[...]
Well, now you know. There is a plan. In fact, there was a plan all along. And it is just brilliant. The Paulistas are going to hold their own convention in nearby Minneapolis. 10,000 strong. And all those duly, legally, elected delegates that got cheated out of the Republican National Convention, will be seated after all.
It appears that after months of being the victims in state convention after state convention, with horror story after horror story, the Paulistas will not be fighting for credentials with the National Soviet Republican apparatchik. They will be organizing at their own convention in nearby Minneapolis.
And no, this will not be the start of a new party or a “revolt.” This will not be a colorful debate like the Creative Coalition and other rump events of the past. Nor will it be an exercise in academia, like the Alan Keyes ballroom events that drew a 1,000 people who were so bored they could not keep their eyes open. Nor will it be a media, entertainment event, ala Arianna Huffington and Bill Maher’s Shadow Conventions. This won’t be a walk out, it will be a “walk in.” These very serious Paulistas will be meeting to organize how to take back their own Republican Party. How to elect “constitutional” congressmen all across the country. And how to come back in four years in the driver’s seat.
All of this will take place right in the shadow of their tormentors, the people who would not let them in, even when they won a fair fight. You would think, given the stakes that the McCain people, if they had a chance to do this all over again, would have sent word down to the State Chairman. “Just play it by the rules. If Ron Paul wins 400 delegates, so what? Let him have them. We should be magnanimous in victory. We can afford to be nice, and we need them for November.”
But no, they were afraid that the media might notice the ascendancy of the Paulistas. They might ask, why are these people winning state delegations even after the race is over? What does this mean?
In any case, it is too late now. The Paulistas will be in Minnesota in numbers this September. Their detractors will call it an orgasmic end to a phenomenon that peaked two months too late? But others may someday write that this convention in Minneapolis was history in the making? A turning point for the Republican Party. The media will not miss it. The bosses in New York will add one more airplane ticket and send along that new assistant producer who has been nagging for a chance to show her stuff. And no legitimate Paulista will miss it either. Who can resist? McCain will be in St. Paul but St. Paul will be in Minneapolis. Now that’s news.
