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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 06/08/2012 : 08:45:08
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Is the GOP coming unraveled? The Raw Story has this: Louisiana GOP spirals into chaos as Ron Paul delegates injured, arrested
By Stephen C. Webster
Monday, June 4, 2012 10:43 EDT
Several supporters of Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) sustained injuries while being arrested during the Louisiana Republican Party’s state convention over the weekend, in a conflict that engulfed the meeting after Paul’s supporters overwhelmed other delegates and voted in new leadership, only to be ignored.
Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) won the Louisiana primary and received 10 delegates, while former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) took second, earning five delegates along with it. Paul finished fourth in the primary, behind former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), but his supporters dominated the state’s caucusing process in April, meaning he stood to gain as many as 30 delegates at the state convention.
And with an audience widely stacked in his favor on Saturday, it seemed likely that Paul would again emerge from a state convention the unexpected victor… That is, until the LAGOP chairman turned the process on its head.
The conflict hinged upon an alleged violation of the state party’s rules by Chairman Roger Francis Villere, Jr., who’s headed up the LAGOP since 2004. Paul supporters claim he called upon a former Rules Committee chairman, who had been defeated the night prior, in order to implement rules that would marginalize Paul’s delegates. That’s when Alex Helwig, a Paul supporter who’d claimed he had won the race to chair the rules committee, stood up and objected to the chairman’s actions, only to be ignored.
As Helwig’s protest continued, cameras caught Villere saying: “This is not debatable. He is the chairman of the rules committee. I would ask you to sit down. We told you to sit down… I’m going to ask you to be seated, or I’m going to have to ask you to leave. I’m going to have you escorted out if you don’t leave.”
“Mr. Villere, with all due respect, it pains me to do this,” Helwig responded. “I supported you in your run for Lt. Governor. You are a good man.”
“This is not debatable,” Villere replied. “I don’t need this.”
In a video published to YouTube, police officers seize Helwig by both arms and drag him out of the room, breaking several of his fingers in the process, according to Ron Paul 2012 press release. It all transpired as as the crowd chanted: “The chairman must remove! The chairman must remove!”
That’s when the convention split.
Paul delegates moved to request more information on the chairman’s decision, but he continued as if they weren’t present. So, they decided then and there to elect a new chairman, picking state central committeeman Henry Herford Jr., a Paul supporter, to lead the party.
When Villere refused to acknowledge the vote, Paul’s delegates picked up their chairs and turned away from him, forming a new convention on the spot and passing a microphone to their new chairman.
Moments later, Herford, too, was seized by police. Camera-wielding Paul supporters surrounded the fracas as Herford pleaded with officers to be gentle due to his prosthetic hip. “I have a handicap! I’m handicapped!” he said as they pulled him to the ground.
Herford said later, after he was treated for dislocating his prosthetic hip, “It felt like somebody had kicked me, brought me down. They said I was resisting arrest, but they never said I was under arrest. I didn’t leave when they told me to leave, but I never was told to leave… I have a room here in this hotel and I’m on the state central committee. I don’t know how I could be in an improper place.”
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I sympathize. Much the same thing happened in a Star Trek club I was in during the 1970's.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
Edited by - HalfMooner on 06/08/2012 10:13:59
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sailingsoul
SFN Addict
2830 Posts |
Posted - 06/08/2012 : 12:12:42 [Permalink]
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Republicans ignore the constitution, "it just a God damn piece of paper", why should convention rules be any different?
edit; added the quote marks to clarify that it was not me saying it but a Republican President, in office at the time he spoke those words. Guess who or google it. |
There are only two types of religious people, the deceivers and the deceived. SS |
| Edited by - sailingsoul on 06/08/2012 16:39:42 |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 06/08/2012 : 16:27:14 [Permalink]
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| Also at Dispatches from the Culture Wars with video. |
"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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moakley
SFN Regular
USA
1888 Posts |
Posted - 06/09/2012 : 04:56:25 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by sailingsoul
Republicans ignore the constitution, "it just a God damn piece of paper", why should convention rules be any different?
edit; added the quote marks to clarify that it was not me saying it but a Republican President, in office at the time he spoke those words. Guess who or google it.
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If this is GWB it may not be true |
Life is good
Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned. -Anonymous |
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sailingsoul
SFN Addict
2830 Posts |
Posted - 06/09/2012 : 15:37:50 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by moakley
If this is GWB it may not be true
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After looking into it further I will no longer bring that up as if it was established to be as true as I previously believed. Thank you for pointing that out and causing me to see that accusation differently. |
There are only two types of religious people, the deceivers and the deceived. SS |
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Louisiana GOP spirals into chaos, violence
