I have often found great truth in the statement that truth is stranger than fiction, otherwise more colloquially stated, you couldn't make up stuff this crazy. Reality exceeds the reach, on occasion, of imagination.
The antics of bat-shit crazy Orly Taitz and her Tea Partier Birther supporters has afforded me hours of amusement. They have on occasion been laugh-out-loud ridiculous.
Likewise, I have on occasion been mildly entertained as the Tea Partiers cannibalize the Republicans, as it seemed poetic justice, albeit of the roses are red violets are blue quality. But nothing could have prepared me for this latest development from the nasty, dirty-trick employing right against themselves for a change, instead of against more moderate and frankly SANE candidates.
I can't believe that the Libertarians will win this suit; it would be bad, it would be wrong. These antics, these cheap, low tactics were wrong against Obama and they are wrong here against R-money and Ryan. But it is funny to see them used on their own for a change.
It is too much to hope that in having to deal with the possibility that they will find themselves off the ticket by a stratagem the right has used against their lawful, legal, more fair and honest opposition, the right will come to recognize the error of their ways.
But then, I hadn't the imagination to believe the right would try this against R-money and Ryan either, so maybe I will be surprised. I'm not sure which would surprise me more, R-money and Ryan being off the ballot, or the right changing their tactics of voter suppression, election tampering, voter intimidation, running false candidates, and of course the perennial favorite gross distortion and campaign dishonesty.
But I wait to be dazzled by how fact might next be stranger than fiction.
From the Tacoma Tribune/ McClatchey:
Washington state Libertarians sue to keep Romney off ballot
Kim Bradford | The (Tacoma) News Tribune
The Libertarian Party of Washington has notified the Secretary of State’s office that it has filed suit in Thurston County Superior Court asserting that Republicans’ presidential ticket does not qualify for a place on the November ballot.
Libertarians say the GOP does not have major party status, which it contends is reserved for parties that hold a nominating convention within the state and collect at least 1,000 signatures by Aug. 3. The party cites a state law that Secretary of State spokesman Dave Ammons says was used during the pick-a-party primary from 2004 through 2007 and remains on the books.
Ammons points out that top two, a nonpartisan winnowing process, does not use the terms major and minor parties.
“The major-minor distinction is, however, retained for the presidential tickets,” Ammons wrote. “Libertarians’ attorney, J. Mills of Tacoma, argues in his complaint that to remain a major party, the Republican nominee needed 5 percent of the vote for U.S. Senate in 2010, and that neither Dino Rossi nor Clint Didier was officially nominated by the Republican Party.”
The state’s view, as expressed in a memo from Katie Blinn, elections co-director, is that the 2008 presidential race kept the Republicans in major party status.
“Because the Republican and Democratic nominees for president and vice-president both received at least 5 percent of the total votes cast for that office in the 2008 presidential election, those parties retain their status as major parties until the next presidential election at which their nominees do not receive at least 5 percent of the votes cast,” she wrote.
The Libertarians contend that GOP presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney must run as a write-in in Washington.
The antics of bat-shit crazy Orly Taitz and her Tea Partier Birther supporters has afforded me hours of amusement. They have on occasion been laugh-out-loud ridiculous.
Likewise, I have on occasion been mildly entertained as the Tea Partiers cannibalize the Republicans, as it seemed poetic justice, albeit of the roses are red violets are blue quality. But nothing could have prepared me for this latest development from the nasty, dirty-trick employing right against themselves for a change, instead of against more moderate and frankly SANE candidates.
I can't believe that the Libertarians will win this suit; it would be bad, it would be wrong. These antics, these cheap, low tactics were wrong against Obama and they are wrong here against R-money and Ryan. But it is funny to see them used on their own for a change.
It is too much to hope that in having to deal with the possibility that they will find themselves off the ticket by a stratagem the right has used against their lawful, legal, more fair and honest opposition, the right will come to recognize the error of their ways.
But then, I hadn't the imagination to believe the right would try this against R-money and Ryan either, so maybe I will be surprised. I'm not sure which would surprise me more, R-money and Ryan being off the ballot, or the right changing their tactics of voter suppression, election tampering, voter intimidation, running false candidates, and of course the perennial favorite gross distortion and campaign dishonesty.
But I wait to be dazzled by how fact might next be stranger than fiction.
From the Tacoma Tribune/ McClatchey:
Washington state Libertarians sue to keep Romney off ballot
Kim Bradford | The (Tacoma) News Tribune
The Libertarian Party of Washington has notified the Secretary of State’s office that it has filed suit in Thurston County Superior Court asserting that Republicans’ presidential ticket does not qualify for a place on the November ballot.
Libertarians say the GOP does not have major party status, which it contends is reserved for parties that hold a nominating convention within the state and collect at least 1,000 signatures by Aug. 3. The party cites a state law that Secretary of State spokesman Dave Ammons says was used during the pick-a-party primary from 2004 through 2007 and remains on the books.
Ammons points out that top two, a nonpartisan winnowing process, does not use the terms major and minor parties.
“The major-minor distinction is, however, retained for the presidential tickets,” Ammons wrote. “Libertarians’ attorney, J. Mills of Tacoma, argues in his complaint that to remain a major party, the Republican nominee needed 5 percent of the vote for U.S. Senate in 2010, and that neither Dino Rossi nor Clint Didier was officially nominated by the Republican Party.”
The state’s view, as expressed in a memo from Katie Blinn, elections co-director, is that the 2008 presidential race kept the Republicans in major party status.
“Because the Republican and Democratic nominees for president and vice-president both received at least 5 percent of the total votes cast for that office in the 2008 presidential election, those parties retain their status as major parties until the next presidential election at which their nominees do not receive at least 5 percent of the votes cast,” she wrote.
The Libertarians contend that GOP presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney must run as a write-in in Washington.
And here's a more contextual elaboration:
Perhaps the Libertarians took a page from Barak Obama's Illinois playbook. Opponent can't win if he's not on the ballot.
ReplyDeleteI'm about to do an update, because there was a court decision reported yesterday that Romney and Ryan WILL be on the WA ballot.
ReplyDeleteThis of course following NUMEROUS attempts by the GOP to keep Obama off the ballot.
But perhaps you'd like to clarify your comment about Barak Obama's Illinois playbook regarding oponents?
I'm expecting that like 'palling around with terrorists', this will turn out to be a right wing myth... but I look forward to fact checking what you mean by that.