It ain't over yet - Cruz part 2?

[Israel Chai]

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/05/11/cruz-campaign-set-to-challenge-trump-in-texas-we-have-a-busy-weekend-planned/

Cruz Campaign Set to Challenge Trump in Texas: ‘We Have a Busy Weekend Planned’
May. 11, 2016 11:48pm Tré Goins-Phillips   

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz may be down, but don’t count him out of the Republican presidential nomination contest just yet.

Presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump is sending three advisors to the Texas convention in Dallas this weekend who will make the pitch for party unity. However, they will also be running against a Cruz operation that is still working to build a coalition of delegates the Texas senator could call on to knock Trump.

“We have a busy weekend planned,” a source familiar with the Cruz campaign told Politico.
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN - APRIL 05: Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) greets supporters at the American Serb Hall Banquet Center after the polls closed on April 5, 2016 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Wisconsin (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN – APRIL 05: Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) greets supporters at the American Serb Hall Banquet Center after the polls closed on April 5, 2016 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Wisconsin (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Cruz, who suspended his campaign for the White House after losing Indiana to Trump, has since hinted that he might be jumping back in to the race for the Republican nomination if he sees a “path to victory.” He is expected to deliver a speech at the Texas convention.

Even though he has dropped out of the running, Trump’s former foe has deployed at least one paid advisor — his state director Tyler Morris — at the Texas Republican convention.

But, as it turns out, Texas isn’t the only place Cruz is attempting to compete with the billionaire businessman.

Cruz’s team remains active in eight other state conventions selecting delegates this week, in fact — Nebraska, Oklahoma, Nevada, Arkansas, Florida and Wisconsin, where a total of 389 national delegates will be selected.

If Cruz was still interested in establishing a contested convention, this weekend’s convention haul would be the senator’s best chance to do it, given that it is the largest single delegate selection weekend in the entire primary.

This comes as the Trump campaign continues to work to develop unity among Republican voters and elected officials on Capitol Hill.

The Trump campaign — they have to go unite Republicans. They’ve got to do that,” Austin Barbour, a GOP convention leader in Mississippi, which is holding its convention this weekend, said. “I think he needs to go talk to the people who are Cruz people, who are Bush people. Donald Trump’s a bigtime underdog in this race. They need to tie down Republican votes and this weekend’s a good start for them.”

One of Trump’s top delegate advisors, Ed Brookover, will be at the Mississippi convention. Alan Cobb, another Trump aide, will be at the Kansas convention Saturday. Though the state went to Cruz earlier this year, its delegation to Cleveland is likely to now be much more neutral and will include Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a prominent Trump surrogate.

And in Oklahoma, where Cruz bested Trump, the state GOP chairwoman Pam Pollard is hoping to unite the party around Trump. In fact, the theme of Oklahoma’s convention is “United We Stand.” But Pollard has since said she is all in for the New York real estate mogul, adding that she campaigned for him in March.

“I wanted to send a clear signal back in March that we support all of our candidates,” she said. “No matter who our nominee is, we would support them.”

However, the Sooner State’s convention gala will feature a keynote address from Carly Fiorina, Cruz’s former running mate. Fiorina was selected as the speaker before she was tapped as Cruz’s vice presidential candidate, but her comments have not been vetted yet.

“I have not spoken to Mrs. Fiorina about what her message will be,” Pollard said. “She knows the theme of our convention and I know, number one, that she’s a professional, she’s a lady and she is out for the best interests of the party.”

But it’s is still the Lone Star State where Cruz is putting the most stock. Former Texas GOP chairman Steve Munisteri said Cruz’s allies have not overtly lobbied for the senator yet, but appear to be angling to get about 24 of Cruz’s top backers into the state’s 155-member delegation.

As for Trump’s action in the state, Munisteri said his advisors have been fairly quiet.

“They’re there with olive branches,” he said. “Cruz has tremendous support in the state, so they’re not there to rub anybody’s noses in it. They’re there to introduce themselves and start working on party unity issues. They would like to get some of their delegates.”

[Israel Chai]

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/republican-convention-stop-donald-trump-curly-haugland-213879

 The One Man Who Could Stop Donald Trump

For years, Curly Haugland’s command of the GOP rulebook made him a pariah. This year, he could be the establishment’s last hope to stop its nightmare nominee.

By Erick Trickey

May 09, 2016
Phil Mattingly/CNN

Phil Mattingly/CNN

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Curly Haugland loves the rules. The stubborn 69-year-old pool-supply magnate is North Dakota’s top Republican gadfly, its rule-mongering crank, its official state pain in the ass. On the national GOP’s standing rules committee, he’s been the pedantic curmudgeon, the stubborn speed bump who for years has raised points of order only to watch establishment Republicans stampede over him.

Yet now, as his party teeters on the edge of civil war, Haugland has become one of the most dangerous men in politics: He’s the mainstream GOP’s last hope to deny Donald Trump the Republican nomination in Cleveland. It would take a miracle—and almost certainly lead to a historic split in the party—but there is still a way, buried in the labyrinthine rulebook, that the party could free delegates from their obligation to vote for Trump. To get there, the convention’s rules committee would need to travel a perilous road. But nobody knows the terrain better than Haugland, a self-taught maverick expert on the Republican convention rules, who has spent a decade pushing schemes to take power away from Republican primary voters and give it back to party insiders.

There is one article of faith in the Republican Party: On the convention’s first ballot, bound delegates are required to vote for the candidate to whom they’re bound. What you need to know about Haugland’s radical vision is this: He insists that’s not the case. Haugland has been trumpeting this nuclear option for months. In March, he blasted out a letter to fellow Republican National Committee members with the subject line: “NEWS FLASH: All Republican Delegates to the 2016 Republican National Convention are Unbound!” He’s on a mission to let all the delegates at the convention in Cleveland to vote however they’d like on the first ballot, no matter whom their state’s voters chose.

This has long seemed like a crazy cause—who doesn’t want voters to decide? Back when Haugland was advocating the party assert its independence from a sitting Republican president, George W. Bush, Curlyism was viewed as a kind of benign, obscure heresy. But could this be the year Haugland’s strange view of the primary—that the party, not voters, chooses the nominee, as he often insists—finds its moment? In April, Eric O’Keefe, a Cruz supporter and Club for Growth activist, told the Wall Street Journal that he would lobby Republican delegates to assert their right to reject Trump at the convention. (O’Keefe did not return an email seeking comment.) Trump’s old pal Roger Stone has predicted for months that the Republican establishment would try to snatch the nomination from Trump at the convention, even if he won a pledged-delegate majority. Now that Trump’s opposition has dropped out, “the whole scenario is far, far less likely,” Stone says—but, he admits, it could still happen. “The Republican convention can do whatever it wants,” he says. “You can’t bring a lawsuit. There’s no jurisdiction.”

Now, as #NeverTrump conservatives begin to turn their attention to the possibility of a third-party candidate, it’s clear many GOP leaders are still deeply opposed to Trump as the nominee. The question is: How unhappy are they? And how far are they willing to go to stop him on the floor in Cleveland? Haugland knows the weird contours, obscure clauses and contradictory history of the party’s governing rules—so he knows the last, desperate hand the #NeverTrump crowd could play. He says he’s not taking sides in the presidential race—and, oddly enough, he even praises Trump. Still, now that Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee, all that stands in the way of the Trump Train is the idea Haugland champions: that the party can rewrite the convention rules to undo the voters’ choice.

On the surface, Haugland’s lonely stance seems to contradict every democratic reform of the presidential nominating process from the past 45 years: moves by Democrats and Republicans away from smoke-filled rooms to party primaries, especially open contests that allow independents to vote. His bald assertion that the Republican Party can simply veto the voters’ choice and dump a presumptive nominee provoked a backlash from Trump fans and enemies alike. “What’s the point of anybody voting then?” declared Sean Hannity on Fox. “Talk about nondemocracy!” complained Chris Matthews on MSNBC. Even Haugland’s own congressman—Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, whom Haugland backed early in his career—dismissed him as a “rules nerd.”

“Curly is one of these guys, he means well, he sort of likes to talk about the rules,” Cramer, a Trump supporter, told a Fargo TV station, “and usually [people] roll their eyes, pat him on the head, hope he buys the next round at the cocktail party, and say, ‘Isn’t he fun to have around?’”
Curly Haugland, a Bismarck businessman and North Dakota representative on the Republican National Committee, waits for the North Dakota state Republican convention to begin in Grand Forks, N.D. | AP Photo/Dale Wentzel

Curly Haugland, a Bismarck businessman and North Dakota representative on the Republican National Committee, waits for the North Dakota state Republican convention to begin in Grand Forks, N.D. | AP Photo/Dale Wentzel

And yet, incredibly, Republicans at the highest level can’t quite dismiss Haugland’s arguments. Even last week, three days after Reince Priebus declared Trump the presumptive nominee, the party chairman couldn’t quite bring himself to dismiss the possibility that the convention could nominate someone other than Trump. “It’s highly, highly doubtful,” Priebus told Mike Allen at the POLITICO Playbook Breakfast on May 6—but still, he noted, “nothing is impossible.” Meanwhile, party leaders such as House Speaker Paul Ryan are withholding their support from Trump—now asserting, as Haugland insisted during the Dubya era, that the party can remain independent of its own presumptive nominee.

You could call Haugland’s ideas a recipe for chaos, even a subversion of democracy. But if Trump reaches the magic number of 1,237 pledged delegates before the convention—and now that all the other Republican candidates have dropped out, he’s almost certain to do so—then establishment Republicans who still want to resist Trump’s hostile takeover will have only one option left: the ancient art of manipulating the convention rules. When Haugland gets to Cleveland, will his obsession with party arcana leave him as lonely and defeated as ever? Or will the #NeverTrump crowd, in desperation, unleash Curly?

***

Nobody—not even Haugland—remembers how he got his nickname: Curly’s hair is straight. It always was. Other kids nicknamed him at 10 or 11; maybe they played on his given name, Erling. If not for his obsession with rules, you could mistake Haugland for a typical archconservative Great Plains businessman. Haugland made his modest fortune supplying ladders and diving boards for large pools. “I’ve always been a free-market type, an entrepreneur,” he says. For years, he owned a ranch three hours west of Bismarck, where he hunted deer, elk, mountain lions, coyotes, bobcats and beaver. He opposes federal land management policies, abortion and illegal immigration. “Countries have to have borders,” he says. “That’s just fundamental.” He used to fly Republican candidates to meetings across North Dakota in his company plane, a six-seat Piper Cherokee.

He traces his obsession with the fine print back to his early career: He became a stickler for studying the bids and contracts for his pool business. “You put your economic life on the line every time you submit a bid,” he says. “The contracts are the rules.”

Unlike most Chamber-of-Commerce Republicans, Haugland harbors a libertarian hatred for “corporate welfare”—any government grants to business. For decades, just about any time North Dakota attempted to implement an economic development strategy, Haugland claimed it violated the state and federal constitutions. When Bismarck set up a special tax district for downtown improvements, Haugland fought it all the way to the North Dakota Supreme Court. (He lost, 5-0, in 2012.)

Former North Dakota Governor Ed Schafer put Haugland’s bulldog instincts to work in 1993 by nominating him to the board of the Bank of North Dakota. For years after, Haugland was “that curmudgeon, difficult, pushback type of leader, cranky,” says Schafer, who counted on Haugland to spot flaws in proposals. “He doesn’t get discouraged when he gets outvoted time after time after time,” adds Schafer. “He has a resolved smile when things don’t go his way. I’ve seen it a hundred times.”
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In 1999, after years of supporting North Dakota Republican candidates, Haugland won a two-year term as state party chairman. Five years later, party members named him one of North Dakota’s Republican national committeemen, and he joined the RNC’s standing rules committee. Around that time, Haugland began to care more about rules than candidates.

Haugland became convinced that the RNC was too focused on symbolic gestures and power politics, not the basics of building strong state and local parties. A turning point came in 2007, when the RNC considered endorsing a $30 billion U.S. contribution to U2 singer Bono’s anti-poverty campaign One. Haugland protested, saying it would “force Americans to support global socialism with their tax dollars.”

That same year, Haugland joined an uprising of party activists against President George W. Bush’s move to install U.S. Senator Mel Martinez as the RNC’s general chairman—a sort of spokesman’s post. On the one hand, it broke the rules, Haugland felt: The RNC didn’t provide for a general chairman. But there was also a much larger issue at stake: Haugland felt the national committee ought to have more autonomy from the president. Even a sitting Republican president. This, of course, was seen as heresy. At the vote, Haugland submitted a report from a certified parliamentarian to bolster his case. But Mike Duncan, the RNC chair, quickly overruled him and rammed Martinez through on a voice vote. A year later, when Michael Steele ran to replace Duncan, Haugland objected again: The rules said the chairman had to be an RNC member. Steele wasn’t. Didn’t matter. Steele won anyway.

Haugland’s many rules committee defeats have earned him a reputation as a loose cannon. He’s undaunted. “The biggest victory is one I’m going to have in a couple months,” he says. “Up ’til now, I’ve basically been laying the groundwork.”

To Haugland, extremism in defense of the party rules is no vice. His personal blog—on which he’s shared chapters of his forthcoming book, Unbound: The Conscience of a Republican Delegate—is titled Curly Haugland Truthers. (His son named it, as a joke.)

“I don’t care who the nominee is, particularly,” Haugland says. “I’m trying to save the Republican Party from being destroyed, consumed or rendered useless by the primaries. We can choose our president one [of two] ways: delegates at the convention, or the vote of the mob, if you want to call it that—the general public in the primaries.”

Haugland’s view, almost extinct today, was common in American political parties until the 1970s. He thinks primary elections ruin political parties. In his eyes, primaries weaken party discipline, making parties vulnerable to infiltration by independents and the undemocratic influence of big money. “The modern smoke-filled room is what’s politely referred to as the invisible primary—$150 million for Jeb Bush,” Haugland says. “That’s what’s wrong with primaries.”

So Haugland is against primaries of any kind, especially open primaries, winner-take-all-primaries and delegate slates chosen by candidates who win primaries. Above all, he’s against binding the delegates to the results of primaries and caucuses. “Actually, I’m for every rule that prohibits those things,” he says, “and those rules are on the books.”

For every RNC rule that authorizes something he’s against, Haugland cites an older rule that, in his interpretation, allows convention delegates freedom to vote their conscience on all matters. For example, Rule 16 explicitly says delegates can be bound “in a winner-take-all manner,” but Haugland says that violates the intent of Rules 37 and 38, which prevent majorities in state delegations from imposing unanimity on dissenters. His ideal Republican convention: 1880 in Chicago, where James Garfield chaired the rules committee, wrote rules protecting delegates’ freedom, then got the nomination as a dark horse after a deadlock.

Of course, when Haugland starts talking about subverting the will of the people, voters—and politicians who value them—recoil in horror. So there might be a few Republicans who wish Curly could be locked in a bunker this summer, preferably a bunker several thousand miles from the convention. But alas, it is not to be. As an RNC member, Haugland gets an automatic ticket to Cleveland. And at the North Dakota Republican Convention, held in early April at a hockey arena in Fargo, state party members elected Haugland to the national convention’s rules committee. Since North Dakota held neither a Republican primary nor a caucus this year, party members also elected 25 unbound delegates to represent them in Cleveland. Ted Cruz came to the state convention to charm his fellow Republicans, as much as Ted Cruz ever charms anyone. Trump sent Ben Carson as his surrogate, perhaps because Trump’s personality was thought to clash with North Dakota nice. John Kasich, who is known to despise the movie Fargo, did not make the trek.

When the rules committee convenes in Cleveland the week before the convention, Haugland will be at the table, ready to raise hell. And at least one of the causes Haugland will take up is thoroughly mainstream. Like many Republicans, he wants to rewrite Rule 40(b), the 2012 Mitt Romney concoction that says only candidates who have the support of a majority of the delegates from eight states will have their votes counted. At a contested convention, Rule 40(b) would’ve created a high bar for Kasich or a dark horse such as Paul Ryan to challenge Trump or Cruz, even on a third or fourth ballot. Haugland proposes to count the votes of any candidate with even one pledged delegate. That’d revive seven expired candidacies, from Jeb Bush’s to Mike Huckabee’s. “Rand Paul!” adds Haugland. “He worked his tail off!”

But if Trump comes into Cleveland with 1,237 delegates, as he’s now expected to do, axing Rule 40(b) won’t matter. He’ll be the nominee, unless the Never-Trump Republicans do something drastic. That’s where the party establishment could, in desperation, turn to the gadfly they’ve long brushed aside.

Haugland won’t say what else he’ll propose to the rules committee. “The element of surprise is important,” he says. But he’ll likely challenge his least favorite rule: Rule 16, which binds delegates to their state’s primary and caucus results.

Specifically, Rule 16(a)(2) says that if bound delegates go rogue and try to vote for someone else, the secretary of the convention will ignore them and record their votes “in accordance with the delegate’s obligation.” Haugland claims Rule 16’s language on binding is “fraudulent”—by which he means it was added in violation of proper procedure. He also says it contradicts the intent of older rules meant to preserve delegates’ right to vote their conscience. The bound-delegate language was “written into Rule 16 by a bunch of Progressives who thought they could get away with it,” he grouses. (That’s capital-P Progressives, the 1910 reformers who introduced primaries, to Haugland’s chagrin.)

Snip out Rule 16(a)(2), and the binding unravels. Some states’ laws require the binding of delegates, but Haugland says they can’t be enforced because of Supreme Court rulings. And rogue delegates could escape state-party sanctions back home, he suggests, because most convention votes are announced by state, not individual roll call. “See, people haven’t thought this stuff through,” Haugland says.

So here’s how the nuclear option works: If Trump comes to Cleveland with a delegate majority, axing Rule 16(a)(2) could instantly dismantle it. Since delegates are typically longtime party activists, many delegates pledged to vote for Trump might be open to voting against him if unbound. Still, Haugland insists restoring the rules is his only motivation: He hoped to unbind the delegates in 2012, too. “I’m standing on principle,” he says. “I’m not trying to obtain special advantage or disadvantage for anybody.” Ask about the three candidates who lasted into May, and he praises them all, including Trump: “Why would he be a good president? His ability to manage large, complex enterprises.” Cruz, he says, impressed lots of North Dakotans with his conservative stump speech. Kasich? Well, he’s “a serious-minded person.”

Dig deeper, and Haugland’s desire for a stronger party is rooted in a deeply conservative impulse. Republicans in Ohio, where the state party committee is chosen in an open primary, are “RINOs,” he complains. He says the party’s post-2012 “autopsy,” which called for compromise on immigration, clashes with its base’s belief in “borders, language and culture.” The past two “primary-chosen nominees,” John McCain and Mitt Romney, “didn’t work so well,” he says. “Maybe the party should choose the nominee. Maybe we can do better.”

***

Josh Putnam, whose blog Frontloading HQ tracks the delegate selection process, doesn’t think much of Haugland’s theories. “Mr. Haugland is oftentimes a committee of one on the RNC rules committee,” says Putnam, a political science lecturer at the University of Georgia. Haugland’s complaints about Rule 16 aren’t new, and “fell on deaf ears” at the RNC, says Putnam. The idea that older rules allow delegates to follow their conscience? That’s based on a selective reading, Putnam says. “I don’t think it holds water.”

Still, Putnam concedes, the Republican delegates really could choose to unbind themselves.

“That’s an awfully dangerous game to play, though,” says Putnam. “They’d face immediate backlash from Trump supporters and damage to the party’s prospects in the national election.” If Never-Trump forces challenge Trump at the convention even though he’s the presumptive nominee, Putnam thinks an anti-chaos faction will emerge: Party regulars who may not love Trump, but would fight radical rule changes meant to block him. “The national party has said over and over and over again, if someone has 1,237 delegates, they’re the nominee,” Putnam says.

But Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of the new book Primary Politics, calls Haugland’s arguments “very sound.”

“Curly is historically and legally right in saying there is a lot of discretion in the action of delegates,” Kamarck says. “The argument he’s making is that ultimately the decision is a party decision—which is in fact true.” Party activity is protected by the First Amendment right of free association, Kamarck agrees, so state laws binding delegates don’t matter. “The only way delegates will be bound is if, when they vote on the rules of the convention, they vote to bind themselves,” she says. “Otherwise, they’re not.”

Haugland’s argument is a lot like Ted Kennedy’s at the 1980 Democratic convention, Kamarck says. Kennedy thought he could snatch the nomination from President Jimmy Carter if he could unbind the delegates. He even mocked the binding rule as the “robot rule,” creating programmed delegates with no free will. On the first night of the convention, the robot rule became the test vote that revealed the candidates’ strengths. Carter was in control of the convention, so the robot rule was overwhelmingly upheld.

Kamarck thinks the Republicans may choose chaos over Trump.

“I think the Republican Party is facing two bad choices,” Kamarck says. If they unbind the delegates, Republicans will anger Trump voters, who might stay home on Election Day. “On the other hand, if they don’t do that, they’re saddling themselves with a deeply unpopular candidate who might have consequences down-ballot.”

So the Republicans could execute a Full Curly in Cleveland. But should they?

Former Ohio governor and U.S. Senator George Voinovich, a Kasich convention delegate, thinks not. “If that happened, I think we’d have a real problem,” Voinovich says. “I just think it’s not democratic. People are pledged to vote for a candidate on the first ballot. We have an obligation to do that.”

Schafer, the former North Dakota governor, predicts Haugland will lose this fight, like he’s lost all the others. “I think what happens is the establishment takes over and nothing changes,” says Schafer, “and he gets that cute little resolved smile of having tried and failed.”

Haugland isn’t worried that he could wound his party by thwarting the will of primary voters. He’s convinced true conservatism will win in the end.

“I don’t think a lot of voters are motivated to a single candidate,” he says. “They will stay with the party. Voters want good government. They’re not fussy about who delivers it.”

[Debbie Shafer]

This would be a really incredible development but what a firestorm it would create!!!!

[Israel Chai]

This would be a really incredible development but what a firestorm it would create!!!!

Agreed on both counts, but still better than nuclear holocaust.

[Israel Chai]

http://theresurgent.com/republican-delegates-do-not-have-to-go-through-with-their-suicide-pact/

Republican Delegates Do Not Have To Go Through With Their Suicide Pact
By Erick Erickson  |  May 11, 2016, 05:00am

It should be increasingly clear to Republican delegates that their rendezvous in Cleveland is going to be a ritual mass suicide. In addition to losing the presidency, they will lose the Senate, endanger the House, and see catastrophe all the way down the ballot. But they can choose not to commit suicide. The Republican delegates have the power to reject the purported nominee.

Over the next two months we are all going to witness the Schadenfreudenfuhrer beclown himself and retreat from all the values of the Republican Party. At the same time, we will see a party fail to unite. It’s standard bearers will flee. Those who carry its ideas will distance themselves.

The white nationalists are already creeping in. The protectionists will drive out those who support the free market. The isolationists will finish collapsing the post World War II order that Barack Obama likewise wishes to break apart. The evangelicals with any sense of shame will flee.

Donald Trump is going to fundamentally alter the party and still lose to Hillary Clinton. With his loss will come recriminations. The party will cripple itself while the Democrats themselves do very little — very little except win.

All of this can be avoided. The delegates themselves can stop the madness and halt the party’s suicide. They can do it by unbinding themselves. The delegates have that power. They can take that vote. The delegates can save the Republican Party from those outside forces who have launched a coup of the party.

If the delegates refuse, the suicide of the Republican Party is on them.

[Israel Chai]

https://twishort.com/wH1kc

RNC DELEGATES DO NOT HAVE TO CAST THEIR VOTES FOR DONALD TRUMP

FB friend Jim Russell posted the following regarding BOUND DELAGATE'S First Amendment protection and Constitutional right to abstain:

There is a REAL solution.

The Constitution protects bound delegates from being forced to vote against their conscience.

The 1981 Wisconsin case concerning voters outside of a party participating in a primary, includes a clause that speaks to the First Ammendment protection of "political association". Meaning that a person may associate freely with a political party or individual without the fear of reprisal. IOW, you cannot be restricted from Political Association nor can you be "Forced to Associate".

Can Delagates be forced to conform to their states rules concerning being bound to a certain Candidate?

Twenty-nine States have “Faithless Delegate Laws” dealing with this very issue. However no states have laws addressing ABSTAINING. Abstention is protected by the Constitution.

When casting their vote, a Delegate must comply with the rules pertaining to their individual state. However, that same Delegate is constitutionally protected to NOT ASSOCIATE if he or she chooses. They can abstain and NO one can force them because their vote is fundamental to the concept of "political association" with the candidate.

Thus RNC "rules" and Faithless Delegate Laws are "trumped" by the Constitution. While a bound Delegate cannot violate the rule and vote for another candidate, they do NOT have to cast a vote against their conscience. Each Delegate may abstain from voting on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd ballots and so on if they so choose.

Republican Delegates Do Not Have To Go Through With Their Suicide Pact? theresurgent.co..ir-suicide-pact

[Israel Chai]

An Open Letter and Urgent Plea To All Republican Delegates Headed to Cleveland



By Gary P Jackson

Congratulations! You have been selected by your community peers to represent them at the Republican National Convention this coming July in Cleveland, Ohio. You have been trusted by the members of your community to represent not only their best interests, and the best interests of the Republican Party, but most importantly, you have been trusted with looking out for the best interest of the nation. It is most important to remember that your duty to God and Country supersedes any other loyalties, real or perceived.

This is an awesome responsibility you have been trusted with. One than can shape history, and the future of the party, the nation, and the world. Many men and women have come before you, and on several notable occasions, they have made tough, but correct, decisions that have altered history, and made America, and the world, better for it. It is with that note that I hope to remind you just how serious your responsibility as duly elected delegates to the convention is. You hold the future, not only of the party, but the United States of America, and even the world, in the palm of your hand.

Noting this seriousness, and the dire circumstances you, the party, and the nation find ourselves in, I must have a serious talk with each and every one of you. This I shall attempt through this open letter and urgent plea.

It should come as no surprise that the Republican Party is seriously divided, and many are in open revolt over the so-called “presumptive nominee” Donald Trump. The shouts of “Never Trump!” are very real, and very serious. Many who have held their nose and placed party over principle in order to “win” an election are simply not willing to support such a vile, repugnant, and totally unacceptable [and COMPLETELY UNQUALIFIED candidate as Trump.

Much has already been written about the fact than many, if not most, of the delegates headed to Cleveland are loyal to Ted Cruz, and were elected by their peers as “Cruz delegates” even in instances where the state party would claim those delegates are “bound” to Donald Trump, at least on the first ballot. It’s no secret that while Trump was doing his Vaudeville Act as “Trump the Insult Comic Politician” Cruz and his team were out there among the American people developing, and cultivating, a solid ground game to not only serve him in the primaries, but the general election, as well. This is a very important matter that I will discuss with you a little more at length before we are done.

I should tell you, once you start reading, this letter and plea may seem a little long winded, but I assure you that’s because I need to pass on legal and historical facts, as well as information you and your fellow delegates need to make a wise and considered decision, once you get to Cleveland.

Most of the latest talk about Cruz delegates dominating the convention, of course, surrounds a possible floor fight over the very platform of the Republican Party, since Donald Trump and his Pro-Planned Parenthood, pro-single-payer heath care, and pro-raising the minimum wage [among other things] stances are hardly compatible with the Republican Party! Many pundits, party officials, and “thought leaders” assume the battle is lost and Trump’s nomination is a fait accompli, so in their mind, you are their last defense, and your only real role, is to at least salvage the party platform and whatever dignity the GOP may have left!

Well, I’m here to tell you that you a much bigger role to play, should you choose it. A role that others before you have taken, when history and circumstances demanded it. You have a true opportunity to not only save the party, but possibly save the nation, and the greater world beyond our borders. Yes, my friends, this election and your decisions are that serious, and that important.

If you truly understand just how unacceptable and disastrous Donald Trump would be as the Republican Party nominee for President, then you have only one course of action: Refuse to place Donald Trump’s name in nomination as the Republican candidate. Barring your ability to effect that refusal and Trump’s name is somehow placed in nomination and seconded, refuse, and rally others to refuse to vote in affirmation of such a nomination, and deny Trump the required 1237 delegate votes [50% + 1] that are required for him to be the nominee. This is a course of action you are duly elected to take, should you choose to take it. History supports you on this.

You may have some questions and concerns. Let me try to answer those concerns by addressing questions you may have, starting with:

*** “But I am ‘bound’ to Donald Trump on the first ballot, and must vote for him, even if my conscience says otherwise.”

Uh, not so much.

The fact is, only once in the entire history of the party have Republican delegates been bound by convention rules to vote for the winner of a state primary or caucus, or for that matter, follow the results of those primaries and caucuses in any manner whatsoever.

The year was 1976 and Ronald Reagan mounted a serious campaign to defeat the sitting Republican President, Gerald Ford. After pardoning Richard Nixon, post Watergate, Ford wasn’t exactly America’s most popular elected official! Though pardoning Nixon was the right thing to do, to move the country forward, many resented it, and Conservatives understood it would hurt him in the general election, most likely to the point of no return. [which it did] The establishment stood by him though, and at the convention, the rules committee amended the traditional rules, so that, for the first time in GOP history, Republican delegates were “bound” by the results of the elections. Had this not been the case, a real floor fight would have occurred, and Reagan may have well been the Republican nominee for 1976, and who knows how history would have been altered, mostly for the better. It should be noted that the rule binding delegates to the results of state elections was REMOVED at the 1980 Republican convention, and the rules have not changed since.

According to Curly Haugland a delegate-at-large, and senior member of the rules committee, all Republican delegates to the 2016 convention are, in fact, “Super Delegates.” He goes on to say:

    Super delegates at the GOP convention are afforded the privilege of choosing which candidate they can cast their ballot for in the first round of voting, unlike regular delegates from states with binding primaries who must adhere to their state contests’ results, until the second round of balloting.

Haugland has, of course, been challenged on this by more than a few, but cites rulings by the United States Supreme Court that affirm political parties are PRIVATE organizations and have the ability to set the rules regarding how delegates may or may not vote. These rules, of course, are set by the delegates themselves, at the convention, and these rules supersede any state party rules. Again, no Republican delegate has been bound to a candidate before OR SINCE 1976!

From the article:

    Haugland responded to an accusation that his claim is wrong from a legal stand point and the RNC rules are not the relevant rules guiding the issue of binding delegates to their primary election result, but that different state statutes are the primary authority.

    “The United States Supreme Court has held several times that political parties enjoy protection from both the First and Fourteenth Amendments as they pursue their political objectives. The Republican Party is free to choose whether or not they want to be governed by state laws,” Haugland argued in a written statement.

    He writes, “The case in point is the 1976 Republican National Convention that voted to bind the delegates to cast their convention votes according to the results of binding primaries. (State laws)The 1980 Republican National Convention voted to rescind the 1976 action based on testimony, stated in part, ‘The Supreme Court has spoken to this…they stated that party rules are supreme over state law.’ (Transcript of 1980 Convention Rules Committee, Page 67)”

    He adds, “The Rules of the Republican Party prohibiting the binding of delegates have not been changed since the 1980 convention.”

You can read much more here.

Kerry Picket at The Daily Caller adds:

    Haugland noted that the RNC’s Counsel’s Office Tom Josefiak cited current Rule 38, also known as Unit Rule, to RNC Rules Committee members on January 19, 2006, during an orientation session for Rules Committee members :

    “One of the important rules changes over the last 50 years has been the unit rule prohibited…that change was made so that an individual delegate can vote his or her conscience.”

    Josefiak was a panelist with other convention rules experts that included RNC lawyer Ben Ginsberg, then RNC Chairman Mike Duncan, and Rules Committee member Morton Blackwell. David Norcross, chairman of the RNC Rules Committee, oversaw the meeting.

    How did members react to Haugland’s claim? The North Dakota Republican told TheDC, “Not a single word challenging either the past history or the present facts, nor even a single negative comment,” he said.

    Haugland sent quotes to The Daily Caller from RNC members who responded to him.

    “You don’t think delegates are bound on the first ballot?”

    “Fascinating! Can I publish your letter?”

    “1976 battle was my first taste of politics…Can I post on my blog?”

    “Thank you, Curly. That is insightful.”

    “This is very revealing. Watch the establishment attempt to handle this with the Convention Rules Committee.”

    “Nice work, Curly”

    “Very good.”

    “Thanks, Curly. I just don’t know what to think about all this.”

    “Priceless!”

    Haugland said of the various reactions, “I guess I am not surprised about the lack of negative comments. As has been said by many before me, ‘Facts are stubborn things.’

    “This is something Curly has held for a long time. This is nothing new in terms of his interpretation to the rule…frankly I’m intrigued because 2006 wasn’t an election year. Curly has been advocating this position for a long time, but it’s up to the delegates…Tom Josefiak was a lawyer in 2006. That wasn’t a convention ruling,” RNC Spokesman Sean Spicer told The Daily Caller.

    He added, “As Curly points out the 1976 thing he speaks about was during a convention. So what the lawyer said in 2006 was not at the committee…what one lawyer says in a panel is a lot different than what delegates decide. That doesn’t change any rule. That’s a decision that gets made by the delegates. The delegates would decide how that’s interpreted, ‘Oh we’re doing that again or we’re not.’ When they go to rewrite those rules, that’s something that they could discuss.”

Read more here and a copy of the letter Haugland sent to his fellow rules committee members here.

On Wednesday, Jennifer Rubin, writing for the Washington Post noted that Donald Trump has, himself, created the grounds for a contested convention, no matter how many delegates he has “bound” to him, coming into the convention. Trump has consistently refused to release his tax information. Though it’s not unprecedented for a candidate to refuse, it’s highly unusual, and speaks to Trump’s character and credibility, especially since, at the start of his campaign, he promised voters he would release the tax returns, then almost immediately had excuse, after excuse, after excuse as to why he would not be doing so. Now he says he’ll release them after November. Uh huh.

Ruben speculates as to why he refuses to release them, and also points out how this can, and likely will be used to contest Trump’s standing as a potential nominee for the presidency on the Republican Party ticket. This is well worth your time to read and understand fully!

I’ll add my notion that Trump might not want his less than intelligent or inquisitive supporters to learn of his long, deep, multi-hundred-million dollar ties to his business partner: George Soros, the Nazi, and self-proclaimed owner of the democrat party! [Trump’s ties to Soros are public record for those that know how to use Bing or Google] Though it pains me to say that my former colleagues who are now Level V Trump cultists, men who have written extensively about the evils of George Soros, now vigorously DEFEND Trump’s involvement, and are shocked … shocked … anyone would deny an “American businessman” his “constitutional right” to do business with whomever he wanted! Those were, in fact their exact words! Scary words, my friends!

*** “But what about the ‘will of the people’?!? They chose Trump!!!!“

About that. If I hear “will of the people” one more time, I swear to God in Heaven I’m going to strangle someone!

The fact is, only 20% of Registered Republicans voted for Donald Trump. Twenty. Percent. Now, of course, that doesn’t take into consideration that some states, like Texas, which Ted Cruz won in a landslide, do not require voters to register by political party. At any rate, if you are in fact, as Registered Republican, chances are pretty good Donald Trump is not your candidate! Moreover, Trump still has only around 40% of the total votes cast in the primaries and caucuses. Most voters chose someone else. Put another way, the “will of the people” seems to be, if not #NeverTrump, at the very least anybody BUT Trump!

*** “Even so, to deny Donald Trump the nomination would be unprecedented and cause great upheaval“

Yeah, not so much!

The fact is, should you chose to do the right thing, and deny Trump the nomination, you wouldn’t be the first, or even the second delegation in history, to a Republican National Convention, to ignore the “will of the people” or take matters into your own hands!

The year was 1860. History tells us this was a turbulent time in America. The democrat party, which had it’s convention before the GOP, adjourned it’s first attempt at that year’s national convention, because they failed to nominate a candidate! For the GOP’s part, this was only their second convention ever, and the first after the virtual collapse of the Whig Party.

Former New York Governor, and United States Senator William Henry Seward was considered a shoe-in, and the presumptive nominee. He should have been, too, because unlike Trump today, Seward, who had previously been elected as a Whig, was a good fit for the new Republican Party, a party that was founded on the sole purpose of abolishing slavery once and for all. Seward had a good record of not only opposing slavery, but actively helping Negro slaves. A funny thing happened on the way to the forum though. It seems Seward angered many in the party for his support of immigrants and Catholics [some stupidity never changes] then he angered his long time supporters with that time honored Republican tradition [Hell, he may have started it!] of “moving to the center“! He should have waited, like modern Republicans do, until after they get the nomination to “pivot“! He also had ties to the infamous political fixer Thurlow Weed, which seemed to sour everyone.

At any rate, the delegates, sensing a political disaster [never mind that democrats were imploding, with Seward the GOP would likely lose the entire Western USA] chose another path, but not before all kinds of wheeling and dealing that included offering up cabinet posts and other such nonsense. After two days of this, and multiple ballots, the Republicans chose an old country lawyer, and former U.S. Congressman from Illinois, by the name of Abraham Lincoln. I don’t think I need to quote the resume of the man many consider one of our greatest presidents of all time!

It should be noted the Lincoln refused to participate in any backroom dealings, or handing over of patronages to delegates for their support!

One of the more interesting conventions happened in 1920. There had been eight candidates running for the nomination. By the time the convention rolled around, things were still wide open, with General Leonard Wood, Illinois Governor Frank Lowden, and California Senator Hiram Johnson all considered potential “presumptive nominees“! Ohio Senator Warren G. Harding had been a front-runner, at one point, but as often happens, his campaign played out and lost favor with the voters.

Much like we’ve heard for what seems like a million times this election season, the talking heads all predicted a “dark horse,” or “white knight,” as we’ve heard then called this 2016 season … would actually be nominated. [The more things change, the more they stay the same!] Pennsylvania Governor William Cameron Sproul, Pennsylvania Senator Philander C. Knox, Kansas Governor Henry Justin Allen, Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, or 1916 nominee Charles Evan Hughes were all “Golden Boys” to some! Sproul was emerging as the leader of this “dark horse“crew though.

Long story short, the 1920 convention was lively, to say the least! After all kinds of back and forth, two days, and nine, count em, nine ballots, Mr. “No Chance in Hell” Warren G Harding finally jumped into the lead. On the tenth ballot, Harding finally secured the required number of delegates needed to be declared the nominee. It was a nasty fight mainly because another candidate, Senator Hiram Johnson, who pretty much hated Harding [The feeling was reportedly mutual] refused to release his delegates! It’s been said, that in the end, Harding’s nomination was engineered by party bosses in a “smoke filled room” but at any rate, it was the delegates who chose Harding over the hollowed and sacred “will of the people“!

So as you see, as a delegate to the Republican National Convention, you indeed hold the party and the nation’s future in your hands. You and your fellow delegates have the ability, and duty, to exercise your judgement, even if it goes against the “will of the people.” Often delegates have a better sense of things than an angry, irrational mob, such as what we have today in the guise of Trump supporters.

*** “But Gary, if we DO go against the ‘will of the people’ the GOP will be in disarray and we will lose to Hillary because Trump voters will be pissed off!“

Trump voters are cultists, so who knows what they might do! Trump and his fixer: Roger Stone, Jr. have threatened violence against delegates and riots in the streets should Trump’s nomination be “stolen” from him! That alone should tell you that neither you, nor I want this man anywhere within a 100 miles the Oval Office, not even as part of the tourist tour of the White House!

I can tell you that politics in 1860 and 1920, most especially 1920, were just as nasty as they are today! They didn’t have the social media we have, but corrupt, dishonest muckraking journalists, only happy to rile voters up, were a dime a dozen then, just as they are today!

In 1860 Abraham Lincoln defeated the “southern” democrat, John C. Breckinridge 180 electors to 72. A pretty decent landslide! Two other candidates got 39 and 12 electors respectively. It’s notable that the “official” democrat Stephen A. Douglas [As in the Lincoln-Douglass debates] got the 12 votes! Add all three of Lincoln’s opponents together and he still wins in a landslide!

The 1920 election, after what was the most contentious [some might even say, figuratively, the “bloodiest“] Republican convention in history, Warren G Harding defeated Ohio democrat James Cox in an absolute BLOWOUT 404 electors to 127! That translates to 60.3% of the popular vote for Harding to Cox’s 34.2%!

So, dear delegate, the last worry on your mind should be how your much considered decision of whether or not to deny Trump the nomination, will effect the outcome of the general election in November. History says, if you pick a man of honor and principle, things will be just fine.

*** “But what about my loyalty to the Republican Party?“

Your loyalty, as an American, is to God and Country. Please don’t forget that you are not bound to any candidate, despite what your state party may claim, and you have multiple rulings by the United States Supreme Court, based on the 1st and 14th Amendments to the Constitution, to back you up!

*** “But Trump will get mad, run as a ‘third party’ candidate and screw us all!”

Not to worry. So-called sore loser laws in many states, including the must wins ones, all prohibit such a thing. Once Trump ran as a candidate for the nomination of a political party, these laws prohibit him, or any other losing candidate, from moving further along. This would, any many cases, also prohibit any sort of write-in campaign, though you can bet a few die hard Trumpsters would do it anyway. You shouldn’t let a 3rd party or write -in effort be of any concern in your decision making.

BTW, getting back to your notion of loyalty to the RNC. It was the leadership of the Republican Party that allowed Trump and his circus act to gain steam in the first place! We all remember that Trump proclaimed that if everyone didn’t sign a “loyalty pledge” to support the nominee, he would bolt and run 3rd party, something he could have done, since the voting hadn’t yet started. Trump, of course, seemed to be free of any obligation, himself, and continually threatened to “go rogue” should he be treated “unfairly” by the GOP, any candidate, or the voices in his head!

The Republican leadership [such that it is] cowered in fear of this orange buffoon, when they should have told him to take a hike! They should have told him that his nonsense was not going to be tolerated, and he could take his candidacy elsewhere!

You may or may not know this, but Donald Trump has been running for President off and on since 1987! Trump was, in fact, the Reform Party candidate for President in 2000. He received just a taste over 15,000 votes nationwide. Knowing this, Trump didn’t pose much of a threat as an independent candidate, and no way in hell would Trump have spent his own money in 2016, when it’s generally accepted one needs close to a BILLION DOLLARS to mount a competitive presidential campaign.

Trump would have most certainly done better, as an independent, than he did in 2000, simply because the media loves circus acts and train-wrecks, and Trump would have provided a double shot of both, almost daily! [At least for the short term] The fact is, though, the media would have quickly settled in on the serious contenders for both party nominations and the general election.

*** “So, who do we nominate in Trump’s place?“

As we both know Ted Cruz has the second best showing in delegates won through the election process, and it’s not even close. Past that, most delegates that are “bound” to Trump, were actually elected at their state conventions, by their fellow citizens, as Cruz delegates. [Or loyalists, if you prefer] At any rate, it’s no shock to anyone, that many, if not a strong majority, of the delegates going to Cleveland, in fact, support Ted Cruz.

You may not be able to give Cruz the nomination on the first ballot, as more than a few delegates may have doubts about voting conscience over the glorious “will of the people,” but you certainly have more than enough to deny Trump the nomination, on the first ballot, which means his bid would be over.

A floor fight won’t be a piece of cake, but the alternative, having a DEMOCRAT as the nominee for President on the Republican ticket, is just too hateful to contemplate!

*** “But Trump will WIN! He will take it to Hillary like he did to his Republican opponents.“

Sure he will!

Regular readers of our blog know that I hate conspiracy theories with a passion. I go out of my way to debunk them, when I can!

One of the things that disgusts me, and millions more, is Trump’s embrace of such things, including accusing Ted Cruz’s father of somehow being mixed up in the murder of a beloved United States President! And don’t get me started on the birther nonsense that he threw out there directed not only at Cruz, but Marco Rubio as well. Trump’s raving lunatic supporters, of course, embraced all of this, with more than a few nuts claiming to have personally come in contact with Rafael Cruz and Lee Harvey Oswald together in New Orleans. Never mind that these young Trumpsters were likely not yet born at that time!

Anyhow, I’ll give you my two cents on Trump and his actual desire to win the presidency. I’d say the chances that Trump ever had any intention of being our next President are slim, and none. And while I have no hard evidence to back my conspiracy theory up, I certainly have plenty of circumstantial evidence, starting with the fact that Trump has been one of Hillary Clinton’s top money men, supporting her every run for office, including giving her [and her PACS] some $200,000 in support of her 2008 presidential campaign. Trump is also a major contributor to the Clinton Foundation, and all of this, including donations to Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, and a whole cast of democrats, are far above the “just doing business, because Trump is … you know … a businessman” rate!

Let’s not forget Trump verbal support for Hillary either. After Benghazi, and all the lies, standing in front of those flag draped coffins, Trump praised Hillary as “one of the greatest Secretaries of State in history.”

Here’s the thing, since day one, Trump hasn’t run as a Republican, and most certainly hasn’t run as a Conservative. Trump has run as the caricature that democrats have been trying to portray Republicans as. Trump has shown himself to be racist, sexist [big time] irrational, and irresponsible. Of course, Trump has also flip-flopped on any number of serious issues, often not only in the same day, but the same interview or speech! If one didn’t think Trump’s entire candidacy was a goof [which I and many more do] the only other explanation is the man is too mentally unstable to be President!

Trump flip-flopped so many times on Planned Parenthood and the murder of innocent children at their hands, he managed to piss of BOTH SIDES of the debate, at the same time! Trump still says Planned Parenthood “does good things” and uses the language of a far left wing extremist while doing it! But he also claims he’ll cut off funded, and even suggested jailing those who participate in abortions! Even hard core pro-life advocates were appalled at that!

Go back and look at Trump’s campaign, his actions, his events, the fact that he was actively re-tweeting numerous white supremacists, on almost a daily basis … for months, and we have a problem. The “white pride” Jew-hating wing of the Trump movement is quite strong [Or completely made up, as somewhere near 80% of these accounts Trump was re-tweeting appeared to be bogus! That’s another very long discussion we can go into at another time.] Either way, Trump has no problem with this trailer trash.

Frankly, it appears to me, and many more, that Trump’s real goal was to embarrass and discredit the Republican Party by reinforcing all of the stereotypes democrats have been pushing about us for decades, then ripping the GOP apart [Mission Accomplished] all in an effort to help his long time best old gal pal Hillary win in November!

Not sure how anyone would think that?

Well …

Trump and The Clintons

Does this look like a bunch that is about to go to war with one another?

Of course, this is only speculation based on observation and knowing Trump’s longtime history of trashing Republicans, especially Conservatives, while giving democrats, and their vile Anti-American agendas, his full throated support!

If you want more substantial proof that Trump isn’t serious about beating Hillary, here’s a few tidbits to consider:

After Trashing every single Republican opponent with the kind of vile, nasty hate that only a democrat can do well, including accusing Ted Cruz of extra-marital affairs, via his good buddy who runs the National Enquirer, and accusing Cruz’s father of essentially murdering JFK, Trump has announced he may not run any negative ads against Hillary!

Michael Patrick Tracy’s response wasn’t much different than mine [though I threw in some “I told ya” so’s!

Trump told the Associated Press that instead of building a national ground game, you know, the essential door knockers and get out the vote people that one must have to win, that he will instead rely on free TV coverage and big political rallies! Because God knows that strategy worked well in the primaries! It worked so well, in fact that in states where 100% of the delegates that are “bound” to Trump, these delegates are, in fact, Cruz delegates, duly elected, simply because Ted Cruz had one of the best ground games we’ve seen in a long time, while Trump failed to even participate! This includes Colorado!

Trump’s campaign people freely admitted that simply didn’t even bother to compete for votes in Colorado. When Trump lost big time, allowing Cruz to get dangerously close, Trump went on an insane rampage screaming about cancelled elections and stolen votes. Never mind that the people of Colorado voted on March 1st in 2917 separate local caucuses designed to pick delegates to the state convention, delegates, who in turn would chose the candidate to represent Colorado. [Ted Cruz] One man even claimed to have been bared from participating because he supported Trump, even tearing up his card on video tape. Turns out the guy was elected locally but failed to even attempt to follow the required procedures all delegates must, in fact, follow to participate at the state convention. We’ll just charitably call him dumb.

Of course, the raving lunatics that support Trump were digging this Lie-O-Rama and breathless repeated every outrageous lie Trump was telling!

There’s more, of course, and it’s substantial, past his erratic behavior.

Trump has now come out in favor of raising the minimum wage, saying we must have a “living wage” a phrase taken right out of Karl Marx’s Little Red Book, and I’m sure, the democrat party-social justice handbook! He’s trashed his own tax plan, and back-tracked on other issues, with more to come, I’m sure.

I know this is a long read, but this is a dangerous time in America and you and your fellow delegates are the only thing that stands between America and total disaster. You are the front line soldiers in the battle for America’s future!

You have between now and July to investigate all of this for yourself. You have between now and July to talk with your fellow delegates and consider it all. You even have between now and July to look into the law yourself and verify what I have told you about your right as a Republican delegate to the national convention to vote your conscience rather than the party line.

You can and should verify, not only the Supreme Court rulings, but the historical fact that only once in the history of the Republican Party have delegates been “bound” to any state vote, and that it was a dirty trick by the establishment to keep a solid Conservative, Ronald Reagan, from being our nominee. Something Reagan would rectify four years later, in 1980!

Ted Cruz is worth of your consideration as the Republican Nominee for President.

Never mind that Cruz polled much better against Hillary in key states than Trump does anywhere. Never mind that with Trump, even deep red states are now in danger of being lost to Hillary. There are other serious considerations at work here.

We’ve mentioned Cruz’s incredible ground game. There is no way in hell anyone will ever be President if they don’t have an incredible ground game. Democrats are useless as elected officials, and human beings, but they have the ground game, the election day get out the vote operations, and so on, down to a science, and work it, nationwide, with the precision of a Swiss watch! Trump isn’t even interested in HAVING a ground game!

But there is more. Cruz has a sold record of Conservatism, and doing what is right. He has a life time record of doing what he says he will. Be it his time as a Director at the Federal Trade Commission, or as the longest serving Solicitor General in Texas history, Cruz has looked after the best interests of the American people, and has vigorously [and successfully] defended Liberty and Freedom, as well as American sovereignty, and the Constitution.

The people of Texas sent Ted Cruz to Washington to do a specific job, and he made a promise to do it. He has kept his word to us. That’s already more than 90% of politicians will ever do!

Ted Cruz is a class act and a serious man. He has successfully argued landmark cases before the United States Supreme Court. Ted Cruz won’t look like a blithering idiot on stage as he debates Hillary Clinton!

In the end, let me leave you with just this: Your duty is to yourself, your God, and your Country. You simply cannot put party over principle … EVER. Now more than at any time in your life, integrity and principles are far more important than party bosses or the wild eyed ramblings of a mob that is running at a fever pitch, fueled by genuine anger at the direction our country is headed, and a Republican Party full of elected officials that promise one thing, then do nothing once elected, or worse, bow down to the democrats and give up the farm! It is your job, as duly elected delegates, to see past the fevered rants and the cult of personality surrounding Trump and make a wiser, more considered choice.

May I go further to suggest, that if you are confused by the fever I speak of, as well as the desperation Trump supporters genuinely feel, no matter how misguided and dangerous their support for Trump is, that you watch the 1961 film “Judgement at Nuremberg.” This Academy Award winning film, which features powerful and compelling performances throughout, deals with the aftermath of a nation whose otherwise good and decent people got caught up in a fever, and chose to support someone, who like Trump, had no regard for the Republic’s constitution, or rule of law. All they saw was someone who could “save them,” much as Trump supporters see him today. And like those Germans, Trump supporters don’t seem to care what Trump does, what laws he might violate, including military law and the Geneva Conventions, what basic human rights, like Free speech, Freedom of the Press, or even Religious Liberty [the cornerstone of America] that Trump has intimated he would trample, so long as he wins and America is “saved“!

This of course, is all not only ludicrous, but dangerous. More dangerous than any person or thing America has ever faced. And that, my fellow Americans, is the real heart of the matter. Not only is Trump unfit to be the Republican nominee for President, let alone President, he and the fevered mob he has created are a real and clear danger to the very fabric of our country. Trump may be playing us all for fools, and looking to help his buddy Hillary win [something I and many more truly believe] but the fevered mob he has created is real, and it it your job, your duty, in fact, to cool them down by sending them, and their candidate into a “time out,” while the rest of the nation gets on with nominating and then electing a new REPUBLICAN President!

No pressure, but don’t screw this up!

Sincerely and Kindest Regards,

Gary Signature

Gary P Jackson

[cjd]

Have mercy 

[Israel Chai]

[angryChineseKahanist]

What if Don picks Newt?

[Israel Chai]

What if Don picks Newt?

Then I will not vote for Don/Newt, along with basically all conservatives with brains.

But like the thread says, it's brewing bro, 1236- for Donnie the crook, G-d willing.

http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2016/05/ted-cruzs-father-close-to-becoming-a-delegate-at-republican-national-convention.html/

[angryChineseKahanist]

Why not the amphibian?  I thought he was proisrael?

[Israel Chai]

Why not the amphibian?  I thought he was proisrael?

Vice prez is a do nothing job, and I don't think he'll do anything if Trump decides Iran needs nukes and Israel needs to go to the 1946 borders.

[Israel Chai]

http://www.politico.com/blogs/twelve-thirty-seven/2016/05/mike-lee-convention-rules-committee-222758


Go to the link and #CruzOrBust ahoy patriots.

[nessuno]

#cruzorbust 
Then bust it is. Unless, you actually think Clinton would be better than Trump for this country.
And then,why not just vote for her.
Sadly, I think it's over for Cruz.
The people, and the establishment, didn't want him in the primaries.
What is going to change at the convention?

Trump would not have been my choice.  But how can we, and this organization, ever say Clinton would be better.  Clinton is a known entity.  We have been against the Clinton's forever.  They are evil.  She hates America and Israel.  I am leaning toward the glimmer of hope that less damage will be done under Trump.  I am not decided for him.  But I don't see other alternatives that will not give Clinton the victory.

Unless, someone can truly help me understand why Clinton would be better for this country.
Not just that Trump has poor grammar,  is horrible to women ( so is Clinton), is a New York liberal (I know this, but hope the policy's of Obama have shaken that up a bit) or fights dirty.  You would also be describing Madame Clinton. 
And really I can take poor grammar over shrill screaming every day of the week.

Maybe we should be aiming towards Cruz on the Supreme Court.  Where he could really impact the country and retain our constitutional rights.

[Israel Chai]

Trump is worse than Hillary by a few nuclearized countries.

If there's hope to stop nuclear holocaust, I'll fight for it. http://soshable.com/the-crazy-scenario-where-ted-cruz-is-the-gop-nominee/

Yes, the comments on this post are going to be brutal. In fact, I’m not even going to promote this post. I’m just going to write it up, Tweet it out, and see what comes of it. There’s a scenario, albeit an extremely unlikely one, where Ted Cruz is the GOP nominee.

About a week ago, I started seeing things falling into place. I chalked it up as wishful thinking since, as a Cruz supporter, there was always the chance that I was simply in denial. The more I watch, the more I realize that there are two things that make me believe there’s a chance it could actually happen. The first is that circumstances favor Cruz if the tide turns against Trump at the right moment. The second is that God is sovereign; while I would never presume to know anything about His plan for America or the world other than what’s in scripture, I know for certain that nothing is impossible when His will is at play. Whoever is supposed to be President of the United States will be President of the United States. Now’s not the time for a theological discussion, but it should be noted that acknowledging God’s sovereignty is not a license to sit back and do nothing.

A few things have happened surrounding Cruz that makes the scenario work. It’s important to note here that I do not believe this is Cruz’s plan. He filed to run for re-election to the Senate in 2018. He’s been pushing for delegate control in an effort to shape the Republican platform towards conservatism. He’s travelling to various state conventions to rally support for this reason.

For various reasons, Cruz is staying in the mix and doing things that would be required for him to win the nomination even if he has no plans of doing so. By filing for re-election, he’s able to continue fundraising. Being out of the nomination race will put him two months behind the Democrats for general election fundraising. By filing now and soliciting campaign contributions, he can keep the money dripping in. More importantly, he can still maintain a small campaign staff to keep the machine warm.

His goal of a contested convention meant that he would need to accumulate delegates favorable to him for subsequent ballots. There are reports that some of his delegate victories are starting to fade and support Trump, but that’s to be expected now that he’s out of the race. If push comes to shove, they’ll support him.

One of the most important indicators that he has a chance is that he hasn’t endorsed Trump. This is important as we’ll soon see because it will need to be someone not tainted by Trump who is nominated. Of course, all of this is for naught if the single catalyst doesn’t occur at the exact right moment: Trump’s scandal, meltdown, and/or disqualifying revelation.

Since announcing his candidacy, the media and most pundits have been waiting for Trump to get wrapped up in a scandal or meltdown right before our eyes. It didn’t happen, at least not in a way that could hurt Trump. For Cruz to get the nomination, something bad will have to be revealed about Trump. A serious scandal, complete public meltdown, hidden camera recording of him saying or doing something really bad… sadly there are plenty of options that would fulfill this. We’re not talking about the feeble attack piece the NY Times posted over the weekend. We’re talking about something yuge. Whatever it is, it needs to happen right before the Republican National Convention.

One might wonder why it has to happen right before the convention. The reason is RNC rule 40b and the meddling of the GOP Establishment. Under rule 40b, a candidate can only be on the ballot if they have a majority of delegates in eight or more states. Only Cruz and Trump qualify. If the disqualifying/scandalous Trump event happens before the rules are modified, the RNC will almost certainly shift the rules to allow for more candidates on the ballot. We would see Marco Rubio and John Kasich almost certainly making a play on the floor if they’re on the ballot. We might even see someone else make a move. The Establishment will do whatever they can to prevent Cruz from getting the nod. That’s why this must transpire after the rules are finalized the week before the convention.

Another question might be why the nominee would need to be someone who didn’t endorse Trump. I’m not talking about the lukewarm acceptance that some have given him. I mean those who completely shifted from enemy to fanboy such as Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal… anyone who hopped all the way onboard the Trump train. Anyone who currently supports Trump will be tainted. Whatever the revelation is about him, it will be far-reaching. It will not just affect his candidacy. It will be like a scarlet letter painted on the chest of those who were too blinded, corrupt, or politically ambitious to see through Trump’s deceit and incompetence.

Lastly, this scenario means that Cruz would have been better served to stay in the race through to the end, right? No. He was being brutalized by Trump and his media surrogates. The damage, the scars, were starting to stick. The “Lyin’ Ted” moniker was making an impact on his own supporters even though Trump’s primary backing for it was the Iowa caucus when a campaign staffer alerted people of the Carson CNN post. Watching Trump label Cruz as a liar is like Bill Clinton attacking someone as waging a war on women, but for whatever reason Trump sold the idea that he’s honest and Cruz is not. It was important for Cruz to get out when it became clear he couldn’t prevent Trump from getting to 1,237. That’s why he dropped out shortly after the Indiana results were announced.

The chances of a Trump-proof scandal happening at the right moment are next to nil which means this article is an exercise in futility and false hope. Again, I won’t promote this story to the masses, but it was important to get it off my chest. It’s like watching a painted at work without knowing what’s being put to canvas. I’m seeing what could be if all the right things happen and I’m willing to accept it as possible even if it only has a fleeting chance. There, I said it. Now that it’s out there, I can go back to working on more realistic scenarios.

As the Cruz campaign said, no regrets.

[Yehudayaakov]

Sometimes so as to reach your goal, one has to change the path upon which he is walking , eventually the current path was leading nowhere thus it amplifies the fact that  the battle wasn't the nomination  and leaving this path shows that the true battlle has begun.

[Joe Gutfeld]

The race is over!

[syyuge]

I fear the velvet lady going in all directions sitting on the beast.

[Israel Chai]

ain't over till the nukes start falling, G-d forbid.

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2016/may/19/plenty-of-ted-cruz-supporters-remain-at-state-gop-/



PASCO – Jennifer Fetters, of Bellevue, worked a booth promoting former presidential candidate Ted Cruz at the Washington State Republican Party convention on Thursday – one of the many supporters of the conservative senator from Texas who continued to push his candidacy weeks after Cruz suspended his campaign.

“The biggest thing is we want to see the conservative platform continued,” said Fetters at the Cruz booth, which is located a short distance from a booth promoting presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump. “That cause goes on.”

She will be keeping a close eye as the state GOP platform is assembled at the convention, judging each plank “against conservative values.”

Vanessa Amundson, of Vancouver, also continued to support Cruz.

She said the time for the party to come together behind one candidate is after the national convention in Cleveland in July. Amundson said she is not sure yet if she can support Trump.

“I am still in the process of making that decision,” Amundson said, adding she was shocked and grief-stricken when Cruz ended his campaign.

The Cruz supporters weren’t getting much sympathy from Victor Adams, a cattle rancher from the Sedro-Woolley area.

“They’ve got to get on the train or get off and go home,” Adams said. “We need to unify.”

Dan Cease, of Clarkston, a Trump delegate, agreed with Adams that Trump’s business experience is a key reason for their support.

“He knows how to delegate,” Cease said. “He will follow through and implement.”

The convention moved into full swing on Thursday and concludes on Saturday. More than 2,000 Republicans from across the state are expected to attend. Among their major tasks are choosing delegates to the national convention and hammering out a platform.

The convention will pick Washington’s delegates to the national GOP convention in Cleveland in July. But those delegates will not know whom they are supporting until after the results of the Washington primary election on Tuesday. On the Washington ballot, Republicans can choose among Trump, and his former challengers Cruz, John Kasich or Ben Carson, who remain on the ballot.

Meanwhile, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Bryant officially filed his paperwork Thursday to challenge incumbent Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee.

Bryant is expected to address the convention Friday.

[Tony Rubolotta]

The Cruz supporters weren’t getting much sympathy from Victor Adams, a cattle rancher from the Sedro-Woolley area.

“They’ve got to get on the train or get off and go home,” Adams said. “We need to unify.”

Dan Cease, of Clarkston, a Trump delegate, agreed with Adams that Trump’s business experience is a key reason for their support.

“He knows how to delegate,” Cease said. “He will follow through and implement.”

I love the false analogies.  They reveal true stupidity and the very mentality that the fascists and communists know how to manipulate.  I'll get off the train, thank you.  Delegate?  Many dictators know how to delegate.  I suspect Trump will raise the preeminence of "czars" to heights only imagined by drug induced deliriums.  Anyone that thinks that we are somehow superior to the Germans of 1932 has a lot to learn.

[Israel Chai]

Delegates are lining up.



Wouldn't you do, say or support almost anything to get a conservative on the Republican ticket?

[Israel Chai]

After the embarrassment of selecting Nazis last time, Trump had to pick good Americans, and that guarantees that they won't be loyal to him if they're sane and don't want global nuclear holocaust, since if Putin will sell a nuke-making plant to Egypt when he endorsed Chump, he'll sell to every Arab if he were G-d forbid to win.



http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/washington-state-republicans-back/2016/05/22/id/730040/

 Washington State Republicans Back Cruz Over Trump
Image: Washington State Republicans Back Cruz Over Trump 

Sunday, 22 May 2016 07:35 AM

Despite his overwhelming position as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump is still facing some pockets of resistance.

On Saturday, Washington state’s GOP convention awarded 40 out of 41 elected delegate slots to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who formally suspended his campaign weeks ago. Cruz has yet to endorse Trump after a bitter primary battle.
Despite the vote, delegates are bound by party rules to cast national-convention ballots based on Tuesday’s primary results.

Cruz supporters clearly dominated the state convention. Red Cruz T-shirts outnumbered Trump ball caps on the convention floor at the convention, reported the Seattle Times, and Cruz won 40 of the 41 elected delegate slots for the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this summer.
Special:
GOP leaders at the convention also didn't appear to be fighting for Trump.

“The presidential race is its own deal,” GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Bryant said after a Friday-night speech in which he didn’t mention Trump. He drew enthusiastic cheers as he vowed mass firings of ineffective Inslee-administration bureaucrats, the Times reported.
Bryant repeatedly refused to tell reporters if he'd support Trump.

Chris Vance, a former state GOP chairman and current candidate for U.S. Senate, made it clear he wasn't going to support Trump.

“Do you think I enjoy this? Not supporting the nominee? It’s unpleasant,” Vance told the Times.

© 2016 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

[cjd]

Delegates are lining up.

Is he running for office in Canada?

[Debbie Shafer]

I wish a miracle would happen...We haven't heard from Ted Cruz since he pulled out, only his staff who thanks us and are proud of the progress and the team they had!