Via Huffington Post, proof that the crummy way the GOP establishment treated Ron Paul fans and delegates at the Republican National Convention in Tampa last month may have real and quick aftereffects, including the loss of electoral votes for Mitt Romney:
At least three Republican electors say they may not support their party's presidential ticket when the Electoral College meets in December to formally elect the new president…
The electors – all are supporters of former GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul – told The Associated Press they are exploring options should Mitt Romney win their states. They expressed frustration at how Republican leaders have worked to suppress Paul's conservative movement and his legion of loyal supporters.
"They've never given Ron Paul a fair shot, and I'm disgusted with that. I'd like to show them how disgusted I am," said Melinda Wadsley, an Iowa mother of three who was selected a Republican elector earlier this year. She said she believes Paul is the better choice and noted that the Electoral College was founded with the idea that electors wouldn't just mimic the popular vote…..
As Paul supporters fought for more prestigious delegate slots during state-level conventions this year, they also quietly accrued electors….
In Nevada, for example, Paul's forces seized control of the state convention and won a majority of delegates. They also placed four Paul supporters among the state's six electors.
The electors said they have had no organized discussion over how to cast their electoral votes and there have been no efforts by the campaigns to get them to vote for either Paul or Romney.
Nevada's electors are approaching their duties in different ways.
Jesse Law, an elector and Paul supporter, said he may have qualms with Romney but has always intended to cast his electoral vote for the party nominee.
"I just want to beat Obama," Law said.
But Ken Eastman may not cast his Nevada electoral vote for Romney, if the former Massachusetts governor wins the state. Eastman said he wants to explore options with Republican leaders in Clark County, a group now dominated by Paul supporters.
"I'm undecided at this point," Eastman said, adding that he's "pretty disgusted" with the national Republican Party and how it has worked to suppress Paul's grassroots movement. He said the GOP has not been open to an influx of people with different ideas.
Along with the three electors looking at alternatives, Nevada GOP elector Ken Searles said he may vote for Paul as a protest, so long as his vote wouldn't change the outcome of the election….
Nevada does have a state law requiring electors to follow the popular vote, but the law has no punishment prescribed. A Minnesota elector in 2004 voted for John Edwards for president rather than his top-ticket man John Kerry.
The Libertarian Party got a great jumpstart in its first presidential run in 1972 when Roger MacBride, an elector from Virginia, could not in good conscience vote for President Nixon and case his electoral vote for philosopher John Hospers and his running mate Tonie Nathan, who thus became the first woman in American history to receive an electoral vote. MacBride won the next LP presidential nod in 1976.
*Meanwhile, Richard Viguerie, one of the oldest advocates of what in the 1970s was the New Right, upbraids Paul for not being a better team player for the Grand Old Party:
A vote for Virgil Goode or Gary Johnson is the same as a vote for Barack Obama. The future of this country is more important than the personal slights and short term wins or losses that any candidate and his adherents might suffer.
It is time for Congressman Ron Paul and his partisans to join the movement to beat Obama, and however grudgingly, give their support to Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and the Republican candidates for Senate and Congress. There will be plenty of opportunities to advance their agenda when Obama is gone, but very few if he stays.
*And Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) revives last Winter's controversy over Ron Paul's office apparently doublecharging both Congress and a private organization, the Liberty Committee, supporting Paul for plane flights (to the tune, according to the Committee, of $20,000). This marks him one of the "most corrupt members of Congress," saith CREW. Worth noting in judging Paul's "corruption" that he returned over $141,000 of taxpayer money to the Treasury last year from his congressional budget, an increase over the $100,000 he'd returned the year before, and about 9 percent of his office budget.
