The New Democracy – Republican Style

Yee – haw! It’s the Republic of Indonesia’s Independence Day today – AND – today 150 some odd Republican precinct chairs and various and sundry Texas state and local GOP officials will meet at the First Baptist Church of Pearland to agree to support one write-in candidate. There is also the persistent rumor that some out-of-state Washington lobbyist will be in attendance, also.

The meeting is closed to the public. The smell of this is high.

Didn’t Sam Sparks tell Tina Benkiser et al. that they could not replace Tom DeLay on the ballot? Now here they are organizing Republican support for a Republican write-in. Why oh why doesn’t the TDP file suit to restrain these people from committing what is arguably a criminal act?

I’ll tell you why.

No one down at TDP is strong enough today, having laughed themselves senseless since Monday’s announcement of the meeting, and announcements that have followed, all the way up to today.

The latest? Gary Gillen says that Fort Bend chairs should boycott the meeting, and meet at the Pecan Grove Country Club instead. It’s all in a forwarded memo at muse’s place. Hey, muse, GG specifically wrote these people not to forward the memo to anyone else. These words out of a man who claims to be in favor of meetings that are “open to the public and the press” and that “I don’t intend to participate in anything secretive.”

Apparently the Pecan Grove Country Club has donated its meeting room to the local GOP (you hear that? donated) in exchange for the attendees agreeing to feed on a pasta soup and salad bar dinner for 15 bucks a pop. Well, at least you can go back for seconds, but man, 15 bucks for noodles, soup and lettuce? By comparison, Ashton Glover’s family’s fund raising spaghetti dinner was $8.00 a plate.

Good food there, better cause, better attended too, I’ll wager.

So I imagine that the press is going to flock to Gillen’s meeting because they can’t get in the one in Pearland. At Gary’s meeting, at least, you will have a bunch of Republicans speak as one in praise for their new savior David “Guns” Wallace. Over in Pearland, a blood bath is inevitable, but I guess if Tina Benkiser can get 76 chairs to agree to Paul Bettencourt, then they’ll have a write-in candidate.

Wow. 76 out of 150 votes are all it would take. Well, you know, it’s kind of patriotic. They could say things like “Paul Bettencourt, choice of the people”, where “the people” are a group that they could call “The Spirit of the 76”.

And that, folks is democracy in action, also known as The New Democracy – Republican Style:

Gaming the system
Sneaking around
Disobeying court orders
Accepting non-cash donations from tax-exempt organizations and fat cat establishments.
Paying too much for a buffet dinner.