation – a lack of available housing units is NOT our problem.)  He wanted all-but-free land for the rest of his natural life (a $1 per year lease for 75 years) and nearly $4 million in Other People’s Money to get started.

The city’s Economic Redevelopment staff studied the proposal, and strongly recommended against giving the money to McDonald – (among other reasons, he’d defaulted on a previous redevelopment project with the city a few years back).

Inexplicably, the City voted to give him the money anyway, including the supposed firebreathing fiscal hawk Bob Beers. That’s right – in a broke city in a broke state with TOO MUCH vacant housing, we just spent $4 million bucks we don’t have TO BUILD MORE HOUSING.

Next thing you know, they’ll determine that what they really need to subsidize in Vegas is more sand.

At least now we know why McDonald spent so much time and money campaigning to be the state party chair.  Does anyone think the Council would have gone along with this absurdity if it wasn’t becoming clear that McDonald would be influential in state politics?

If this doesn’t offend you to your core, you aren’t a conservative.

~~~

These two incidents aren’t even close to McDonald’s only ethical issues, even just taking into account what we know.  (How many more of these million dollar boondoggles never got complained about or reported?)  He’s been investigated for corruption from everyone from the FBI on down, and his name seems to come up every time some sleazy Vegas character goes to prison.  In 2008, during a deposition regarding a case against former strip club owner and convicted federal felon Rick Rizzolo, McDonald was forced to plead the Fifth no less than ten times for fear that an honest answer about his financial dealings with Rizzolo would lead to his criminal prosecution.*

In 2003, Las Vegas voters booted him out of office for his apparent corruption.  And remember – this is the city who elected a mob lawyer as mayor for as long as they could, and then elected his wife to be the mayor when he was term limited out!

McDonald’s defense is that he’s never been indicted – whupti-do!  I’ve seen plenty of people brought up on felony charges with much less evidence than this, but good on the feds for not being arrest-happy.  Still, “not being charged” is a manifestly different thing than “being exonerated” (which is what McDonald supporters claim not being charged means).  What sane person would trust a guy with this track record to raise funds on your behalf and then direct the spending of that money wisely?

And why do it when we had a proven credible alternative in Dave Buell?  Because Dave is “the Establishment?”  What the Eff does that even mean?

~~~

The Las Vegas Sun’s Jon Ralston has spent a lot of time of late pointing all of this out, clearly incredulous that a guy with this track record could ever find a political toe hold again, and clearly disgusted with the latest waste of tax dollars McDonald is responsible for.

The response of McDonald and his supporters is that Ralston is (and I’m only slightly paraphrasing) a Big Fat Liberal Poopy Head With an “Agenda”.

Also that Ralston must have, like, a gay crush on McDonald.  No, really.

Ladies and Gentlemen, your new Nevada Republican leaders!

NONE of the allegations were addressed with a substantive correction, response, or explanation anywhere that I’ve seen.  Just vague insinuations that people aren’t being told the “whole” story (whatever the heck that is), and attacks on the messengers for daring to question the motives of anyone in politics.  I’m sure this post will be met (probably with cowardly anonymity) with similarly empty sturm und drang.

Here’s the thing – if McDonald was actually an ethical person who was in the wrong place and wrong time when felons were doing their thing, his response would be, “Look – I appreciate how bad this looks, and I know I have a lot of explaining to do.  I’ve definitely made a lot of mistakes in the past.  Please give me a chance to explain the full picture in detail, let you know what amends I’ve made, and how I’ve learned to be much more careful with my associations, reputation, and stewardship of tax dollars since then.”  Instead it’s, “How dare you!!!  YOU MUST BE A RINO/ESTABLISHMENT/LIBERAL/COMMIE-NAZI!!!!  YOU WILL BE PURGED!!!!!!!”  That alone is enough to convince me of McDonald’s irredeemable crookedness.

Haven’t conservatives been bitching for years that the press turns a blind eye to government waste and political corruption?  Ralston is hardly a Republican, but he’s one of the very few people in the press who actually investigates this sort of thing and exposes it (yes, from members of both parties) on a regular basis.

~~~

The tea party movement was supposed to be about defeating Big Government wealth redistributors, both the corrupt and the merely soft-headed, in both parties – so why did self-proclaimed tea party groups and the Ron Paul types who now control much of the state party actively get behind McDonald?

Well, we’ve already established that a few of the “takeover” nutters have no interest anyone’s individual liberty except their own, or in respecting the will of the people they claim to represent.  It stands to reason they would be similarly uninterested in safeguarding taxpayers who aren’t in their inner circle.  Maybe if supposedly reform-minded Republicans weren’t so focused on meaningless platform plank debates, they’d have time to see the millions in government waste they just enabled.

Or maybe that was the plan all along.  Distract, distract, distract, and then scoop up another $4 million tax dollars into your company’s private bank account when everyone’s all whipped up about the RINO Menace hiding under every sagebrush.

But I think there are also a lot of good people who are nonetheless new at the political process and susceptible (like all of us) to hearing what we want to hear.  By all accounts, McDonald can be personable and charming, but then so is any good con man.  Let this be a warning to tea party activists everywhere – people sense your frustration, and if you aren’t careful, some of those people will try to take advantage of you.

In other words, McDonald’s supporters either knew about his track record and are fine with government waste and likely corruption as long as it’s “our guy” doing it, willfully ignored the clear evidence right in front of them, or just uncritically took what he said at face value because it sounded good.  Whatever it is, though, not a one of them has any credibility at this point to attack government waste or back-room cronyism in politics at this point.  If you voted for Michael McDonald, then Solyndra shouldn’t bother you at all, and GSA wasting money in Vegas ain’t no thang at all!  It’s worse than just being tied to corruption by association – electing McDonald will significantly neutralize otherwise effective lines of attacks against Democrats from Obama on down.

It’s important and correct to shout about excess government spending and feckless politicians who claim to want to fix it but don’t.  But this is what happens when you throw a temper tantrum instead of getting serious, doing your homework, persuading instead of bullying, and actually try winning real elections with good candidates.  Instead of being Utah and effectively replacing old, worn out elected officials who forget where they came from, you elect a non-policy-affecting figurehead whose name is synonymous with corruption in politics.

And Republican elected officials, take heed – someday that picture of you grinning and gripping with McDonald will be on every one of your opponent’s fliers on every doorstep in your district trying to tie you to the latest scandal associated with a guy whose made a habit of scandal.

How does this win elections again?  And in McDonald’s case, even if it DOES win elections, how is this any different from what we’re trying to replace?

~~~

Not me.  I didn’t get involved in state politics, investing hundreds upon hundreds of volunteer hours over the years, so I could trade their corruption for “our” corruption.  I didn’t do two deployments in the hopelessly corrupt Middle East to tolerate such a culture here at home.  At the end of the day, we all lose that way.  I’m not going to “fall in line” behind this kind of thing in the name of a Pyrrhic “unity”.  Doing that only lets McDonald’s baggage taint my – and every other Republican in the state – reputation and motivations.  Getting on board the SS McDonald means we all sink together.  It’s one thing to get behind a political figure you have fewer substantive policy disagreements with than the other guy, but it’s quite another to do a full 180 on everything we as a movement have been railing against for the last several years because (like any good con man) he’s just so good at telling us all what we want to hear.

And honestly, why should we?  McDonald isn’t running for an actual office (yet).  I don’t have to chose between him and a free-spending and taxing Democrat.  I don’t need to hide my disdain for his crony-capitalism or his forced appropriation of my tax dollars into his personal bank account with no benefit to me (some would call that theft) in order to support good Republican candidates up and down the ballot.  The Washoe County party is still well led, well run, and effective.  There are plenty of ways to spend time and money on political causes without wasting it completely.

Still, now we miss out on the potential force-multiplying benefits of an effective statewide party.  And that’s a shame.  But I’m not going to pretend McDonald is either Conservative or Ethical, because it’s clear he’s neither.  (Insufficient conservatism I can deal with – insufficient ethics I simply can’t and won’t.)  And silence now will only earn us guilt by association later – like around Election Day, when it really will matter.

So good work, Nevada tea party movement.  You either failed to actually vet your candidate (did we learn nothing from Candidate Obama?), or you were willing to sell out your principles for some illusion of power.  I know there are great people in the various TP groups out there, but boy did you drop the ball.  Whether you just got sold a bill of goods because you wanted to believe what he said, or you’re in on the scam, it doesn’t matter – the effect is the same.  You are now everything you got into politics to oppose, and you’ve now made it harder to elect conservative Republicans (or ANY Republicans) in Nevada for the foreseeable future.

Count me out.

Update:  I’m glad I’m not the only conservative in the blogosphere speaking out about this travesty.  NPRI has more, along with some more details on McDonald’s history of enriching himself at taxpayer expense.

~~~

*(A word about “Pleading the Fifth”.  McDonald has whined that it’s unfair for us to hold this against him, but this is, of course, ridiculous.  I’m a criminal defense attorney, and am all about exercising one’s Fifth Amendment right to remain silent.  In an un-recorded, attorney-less confrontation with a cop, your quotes in a police report not be super accurate, but will be used against you as if they were in stone.  But in a deposition, where you know the questions ahead of time, have your lawyer present, and know everything is being transcribed to it can’t be taken out of context or misquoted later, the possibility of being somehow tricked into a false confession is pretty remote.  Moreover, in an encounter on the street, you don’t have to say a word to a cop, incriminating or otherwise.  But deposition witnesses are subpoenaed and are under oath – the only way they can refuse to answer a question is if the answer would tend to incriminate them criminally.

I don’t want the government being able to throw you in prison because of what you didn’t say, but I don’t have any problem with individuals exercising their Free Association rights based on the obvious.  There is some remote possibility, I suppose, of an innocent explanation for McDonald feeling compelled to take the Fifth, but it’s pretty unlikely under the circumstances.  And hey, if it exists, my comments section is always open – let’s hear it!)

Fast forward to now, when President Obama is picking a very public fight with Supreme Court before they even render a decision on Obamacare.  It’s clear how right I was to be so hard on Gingrich.  For example, I said:

If Newt Gingrich can either harass the courts into submission or ignore them altogether, then so can Barack Obama.

Obama is trying to do this even without any legal justification for it.  Can you imagine if Obama could threaten any of the Justices with impeachment if they didn’t uphold his signature legislative “accomplishment?”  Can you imagine if he could drag them before a public cross examination before they had even announced the decision in a case?

It’s a good thing Gingrich didn’t think of this back when he had real power, and a good thing he’ll never have the chance to implement such an attack on the very foundation of the judiciary.

I do hope that Romney makes this the issue that it deserves to be in the general.  The President isn’t going to intimidate this Supreme Court, but elections have consequences.  And it’s too stressful to just keep praying for the perpetual health of Scalia and Kennedy.

~~~

It’s always worth keeping in mind that no matter what new policy you put in place when your guy is in office, eventually someone you don’t like will be in office with the power you gave to his predecessor.  The mantra of Republicans for the next several decades should be, “before I vote on this law, would I be OK with the next President Obama being in control of this regulation/tax/agency?”

Oh, and to all you liberals who want Obamacare to live, or to morph into fully government controlled single payer health care – how would you feel about President Santorum in charge of such an apparatus?

If that scares the hell out of you as much as it does me, then you get the crucial point of having a strictly limited government at all levels, regardless of which political party is in charge of things at the moment.

Update:  And right on cue, the preemptive impeachment threats from the left have begun.  I wonder if Newt will be consistent, and support this leftist position…

Fortunately, like all would-be-tyrants, they’re pretty open about it:

“Republicans understand Ron Paul is the only candidate who can challenge status quo candidate Mitt Romney, defeat Obama, and Restore America Now.  Proof of this is ordinary citizens including first-time political activists investing their time to become the delegates required to win Dr. Paul the GOP nomination,” [said Ron Paul 2012 National Campaign Chairman Jesse] Mr. Benton.

I’m glad Ron Paul is in the race, because this country has deadly serious long term fiscal issues that must be discussed, issues that probably wouldn’t be on the radar if he wasn’t running.  But he’s not my candidate, and I’m certainly not alone.  Paul has yet to win over a majority – or even a plurality – of Republican voters anywhere in the country under any electoral circumstances, and he’s unlikely ever to do so.

I suppose it’s possible that Mitt Romney will not secure a majority of delegates before the national convention in August.  It is also possible that Romney would not win on the first round of balloting at a brokered convention, freeing Nevada’s delegates to vote for Paul.  I suppose Paul supporters could even engineer – all in strict accordance to some arcane and too-lightly considered rules of procedure, to be sure – a rules change that would allow them to completely ignore the result of any primary vote and get Paul nominated, regardless of current RNC or various state party rules.

Do these goons really think that this would be seen as legitimate?  Do they really think a candidate nominated under such circumstances could unite the party and defeat President Obama in November?  More importantly, what does any of this have to do with advancing individual liberty?

~~~

Just because something is done in accordance with a certain set of rules doesn’t make it legitimate.  Bullying a majority of voters out of the picture by abusing a parliamentary process is no less tyrannical than refusing to hold votes altogether – it’s just a more subtle tyranny.

Beyond that, it’s politically stupid.  You can annoy, insult, bore, and waste the time of every non-Paul supporting Republican in the state, and then you’d have a “pure” party, I guess.  But the politics of subtraction don’t win elections.  At best, you’ll have small gold standard love-ins in mostly empty convention halls, followed by commiseration parties on election night.

Ron Paul simply has no claim to the Nevada GOP.  Even with incredibly low turnout in a caucus state (supposedly the conditions he would be expected to do the best), he could only muster a third place finish with 19% of the vote.  His overall platform (which includes his own electability argument) was proffered and rejected.  By continuing to push that agenda, the will of the Nevada GOP electorate is being purposely ignored in favor of what a small minority feels is “for our own good.”

So much for “We the People.”  So much for representative government.  So much for individual liberty.

Can you imagine if people with attitudes like this actually had any real power?  Oh, wait.  We don’t have to imagine – we can just cast our eye over towards the White House to see how this “ends justify the means” BS turns out in the end.

~~~

Of the two candidates currently vying for the State GOP Chair, I wonder which of them will repudiate this sort of nonsense.  I know Dave Buell will insist that the expressed views of Nevada’s Republican voters – including the vast, vast majority who voted for Romney, Gingrich, and Santorum – be respected.  Under his leadership, the Washoe County party is a respected and effective partner of our local elected officials, which means those elected officials care what our local party activists have to say.

I wonder about Michael McDonald, though, who draws much of his support from these Roberts Rules abusing tin-pots.  Will he agree to insist that the majority of Nevada’s Republicans be represented by their party leadership?  Or will he just plead the Fifth if pressed on the issue?

~~~

Political parties do not make policy.  Policy is only made by elected officials, which means that the only hope a party apparatus has to influence policy is to be useful in actually winning elections.

I’ve asked it before, and I’ll ask it again – what makes these folks think that “taking over” the party in this manner is going to lead to Republicans (conservative or otherwise) winning elections?

The good news is that none of these folks have any prayer of actually exercising any real power.  The bad news is that they will make the party apparatus almost completely irrelevant in Nevada politics.  Republican elected officials will move further to the left as they feel the activist base is overtly hostile, poisonous, and/or a waste of time.  Down ticket and cash strapped Republican candidates in tight but winnable races will suffer from not having the financial or organizational support that a well run and respected Party can bring to bear on their behalf.

But hey – at least some delegates to our state convention can waste a lot of time and beat their breasts about sticking it to the elitists or something.  Yeah, that’s it.  Those elitists!  Those elitists who think the voters are stupid, and our will shouldn’t be respected.  Those elitists who are actually in a small minority, but want to control everyone else because they think they’re soooooo right that the noble ends justify the tyrannical means.

Elitists indeed.

Sweet Sixteen

The (16) Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils over the (5) Wichita State Shockers

The Shockers had a great run, but dirty-minded chutzpah can only take you so far.  You can’t out-dirty-mind the devil, after all.

No, sorry. Now, now - please put your clothes back on. There's nothing badass about begging...

The (2) Duke Blue Devils over the (11) Colorado Buffaloes

In this horned matchup, the Sons of Perdition outdo the mere mortal bovines.

Hmmm... That Blue Devil beard looks familiar, too...

The (1) Michigan State Spartans over the (5) New Mexico Lobos

As a general rule, a bunch of trained warriors with weapons and shields will overcome pretty much any animal, although this is closer that it might otherwise have been given the cooperative hunting style of wolves.

The (15) Norfolk State Spartans over the (14) BYU Cougars

Oh, you saw 300 too?  So you know how this one turns out…

The (13) Montana Grizzlies over the (8) Kansas State Wildcats

It’s rare for something as generic as a wildcat to even get this far, but KSU has benefited from particularly un-badass opponents – up until now.

The (3) Florida State Seminoles over the (10) West Virginia Mountaineers

This is a pretty evenly matched game, but FSU gets the edge due to their badass mascot history.

The (9) Alabama Crimson Tide over the (4) Michigan State Wolverines

Wolverines are pound for pound one of the most badass of nature’s creatures.  But no one ever harnessed up a wolverine to attack Rome from the Alps.

The (15) Detroit Titans over the (6) San Diego State Aztecs

The Atecs are in the top tier of badassity, what with all that ripping out still-beating hearts and all.  But once again, the Titans always take it to the next level – by eating their own children alive.

This will also be the bloodiest game in NCAA history.

The Elite Eight

The (16) Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils over the (2) Duke Blue Devils

In this underworld Battle Royale, the less cartoonish, more flame-producing version of the Lord of the Flies wins out in the end.  The Duke logo just looks like he’s resting on his evil laurels, and that’s just not good enough at this level.

The (1) Michigan State Spartans over the (15) Norfolk State Spartans

It’s fun to have two apples vs. apples matchups like this, and it really all comes down to mascot/logo design.  In this case, Michigan’s is a bit dull – “spartan” even.  But there’s no question he looks ready to spread his badassery all over the court.  The Norfolk Spartans on the other hand, look vaguely befuddled, and less robust.  Michigan State takes this in a bloody squeaker.

The (3) Florida State Seminoles over the (13) Montana Grizzlies

I struggled with this one.  The Seminoles are totally badass, but so is the lumbering grizzly.  And I can only imagine the havoc an angry bear would wreak on an Indian village of old.

But in the end, the Seminole’s history and fighting spirit carry them through one more round.

The (15) Detroit Titans over the (9) Alabama Crimson Tide

One beef about the Titans I haven’t mentioned before.  In spite of a whole pantheon of proto-gods to choose from, the costume Detroit chose was of a run of the mill Greek/Roman warrior.  If there was a closer matchup, that could really hurt them.

But in the end, as badass as the elephant/tsunami of blood is, it can’t top the progenitor of the whole of mankind.

The Final Four

The (1) Michigan State Spartans over the (16) Mississippi Valley Delta Devils

The forces of darkness are generally badass, but they can be defeated by determined and noble people – otherwise we’d be pretty screwed as a species.  And there is precedent for this, too – in the 2009 Badassiest Bracket, the Spartans defeated the Sun Devils in the final game (Michigan almost won that game in real life, too…)

The (15) Detroit Titans over the (3) Florida State Seminoles

The PC-defying Seminoles had a great run, but they can’t stand up to the beings who sired the Gods of Olympus.

The Championship Game

The (15) Detroit Titans over the (1) Michigan State Spartans

I like how the final game came down to the roots of human myth and legend.  And if those legends are any guide, it’s clear that you need some Olympians to take down Titans.

Now THIS is how a basketball tournament should end...

The only reason humans are a factor at all is because the Gods can be played off of each other, and use us like pawns.  If they actually united against mankind, we’d be squished like grapes, drowned in an overwhelming, galactically devastating display of badassity.

And so the Titans win this year’s tournament – and you can take that to the bank!*  See you next year!

~~~

* Please don’t try to take it to the bank.