It’s been a while.
Two score and two years ago Ronald Reagan brought forth in this State a new Party, conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all Republicans are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that Party, or any Party, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.
Those are the stakes in Moses Lake. In the town, I mean, named after the Lake.
Moses Lake is three hours from Seattle, less than two from Spokane, near the “middle.” Tomorrow morning the Rules, Credentials, and Platform committees meet there in preparation for the Washington State Republican Convention. And while the struggle for the heart and soul of the Party in 1980 was about Platform and by 1988 had shifted to Rules, in 2012 it is more than clear that the Convention will swivel, as (I believe) will the Party’s direction, on the Credentials Committee’s handling of the Challenges before it.
A “Challenge” is the formal claim that a delegate or delegates purportedly elected to the State Convention was placed on the rolls illegally. The Committee in Moses Lake will adjudicate more than 60 such claims. SEVENTEEN OF THEM could throw out all or most of an entire delegation, everyone from a Legislative or Councilmanic district or an entire County.
This has never happened before.
I mean on this scale… the occurrence of this many allegations this huge has never happened before. But it is not a surprise. We know exactly why. We told you 3 years ago.
On Breaking Eggs and Starving:
“In 2008, the RNC/Campaign Team of John McCain acquired the dubious distinction of having broken almost every egg left in the Grand Old Party basket without making anything close to an omelet.
Securing the nomination for a man that a relatively small minority liked at all, and large pluralities disliked enthusiastically, required that a tiny top Party elite bend, fold, spindle and mutilate virtually every rule and ethic that held the Party together, as well as strong-arming countless subservient officials and staff to “follow orders” in a parade of blatant infractions that might have made Lyndon Johnson or Richard “Boss” Daley blush back in the sixties…
.The first
To years ago
…The rules, the procedures and the leadership structures of the Party from top to bottom look like a demolition site, walls crumbling, pillars akimbo.
.
In January, 2011, the first consequence of that impending collapse was the demise of the political career of Rob McKenna operative Luke Esser, replaced by Kirby Wilbur as State Party Chair. Many hoped that Kirby, longtime Party luminary, Seattle area talk radio host and sometime convention chair, would be a reformer.
More than anything else, his legacy is now on trial in Moses Lake.
Kirby agrees with you on significant concerns. I guarantee it. Just talk with him and you’ll see what I mean. Privately, I mean. The night before his election as Esser’s successor, Mr. Wilbur even telegraphed his agreement with the Reagan Wing… on Party reform. Those who have approached Kirby privately as GOP cheating resumed, full force, in the 2012 election cycle have been assured that he looks at things just the same as they do. As have, I am now certain, the other side, the cheaters.
Moses Lake will tell the tale.
The results have already been telegraphed by Kirby’s office. Kirby has taken control of the Credentials Committee. Process is being dictated to the committee, rules imposed, decisions over which the Committee has authority being preemptively made for them by Kirby Wilbur.
Will Kirby Wilbur continue, despite his overtures to the contrary in private, to operate in the interests of the most corrupt officials in the Party, endorsing and helping cover up their corruption, or will he, sensing the exposure to the light of his acts, become the reformer he could have been?
Moses Lake will tell the tale.
We had the same kind of battles in 84- when we ran a Pro Life Slate against the Reagan Bush slate…. that year we defeated a US Senator for a delegate to the national Convention….. stay in the fight surprised to hear Kirby has sided with the old gaurd….
The party may only remain intact comprised of the problem children and those who feel they’ve no place else to go.
The lack of any public utterance regarding party officials imposing their will on party members and intentionally breaking rules to suit their goals may prove to be the knife through the heart of the best opportunity for the WSRP to take control of our state government and certainly the 12 in ’12 mantra.
The only reason that a state political party chairperson would do something like this is he’s trying to rig the outcome of the convention. Next January he needs to be shown the door and replaced by someone who has integrity.
yes, and Jack Hamilton is still controlling the republican party of Kitsap County with his “followers” at his beck and call but they are insulted to see these words posted no doubt. They have assisted him in silencing his fellow Americans, interfering with processes best left to work as designed and certainly not meant for one man to manipulate at the expense of those who work hard, paid a high price, to represent their choice for the nomination. For the life of me what in the world is it they have against the constitution? It is a senseless battle and to think they will go to these lengths opposing constitutional restoration for Mitt Romney!???!
I’m not surprised by Kirby’s actions at all. I heard he was out making conference calls to help Romney’s dis-unity slate organize before the county conventions. Kirby’s just better than most at pretending.
He told us all to “sit down and shut up” at the Kitsap County convention in dist one caucus. He was defending Jack Hamilton who has taken great pains to control the outcome of the convention as he did in 08 at both the county and state levels. This outburst was over a gentleman who was videotaping and not causing a problem. The leader whose name I do not know shouted to him to turn his camera off citing rule 14 c as the proof she needed that cameras were not allowed. It said nothing of the sort but invited the public in conflict with her claim this was a “private” meeting. Kirby blamed the effect rather than the cause, as is par for those who are opposed to doing our duty of defending the constitution. Also, I believe those who participated in the disenfranchisement of sincere and legal voters, should be ousted now. I find this activity to be reprehensible and no further actions need to follow to prove the need to expel those who set out to, and successfully disenfranchised Ron Paul’s supporters and then blamed them for it.
Last night’s Reality Check livestream about the Liberty Movement changing of the Republican Party and the dirty tricks the midstream GOPers are pulling to fight the grassroots of their own party!
It is time that folks like Lars Larson and Glenn Beck are made aware of how the GOP are operating. We will see how much brighter the sunshine is than those dark, back-rooms.
I really have to think the Blue Dog Republicans running the state GOP are throwing the election to Obama again. Romney is even less appealing than John McCain, who at least could crow about being a Vietnam War POW. If Romney is their boy, I think we’re looking at Obama’s 2nd term.
Update. The committee interpreted the rule which required mailing the convention date, time and place to the delegates, and allowing electronic communication if prior consent was obtained, to be met because “everyone uses e-mail, now-a-days.”
The rule requires a post-marked mailing. It does allow for electronic means if consent is obtained. No consent was obtained from anyone. No mail was sent out, and many delegates were not present, as a result.
This committee looked at this rule, and in an ad hoc, and ex post facto manner, rewrote the rule by ignoring half of it, and voted down the challenge.
The Republican Party, the Law and Order Party, are ignoring rules as though they do not exist.
Why? What is there about Jack Hamilton or Mitt Romney which could possibly justify the total anihilation of ones own character and reputation?
The ends justify the means for some of the less scrupulous among us, but why are such paltry ends worth these means, even to them?
Good points Tony. I’ve served the public for 25 years in healthcare and thought that I’d seen most everything, until I became involved in politics just 4 months ago. Since March, I’ve seen a new style of bias and strange new fears that accompany all bias. I’ve seen great people with solid values, dismiss those values rather quickly to obtain what they think they want. I’ve seen close friends at odds with one another because they could find no middle ground to stand on. But most frustrating for me, is to see first hand, a group of very intelligent, passionate people doing all that they can do to plead with those around them to wake up and see what’s really going on around them, for the sole purpose of trying to protect everyone from our nation’s collapse – only to get characterized in the media and even by their neighbors, as trouble makers. I am so afraid that we will all stand back as spectators and watch in agony as our worst fears unfold upon our nation. I will never stop fighting for our constitutional rights, after having seen what I’ve seen these past 4 months. I’ve been affected for life, and I hope many more will join us. I still have hope, but my own fears have grown substantially.
You can almost tell just from looking at Kirby what he is really guilty of.
He looks like a Chris Vance clone to me.
I have known Kirby since he was in school and he was always a good hearted well intentioned fellow. Talk is his greatest gift. After the 1984 showdown for the platform I greatly esteem Congressman Doc Hasting for allowing the debate and vote of the state platform committee that put Life and family at the top of our platform. I learned I would not want Kirby at my back in a fight. He was so nervous I tore a page out of my Bible to encourage him. He has become pragmatic as so many of our leaders have. The manipulation and big umbrella approach has killed the Republican party. The Tea Party/Constitutional Party will prevail IF they love their country enough to continue the fight for their principles. NEVER GIVE UP!Bless you Doug Parris!