History buffs will recall that a questionable 1964 incident in the Gulf of Tonkin was used by then-President Lyndon Johnson to go to war with North Vietnam. Many surmise that Johnson was looking for an excuse, any excuse, to launch more aggressive military action and used disputed reports that a North Vietnamese patrol boat fired a torpedo at a U.S. destroyer to do just that.
It is becoming clearer every day that this might just be the sort of thing which happened at the Republican convention in Reno over the weekend.
Ron Paul’s out-of-state political agitator/operative, Jeff Greenspan, has now admitted in an email to Nevada Republican Party Chairwoman that he had worked out a deal with the convention’s “Nominations Committee.” However, like Johnson stationing a destroyer off the coast of Vietnam, Greenspan also admits he had developed a “contingency plan” in case things didn’t go as agreed.
It’s not a stretch to believe that Greenspan & Company were itching for a fight on Saturday, especially after they realized their troops had shown up in strength to the convention. It may well have been that they were just looking for an excuse, any excuse, to break the agreement Greenspan claims he had and go to war. And it now appears the excuse they were looking for may have been nothing short of a huge hoax.
Greenspan wrote yesterday to Chairwoman Lowden that he “tried to work out a solution with the nominations committee that would ensure that state delegates that support Ron Paul would be part of” of the slate of candidates put forward by the Nominations Committee. “Naturally, we also prepared for continengies. Unfortunately, we had to put the contingency plan into action as soon as I found out that the nominations committee, or certain parties on it, had no intention on holding up their end of the bargain.”
So Greenspan now admits he broke the deal, but only because he believed “certain parties” - whom he refuses to name - on the Nominations Committee weren’t going to hold up “their end of the bargain.”
While Greenspan didn’t specify in his email to Chairwoman Lowden exactly what it was that supposedly “certain parties” did to cause him to believe the deal he thought he had made was broken by the party’s Nominations Committee, he appears to have finally spilled the beans in a comment on the Muth’s Truths blog early this morning.
“The evidence (that the deal was broken) is on the nominations committee ballot that was handed out,” Greenspan wrote.
Ah, now we’re getting to the nitty-gritty.
Apparently someone printed up and distributed a sample ballot using the Nevada GOP logo (which anyone can copy from the party’s website) that looked like an official slate card of delegates to the Republican National Convention as approved by the Nominations Committee. And that list didn’t include any of the names of Ron Paul supporters that Greenspan reportedly approved and submitted to the Nominations Committee - including, I’m being told, a delegate from Nye County (I believe) named Wayne Terhune.
Anyway, upon seeing this slate card the Ron Paul folks, including, it appears, Greenspan, already dripping in paranoia, went bonkers. And this was just the excuse they were looking for to break the deal and push forward their “contingency plan” to change the rules of the convention to allow nominations from the floor - a move which GUARANTEED that convention business would not be completed on time.
But in their haste to go to war, apparently no one bothered to check to see if the slate card flyer which had been distributed was legitimate. And apparently, it wasn’t.
In fact, state Sen. Bob Beers told me last night that he held the flyer up from the podium and told everyone specifically that it was NOT authentic. How did he know that? Because the 4th name on the list was his own and he never sought to be a delegate to the national convention and never would have agreed to go.
So if the slate card flyer that Greenspan is now using as his excuse to break the backroom deal he now admits he made with the Nominations Committee didn’t come from the Nominations Committee, where did it come from? Is it possible that Greenspan himself created the flyer in an effort to lure his troops into a war he hoped would result in the entire Nevada delegation going to Ron Paul?
I don’t think so.
In the various email exchanges I’ve had with Greenspan over recent months I’ve come to the conclusion that he’s just not that smart.
No, what is more likely is that someone not happy with the deal Greenspan says he made with the Nominations Committee created that fake slate card flyer and distributed it at the convention hoping to trick Greenspan and his troops into thinking the Nominations Committee had broken its end of the bargain. And Greenspan and Company fell for it…hook, line and sinker.
If, indeed, this “Gulf of Ronkin” incident is what precipitated the chaos which ensued at the weekend convention, it wasn’t because of nefarious actions by GOP party leaders, but because Jeff Greenspan fell for a hoax and had the wool pulled over his eyes. Talk about amateur hour.
But I wouldn’t be holding my breath waiting for Mr. Greenspan to wipe the egg off his face and issue an apology for being duped into making himself, Ron Paul, Ron Paul’s supporters and the Nevada Republican Party look foolish. It’s just doesn’t appear to be in the man’s character.
Posted on April 29th, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada
Prediction: Chuck’s next outrageous allegation will be that the nominations committee cannot release the ballot which would settle this whole question because Ron Paul supporters would “threaten” them.
Chuck,
On Jan 19th I was elected by my Republican neighbors to represent my precinct at the County and State conventions. I consider it my solemn duty to represent their wishes. I stood before them and expressed my desire to support Ron Paul all the way up to the National Convention, and I was elected to represent them despite the fact that 80% of the people at my precinct caucus supported Romney. I was successful in this endeavor because I knocked on every single door in my precinct, and I talked to as many neighbors as practically possible.
During a CCRCC meeting in Nov. 2007 Ron Paul supporters were successful in convincing the majority of the Republicans in attendance that the proposed rules for the County Convention were unfair, and would have given a select few within the County leadership too much power over who would attend the County Convention.
In Dec. 2007 we had a special meeting of the CCRCC, and Ron Paul supporters were successful in convincing a majority of those assembled to adopt a consensus set of rules that would have made the entire Precinct Caucus process in Clark County fair to everyone. These amended rules passed by a vote of approximately 100 to 5.
The reason for this advanced degree of discipline and energy is because Ron Paul supporters were already quite aware of the machinations that the County and state GOP leaders would go to in order to thwart the democratic process.
I beg you drop the constant reference to Ron Paul supporters as being paranoid. It is the previous actions of the Nevada GOP establishment that has clued us into what can happen to a grassroots movement if it is not unified, and disciplined.
Please refer to this article:
http://gordonunleashed.com/blog/2007/08/28/an-important-aaron-russo-gop-experience-for-ron-paul-organizers/
Around March of 1998 supporters of Aaron Russo had a majority of the delegates at the Clark County convention. The leadership arranged to have the convention delayed until the next day so they could bus in their own supporters. (Please note: that these new delegates had not even participated in the precinct caucus process.)
We seek cooperation with the Republican party of Nevada. Our issues our national in focus and folks like Bob Beers and Sue Lowden are our natural allies. The degree of irritation and anger we feel stems from a feeling of betrayal. Bob Beers was the hero of many Ron Paul supporters until he abruptly closed the convention for an indefinite recess without discussion or a vote.
I would like to remind you that we were successful in persuading the vast majority of delegates to the State Convention (hundreds of which were not even Ron Paul supporters) to overturn the unfair and undemocratic rules that gave the party leadership undue influence over who went to the National Convention.
I’ve lived in Southern Nevada since I was 4 years old, and except for a brief stint in College I’ve lived here my whole life. It was in Nevada’s schools that I learned about the Constitution, The Bill of Rights, Representative Democracy, and the Rule of Law. Up until this election cycle I had never participated in politics before. I must say that I am still shocked by the obstacles Ron Paul supporters had to surmount in an effort to express their opinion and participate in the process.
I consider last Saturday’s State Convention the most important and defining moment in my short life. For the first time in Nevada politics the people actually made a difference, and I consider myself lucky to have been a part of it.
I am dismayed that a professed Ron Paul supporter such as yourself would devote so much time and energy in an effort to destroy Jeff Greenspan’s reputation. If the Nevada State GOP leadership had any sense at all they would hire Jeff to work for them, and co-opt the burgeoning movement that has surrounded Ron Paul’s candidacy.
Yours in Liberty,
- Jason Holloway - Ron Paul Volunteer and 2008 Nevada State Convention Attendee
1.) Ron Paul’s supporters ARE paranoid. No reason not to keep pointing that out.
2.) I was there for the Aaron Russo debacle. Anyone who points to that mess immediately loses credibility.
3.) You all keep blaming the “party leadership” while ignoring that Jeff Greenspan was involved with this decision-making process the entire time.
4.) Considering the fact that we’ve now discovered that Greenspan’s word isn’t worth a bucket of spit, the party would be insane to even negotiate with him again, let alone hire him.
Chuck, just get a copy of the nominating committee’s list.
I already predicted that you’ll say you “can’t”. Sure you can Chuck. You’re connected, right?
That will answer this whole mess.
Once again facts+evidence vs. Muth’s “Truths”
Muth, where is this hate coming from? Your really picking an odd fight here.
You need a hug buddy.
Let it go.
Mathew, you wouldn’t understand even if I tried to tell you.
I also don’t understand the vendetta, but that’s life. I’m getting phone calls now calling me a nazi and anti-semite because I support Dr. Paul. And I’m Jewish. Not much surprises me anymore.
I am now wondering if the party-prepared slates we never got to see had any Ron Paul names on them. And if they did, were they ever shown to Mr. Greenspan. (As a way of assuring him that the bargain we’re hearing about had been kept.)
I’m thinking that if a deal had been struck, there would have been some contact at or just prior to the convention to assure him that the deal was still intact. I saw a number of different slates circulating on the convention floor. But I never saw the slates prepared by the nominations committee. I suppose there are probably about 1400 copies of ballots with those slates on them that were prepared to be distributed during the convention. Maybe the party should show them to us and settle this dispute once and for all.
And it occurs to me, as a non-seasoned political activist, that if Mr. Greenspan had been snookered into believing there would be RP supporters on the official slate or slates, then they were left off, he’d have looked pretty stupid, with nothing to show for having all those Ron Paul supporters haul up to Reno. My suspicion is that if there was a deal, and it had been broken by the party, and Ron Paul delegates had ended up with nothing, we’d have been told to “grow up and stop whining. That’s politics.” In fact, we’ve been told that very thing at many steps in this process. And I would have had to agree with those admonishing us.
Also, there were a lot of people, some RP supporters and some supporters of Senator McCain and other candidates, moving and speaking in favor of floor nominations and voting for the amended rules. The Ron Paul supporters didn’t have the votes to amend anything.
I don’t have a subtle political mind. I’ll admit it. But it seems to me that just such arguments as those being put forward about a reneged deal are laying the groundwork for the undoing of the already completed congressional district elections. And they will be used as a justification for giving the McCain campaign extra time. Does that sound like what’s happening? I hope not. But I support Ron Paul, so by definition I don’t do “subtle” and I am hopelessly politically tone deaf.
I just hope we can all get past this and reconvene in a civil manner, finish the count in CD2, finish the at large delegate election and get back to making this a red state again.
Brian Kominsky
Ron Paul 2008
Once again, you bring up everything BUT the key to the solution to these questions which is the NOMINATING COMMITTEE’s list of delegates.
Why, Chuck? Just get the list and it will prove everything.
Why the stall tactic? Why the dissimilation?
Is there some ulterior motive? Like to try to blame me or something when the blame, in fact, lies where it really lies.
Get the nominating committee’s list.
Jeff, I can smell the fear in your words. I wonder why?