RNC Shuts Out Grassroots Despite Loud Opposition

by Tim Brown

While some think that the rules adoptions today was all about Ron Paul, they are mistaken. Cynthia Kennedy reported in two stories that the RNC were setting up last minute rule changes to go into effect before the nomination process. As a result, the party overwhelmingly voted for Mitt Romney to represent the party, but they also approved rules that will effectively stifle the voices of any and all grassroots efforts in the Republican party in the future.

Before things started today on the convention floor columnist Michelle Malkin Tweeted:

Later on as things were developing and the RNC was pushing through their power grab via the head RINO, Speaker of the House John Boehner and John Sununu, they didn’t even try to differentiate between the yes and no votes. Personally, I think either Boehner had one too many drinks or needed his ears cleaned or both. Because even on C-Span you could hear there was significant dissent.

On top of that the RNC would not seat the Maine delegates and that brought about chants of “Seat them now!” However, at several tweets indicated that some convention people were to chant “USA!” in order to drown out dissent.

Michelle Malkin reports,

Update 2:50pm Eastern…The Rules Committee just voted 78-14 to accept the Romney-approved deal on Rules 15(16) and 12. There is now an effort to gather enough signatures to force a floor vote on the minority report. 25 percent of committee members are needed.

Apparently, the Virginia delegation was stuck on a bus and didn’t make it in time for the vote.

Update 3:34pm Eastern Dissidents have until 3:47pm Eastern to gather enough signatures to force the floor vote, according to right-leaning Examiner’s Tim Carney, who is on scene. Left-leaning BuzzFeed’s Zeke Miller, also on scene, says it appears dissidents have gathered enough signatures for minority report on Rule 12, but not yet on Rule 15(16).

Carney says that Drew McKissck has emailed a minority report to RNC leaders within the rules deadline…

***

Update: 4:34pm Eastern Well, that was…something else. First, Maine delegates were replaced with Romney people. Then, rules chairman John Sununu and GOP Speaker of the House John Boehner stood on stage at the RNC to rule on the compromise rules report. No minority report was mentioned. When asked for yeas and nays on the report, the room seemed equally divided. Boehner forged ahead and approved the report over loud boos and calls of “point of order” from activists on the floor.

No vote on the minority report.

FW’s Dean Clancy observes: “If @SpeakerBoehner had been wielding the Speaker’s gavel instead of the GOP convention gavel, he wouldn’t have gotten away with that trick.”

And the show went on…GOP Rep. Marsha Blackburn just declared that “this has been a great exercise in grass-roots” and that GOP stands for “Great Opportunity Party.”

So my friends, if you are in the Tea Party or a supporter of Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul or anyone else in the future that the establish does not want nominated, too bad for you. You’ll get exactly whom they say and you’ll have no voice in it. Things were bad, but now they took a major nose dive. Even Romney supporters said it was bad, like Morton Blackwell, whom i was told was unable to make his case before the committee regarding the RNC power grab because security held him and his bus up. Isn’t that just perfect?

Romney took the nomination with a total of 2061 votes. Should he be elected this year, he will also determine who the delegates are in 2016. That’s right, grassroots people will no longer have a say in the matter.

About Tim Brown

Husband to my wife. Father of 10. Jack of All Trades. Christian and lover of liberty. Follow Tim on Twitter.