Ron Paul Roundup: His Legal Team in Action, He's Not (Yet) Announced as RNC Speaker, And his Possible Replacement in Congress Won't be a "Carbon Copy"
The Ron Paul world is abuzz this morning as the Examiner reports no Paul at the Republican National Convention, and LewRockwell.com takes their report to declare Paul has been "barred" from it.
But the Examiner is just riffing off this CNN story about announced speakers at the Republican National Convention–which does not include Ron Paul. But that list isn't necessarily complete, though all signs so far continue to be that a Paul speaking slot is unlikely (the RNC instead is bragging about helping Paul's people out in creating his own pre-RNC event).
Paul certainly doesn't seem to think he'll get one, and he still refuses to endorse his opponent Mitt Romney. But Paul's fate at the RNC isn't a sure thing yet one way or the other, certainly not on the basis of that CNN report. I've gotten no response from the Paul campaign this morning on this matter, but will update if I do.
Meanwhile, the Paul campaign continues to do the sort of thing that probably makes the RNC reluctant to give Paul a berth: fight shenanigans on the state level the campaign believes are denying them rightful delegates.
I reported at length last week at their challenges to the Louisiana delegation, and parts of the Oregon and Massachusetts delegations.
Here are some newer reports on these matters, including the New Orleans Times-Picayune on the Louisiana challenge. Highlights, including language from the complaint:
"This contest challenges the tyranny of one person, Roger Villere, who, on the eve of the Louisiana Republican State Convention attempted to impose anti-democratic Convention rules that were without any authority," reads the 21-page challenge filed last week by Washington attorneys David Warrington and Lee Goodman of LeClairRyan, who have been retained by the national Ron Paul campaign to handle delegates challenges in Louisiana, Massachusetts and Oregon, and to defend Paul delegates from a challenge in Maine. "The rules he attempted to impose were draconian and more characteristic of a North Korean politburo than a democratic American political party that honors procedures and majority votes."….
It was the very different outcomes in the Louisiana primary and caucuses that led to the battle of Shreveport, where the state convention broke down amid shouts and scuffling into two separate conventions, each considering itself official and the other one rump.
The Louisiana GOP remains peeved with the Paul people:
Charlie Davis, a former executive director of the party, led the Paul forces.
"Charlie Davis and his followers could have won 17 delegates to Tampa simply by voting at the state convention, but they abstained." said Jason Dore, the party's current executive director and spokesman for Villere. "We left 13 of the seats open and offered to fill the vacancies with Ron Paul supporters, but they demanded 24. Now, they file a challenge." And, said Dore: "The challenge brief itself is full of personal attacks, hyperbole and unfounded assumption. It seems to have been written with the Paul blogosphere in mind, not the RNC Contest Committee. I think they just want to fight. The only fight we're interested in is the fight to remove Barack Obama from the Oval Office."…..
The delegate challenge could go right up to and even into the convention. The Contests Committee reports its findings to the RNC meeting in Tampa in advance of the convention, but any ruling by the RNC can be appealed to the conventions' Credentials Committee, and its decision could be challenged on the floor, though that seems very unlikely.
*The Advocate on the Louisiana challenge.
*U.S. News on the Oregon challenge.
*Meanwhile, Randy Weber, who won the GOP nomination to replace the seat in Texas's 14th congressional district that Paul is leaving in January, got Paul's endorsement but says he, as the Capitol Column reports:
sees himself as a tea party supporter and appreciated Mr. Paul's endorsement, although he doesn't consider himself an exact replica.
"I don't think I'll be called a carbon copy of Dr. Ron Paul … When you talk about rock solid conservative with a track record, we're a lot alike in that regard."
*A couple of recent clips of Ron Paul on the House floor, talking up competing currencies:
*And against Iran sanctions, mocking the "Obsession with Iran Act of 2012" and our saber-rattling over Syria and asks us to defend civil liberties here at home: