Ashley Ryan knows an insult when she hears one. The Ron Paul delegate and incoming committeewoman of the Maine Republican Party described the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) radical rewriting of their rulebook as “a huge slap in the face.”
As we have reported, on August 24 the RNC voted to rob Ron Paul of half of Ryan’s fellow Maine delegates won by the iconic Texas congressman at that state’s Republican convention held in May.
Later that same day the RNC Rules Committee voted 63-38 to create a new party rule granting the the ruling cabal — and by extension their candidate, Mitt Romney — unchecked power to change the party’s rules.
At the urging of the Romney campaign’s chief attorney, Ben Ginsberg, the new rule allows the RNC to rewrite the party’s rulebook without the approval of the full Republican National Convention.
The new scheme is an unprecedented power grab that gives the GOP’s presumptive nominee power to control the party and to effectively prevent any dissenting man or message from penetrating the thick veil of control draped by the Establishment over the nominating process.
Ryan reports that she and others opposed this takeover of the GOP. In an interview with Business Insider, she said that “committee members opposed to Romney’s plan drafted two minority reports immediately after the meeting, stating their position against the changes.”
Ryan’s reading of the RNC rules is correct. According to Rule 34 of the Rules for the Republican Party as adopted in 2008:
No resolution or amendment pertaining to the report of the Committee on Resolutions or the Committee on Rules and Order of Business shall be reported out or made a part of any report of such committee or otherwise read or debated before the convention, unless the same shall have been submitted to the chairman, vice chairman, or secretary of such committee or to the secretary of the convention in writing not later than one hour after the time at which such committee votes on its report to the convention and shall have been accompanied by a petition evidencing the affirmative written support of a minimum of twenty-five percent (25%) of the membership of such committee.
“The rules say that you have an hour after the meeting, but within 15 minutes, we couldn’t find [Chairman John Sununu] anywhere,” Ryan, told Business Insider. “Finally, we asked an RNC official if they had seen former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu. He said, ‘John Sununu! Everyone’s looking for him! But he left the building.'”
Calls and emails from The New American to the RNC asking for an explanation of this violation of the rules were not answered by press time.
Ryan, a 21-year-old math major at the University of Southern Maine, realizes that Ron Paul is the reason behind the RNC’s rapid and reprehensible rule change. That doesn’t deter her from supporting him, however. In fact, she says that she is “on an adrenaline rush this high” after delivering an inspiring speech at the “We Are the Future” rally held Sunday at the Sun Dome in Tampa and sponsored by the Ron Paul campaign.
In her speech, Ryan told the 10,000 patriots in attendance that “the credential committee used faulty logic to rule against my state’s duly elected delegates.” She called this behavior “devastating,” and the faithful rocked the Sun Dome with shouts of support.
Speaking to reporters after the event, Ryan said that the Maine delegation is “trying to stay positive,” and that delegates from Texas, Iowa, and elsewhere were rallying to the cause of openness and fairness in the nominating process.
Ron Paul’s representatives at the Republican convention can’t catch a break. Under a headline reading, “Ron Paul Delegates get Nosebleed Seats,” Politico reported that an RNC seating chart obtained by them “shows the delegations from Nevada, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota and Oklahoma all located on the outer fringe of the convention floor.” As The New American has reported, Ron Paul supporters in these states successfully elected liberty-minded delegates to represent them at the national convention.
Contrast that unfavorable treatment with the fact that, as Politico reports, the “delegation for the Northern Mariana Islands … is right in front behind the gang from Michigan, birth state of Republican nominee Mitt Romney. Other groups with pretty good seats include those from the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and American Samoa. None has electoral votes that can impact the outcome of the election.”
Does the RNC believe that such effrontery will somehow convince the Ron Paul delegates to quietly consent to the coronation of Mitt Romney? Perhaps they believe that flexing their manipulative muscle will pressure Dr. Paul to endorse Romney’s run for the White House.
Not likely. In an interview with the New York Times, the libertarian-leaning icon said that although the RNC reached out to him and offered him a slot in the convention schedule, he refused to consent to the two conditions demanded by the organizers: First, that he allow Romney’s people to approve his speech, and second, that he endorse Mitt Romney without reservation.
“It wouldn’t be my speech,” Paul told the Times. “That would undo everything I’ve done in the last 30 years. I don’t fully endorse him for president.”
Paul restated this sentiment during his speech at Sunday’s rally, joking with the crowd that the RNC had called him and told him he could have an hour at the convention to say anything he wanted. “Just kidding, just kidding,” he added.
What makes the Paul faithful so devoted is the fact that they know when it comes to his commitment to the principles of peace, property rights, constitutionalism, and sound economic policy Ron Paul is very serious.
The RNC doesn’t get it and likely they don’t see a need to. As Dr. Paul said Sunday, “They’ve learned how to bend rules, break rules, and now they want to re-write the rules!” The small coterie of Establishment elites that control both major political parties know that so long as they remain in power, the rules will be theirs to bend and the law will be theirs to make. Put simply, the fix is in at the top — but that does not mean they won’t throw bones at those Republicans who do not do their bidding in order to create the appearance of a big tent.
One such bone is the short film in tribute to Dr. Paul scheduled to be played Wednesday night at the convention. Another is the speaking slot given to Dr. Paul’s son Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) slated for later that evening.
Speaking of Senator Paul, Ashley Ryan told the New York Times that “there were a lot of people who were upset” by his decision to endorse Mitt Romney. The Times quotes Ryan saying that “Rand’s going to have a lot of work ahead of him to secure his base if he wants to be the next liberty candidate.”
Politico writes that while Rand may be the voice of the liberty movement going forward, his father will forever be the “conscience.”
It remains to be seen whether the collective conscience of the marginalized and mistreated Ron Paul delegates will keep them from outdoing Hurricane Isaac and raining on the Romney/RNC parade.
Photo: AP Images
