The GOP here in Missouri has turned into a royal mess, with the caucuses unraveling at the seams and the Republicans pointing fingers at each other. In one county, Nodaway County, a group of Ron Paul supporters sought to take over the Republican caucuses and dominate the infrastructure ahead of the state conventions. The Nodaway News-Leader is the right-wing paper for that county. In their print edition, one of their right-wing commentators, Larry Haataja, points his finger at the Ron Paul supporters as well as the national party. If this fingerpointing keeps up, Missouri could be in play for the Obama camp.
He starts by stating that he was disenfranchised by the caucus process:
I didn't get to vote for my choice of Republican candidate for president as I would have in a primary. We also had to endure the spectacle of a county causes that was an absolute farce, complete with elementary school lineup and countoff rather than secret ballot.
In Missouri, there was a beauty contest in February followed by a binding caucus in March that selected the delegates to the state conventions. At this particular caucus, things went from bad to worse:
Not only could I not vote for my candidate, but the caucus was quickly hijacked by the supporters of Ron Paul and parliamentary wrangling was so severe that many didn't get to speak.
It's ironic that he complains about vote suppression when Republican secretaries of state in 2004 (Ken Blackwell, Ohio) and Florida (Katherine Harris, 2000) engaged in it to a huge degree and Republican legislatures all over the country are trying to pass picture ID laws even though they have been thrown out by courts time and time again because they amount to a poll tax. But now he points the finger at the state and national parties. After saying that the local party did everything to make sure the caucus was done correctly without success, he continues:
Apparently, they [the local GOP] were not even allowed to verify that only Republicans were attending the caucus. This doesn't make walking around sense to me. Why call it a Republican caucus if anyone can participate?
And then he turns around and calls the Ron Paul supporters PUMAS:
To the Ron Paul supporters. I read your comments on the blogs and in the press. Your snide comments and obvious desire to ram through a slade that did not represent Nodaway County could not be overlooked. You were just out to "stick it to the man," upend the status quo -- and for what? You were willing to completely split and demoralize the party in a year when we need unity the most just to get Ron Paul the most Missouri delegates.
The main disadvantage of this sort of caucus system is that a lot of times, you don't know how your delegates are going to vote. Even in a small rural county, that is a problem:
Unbelievably, the slates of delegates we were asked to vote for were not even required to tell us who they supported. Most of us didn't even know who they were. Some did disclose their candidate preferences, but one man in particular refused even though he was wearing a Ron Paul shirt.
And all of a sudden, we find a Republican concerned about vote suppression:
So what is the bottom line result of this Republican caucus? I believe the most destructive result is voter disenfrachisement. I didn't get to vote for my candidate or even get to say why I thought my candidate was the best. I had to vote for a slate of delegates whom I had never seen before, who were not required to tell me who they were supporting, might not have even been Republicans and brought their kids to take up seats designated for registered voters to ensure they had the upper hand in numbers.
That is particularly bad. Recall that the Republicans will need these peoples' votes come November and questioning whether they are really Republicans or residents is not going to do that. And the winner may well be Mickey Mouse:
They may vote for Mickey Mouse for all I know and apparently they are allowed to do that. He would feel right at home in this process, if you get my drift.
And the feelings are mutual:
I would say that the Republican Party has a much greater PUMA problem than we do. When we had our knock-down drag-out Hillary vs. Obama wars in 2008, we were able to put aside our differences and turn people out to vote for Obama in the general election. Democrats have always sought to be an inclusive party which respects each other's differences. But the Republican Party is one that is based on ideology, meaning that there people are a lot less likely to modify their views following a dustup. If enough people stay home in Missouri, this state could be in play in November.