Four Bald Men Fighting Over A Comb

On the one hand, the Minnesota Republican Party has just gone through its worst year since Watergate.  It’s way in debt (although reportedly plugging its way back toward daylight), it’s pretty completely out of power, and its influence outside the conservative Second, Third and Sixth districts is at a low ebb.

Stepping into – or over, really – that mess came Marianne Stebbins and the Minnesota “Ron Paul” campaign.  They played the caucus system like Yo Yo Ma plays the cello; they organized people down to the BPOU caucus level with a level of Operational Security cloaky-daggerism that’d put the Irgun Zvai Leumi to shame.  They won most of the BPOU and CD level offices throughout the state, and…

…accomplished, arguably, their only true mission; they sent delegates to Tampa to vote for Ron Paul; some of ’em were already bagging out on the Non-Paul parts of the party before the confetti was swept up.

To which some “establishment” Republicans replied “We need to eject all the Ron Paulites from the party!” – to which many others responded “well, not so fast”.  While some Ronulans were, indeed, at the party to stump for “Doctor” Paul and nothing else, others – particularly in many 4th CD BPOUs – worked hard with non-Paul Republicans to field good solid campaigns and create GOP activity in areas that hadn’t seen any in recent years.

More on that next week, I think.

Some Republicans – on both sides of the Ron Paul / Non Paul divide – divided the dispute up into “Builders” – people on both sides whose goal is to turn the MNGOP back into a vital force again – and “Destroyers”.

Oddly, a Facebook page called “MNGOP Builders” is, paradoxically, doing a bit of destroying; it’s picked at an awful lot of scabs, especially in the 4th CD (which just removed its chair elected last April on a Ron Paul-movement-approved slate that threw him bodily under the bus as the wheels came off his administration) and CD5 (which elected a slate of Ronulans that have essentially shut the party down in the district).  Oddly, in the battle between “Builders” and “Destroyers”, “MNGOP Builders” is doing plenty of “Destroying” itself.

Now that’s meta.

My friend, Nancy LaRoche – of True North, Freedom Dogs and a longtime CD5 GOP activist – broke the story of the vandalism in CD5.

One of Nancy’s targets, Corey Sax, responded with a blog post attacking “MNGOP Builders” and, oddly and mostly, Nancy.  To which Nancy responded with an acerbic riposte.

So to sum it up:  A party with little money got taken over by a movement with little popular traction, which took over a couple of districts with no GOP tradition (which led the GOP to perform better than expected in a number of districts with little GOP hope – again, more next week), which led to them being attacked by a Facebook Page with no identity and a lady with nothing in her record as an activist to be ashamed of, which led to a counterattack by a District Vice Chair with a long record of activism but representing a slate with little to show for its’ ten months in office, which led to a counterattack by Nancy, who has little patience for this kind of thing.

I think that covers it.

Me?  I’m going to find some Republicans – regardless of who they supported for President – who want to focus on the real enemy.

The Saint Paul City Committee.

No, that’s a joke.  The real enemy is the DFL who, in case you haven’t noticed, are hard at work f****ng up our state.

And in the GOP right now there are a slew of factions:  the Ronulans, the Tea Partiers, Fiscalcons, Socialcons, “Moderates”, pragmatists, Security Republicans and a few others.  And none of them – not even the Ron Paul faction – are strong enough to both change the party and win elections.  None.

One way or another, this party is going to be run – and this state is going to be saved – by a coalition of people from any and all of those factions who are focused on getting stuff done.

Or, y’know, not; it’s entirely possible the GOP will be taken over by people who argue to the death over the inconsequential as the state follows Greece and Portugal and California straight to hell.

8 thoughts on “Four Bald Men Fighting Over A Comb

  1. I heard a report on KTLK yesterday that said Keith Downey has thrown his hat in the ring to head MNGOP. He would be a great leader IMO.

  2. Abler has risen his ugly head once again calling himself a pragmatist. He is going to give Gov. Jim Beam and the Dems cover on the State Healthcare Exchange.

    I saw the article in the Pi Press this AM. I knew Abler would be quoted and once again he would be selling us out.

  3. Of course, to tie to your headline, what is a bald man going to do with a comb once he gets it? It’s kind of like trying to imagine what a dog is going to do if he ever succeeds in catching one of those cars he’s chasing.

    Just what kind of mongrel is it going to take to pull this off? You need a bit of of the fierce rottweiler, the lean greyhound, the loyalty of a setter, the patience and energy of a border collie to herd these together – all wrapped up with the friendly appeal of a sheepdog. Whatever happens, though, would someone please put the yappy, leg-humping Broadkorb outside? (I realize that I probably just blew DG’s whistle but since she never reads the comments here we’re probably safe.)

  4. Mr. Berg,
    How do you feel about Keith Downey running for chairman of the Republican Party of Minnesota? Are there other individuals you would rather see in that position? If so, who?

  5. Thanks Mitch. The MNGOP Builders page looks like destroyers using the Steven Colbert tactic of insulting the group they are pretending to be a member of. I am considering contacting some investigators to out them. It would be telling if Corey is behind this page to garner attention to his blog and/or to help destroyers running for MNGOP Deputy Chair. In the meantime, report the fake page to Facebook.

    Nightwriter is spot on – but add a therapy dog to counsel those in factions who have behavioral disorders.

  6. I like Keith, and think he’s a fine choice. But I can be convinced.

    But convincing me isn’t much of a priority. I am not a delegate.

  7. Nancy,

    I haven’t ruled that out.

    The written “tells” on the “Builders” site haven’t pointed me toward anyone yet, although they’ve helped me rule a few people out…

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