Tandem Vincitur

This just in from Jackie Juntti: According to today’s Seattle P-I, a Republican fair booth worker was handing out fake three dollar bills with an image of Barak Hussein Obama wearing a turban and an inscription, “IBD14UOK” (I be de one for you, OK).

The reactions to this are a perfect sequel to my post yesterday, The Sin of Cain: Attitude or Action? Once again, the world is horrified if someone finds a little humor in the truth or something like it, at a public person’s expense. What is wrong with a little laugh -especially in politics? There used to be a saying, “If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.”

True to their politically correct form, the politicians reacted. “Snohomish County Republican Chairwoman Geri Modrell said she started making phone calls Tuesday morning as soon as she heard the bill was being distributed. And by the time she got down to the booth that afternoon, the bills had already been removed. ‘I sincerely apologize to the Democratic Party for any perceived offense - personally, I find it somewhat offensive myself,’ Modrell said.”

Things have changed greatly since I was chair of the Snohomish County Republican Central Committee. Should I tell you the story of the time the Sheriff’s Deputies raided the fair booth, accompanied by newspaper reporters and the major television stations, with cameras rolling? Probably not, but I will. This happened sixteen years ago at the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe, Washington . . .

The history of county party chairmen is that they run the party, telling all the little grassroots minions what they are supposed to do, and whom they are supposed to support. He manipulates Robert’s Rules of Order and facilitates committee, executive meetings and conventions to arrive at predetermined outcomes. Sometimes he has to lie, cheat and steal to do this - and then he runs for public office.

The details surrounding my election to this position are an incredible story of their own but to make a long version short, I will just say this: God had a plan and He used the most unlikely man to fulfill this and I thank God for His hand upon me and the incredible experience. I look back and see successes and failures - but most of all, God succeeded. ‘Nuff said about that, for now.

The procedure for renting a fair booth is that an organization cannot sign for or take responsibility for the unit - a majority age person must do that. In the case of the party renting the booth, the person was me. Leading up to the fair, our local party was already embroiled in controversy and it was my fault - I believed, contrary to the example of those who went before me (with few exceptions) that the authority of the party vested in the Central Committee. Sorry, but that is what the By Laws said. The Executive Committee acts on behalf of the Central Committee and the Executive, or chairman, acts on behalf of the Executive Committee and the Central Committee. Once again, sorry, but that is what the By Laws said.

For years, the Central Committee had been trying to get control of politicians who ran under the GOP label but believed themselves to be above accountability. The perception was much the same as it is today, the politicians are there for worship and the lowly grassroots should feel honored to share the same room with them. I must confess, there were a sizeable amount of grassroots groupies who believed the same thing.

However, there were a majority of grassroots that were not participating for the benefit of enhancing their own stature but they truly were concerned with the operation of civil government and they believed in the By Laws that expressed their authority. Year in and year out, they passed resolutions that spoke to this accountability and year in and year out, the executive board and the chairman would shine them on while polishing up their own political trophies.

When I was elected to office, I immediately communicated my vision and my determination to be the instrument and public voice of the Central Committee (CC). They responded by electing Executive Board members who had the same vision and ideals - and wouldn’t you know it, with the exception Doris Kelly from the liberal forty-fourth district, they were all pro-life. I balanced the table with the appointment of Dottie Roberts - she could offset Doris any day! Doug Parris was also on the Executive Board (EC) during this time.  These names will have meaning to a few of the readers. These were exciting times, and I can still smell the gunpowder.

To make a short story long, the CC voted once again to hold the politicians accountable. Specifically, that no candidate could be represented in the fair booth unless they submitted in writing a general agreement to the principles of the Party Platform. Nothing specific, they could submit exceptions, if they wanted or add more specifics. All they had to do was write on a piece of paper that they were in general agreement to the platform. What could be more basic? If they could not accept the platform, why would they consider themselves GOP - excepting for the fact they considered themselves to be gods and above these people.

The media had a hay day with this - litmus test and all that!!! Nothing could be further from the truth. By the time the fair rolled around, this was becoming particularly heated and many of the high profile, Slate Gorton, Ken Eickenberry types were refusing to sign on - and they took their show to the Democrat booth. Immediately, this was hailed by the media and gave plenty of traction to the Democrat Party. People were having so much fun with this - and we were not offended, because we always thought they were Democrats, this just affirmed so.

A couple RINO members of the CC happened to be on the fair board and they were orchestrating a coup. Aided by their friends in the media and a posse of Sheriff’s Deputies, they stormed the beach, so to speak, and they were in the process of removing all our volunteer fair workers as I walked in. God moves in strange ways and His timing is perfect. I was not scheduled to be at the fair at this time, but God moved me to visit the booth and see how everyone was doing. He also moved me to stuff the booth contract in my back pocket.

The deputies were pulling people out of the booth and the television cameras were rolling when I walked up to the head deputy and in no small voice asked him what was going on here. He explained to me that these fair booth workers were not allowing non-pro-life candidates to display their materials and posters and that these other people from the party were going to make sure that all GOP candidates were allowed representation. I asked him by what authority he could even do this. He explained that the Fair Board had rules and that these people on the board (the two I mentioned before) had requested their aid. I asked him, cameras rolling, how he could interpret the law to allow interdiction into party affairs at the booth. He could only answer vaguely.

“Do you see this document?” I asked as I pulled the contract from my back pocket.
“Yes, sir. It appears to be a contract for this fair booth,” replied the deputy.
“That is what it is. Do you see whose name and whose signature are on the contract?”

He turned around to the rest of the group and said he thought there might be a problem. Immediately, the media and the rest of the deputies wanted to know how we were going to resolve the problem. I explained to them the fastest way to resolve it was to have their friendly GOP candidates send a signed memo stating their general approval of the Party Platform. Then the question turned to pro-life and litmus test and all that and I explained clearly how this was not a litmus test and even pointed to the poster of Barbara Madsen running for her first term on the State Supreme Court. She had convinced several CC members she was GOP, even though she was NARAL endorsed. But we allowed it.

The head deputy and the board members called for a private session. I agreed to participate as long as the booth was restored to our volunteers. The meeting was in another building. It lasted almost two hours and the media was excluded - that really galled them. However, it was finally resolved the CC had legal authority to do what they were doing and I, alone, had authority over the affairs of the booth. As for the RINO candidates and politicians - they continued to campaign in the Democrat booth, although after this episode, this tactic had lost most of its luster.

Of course, the RINOs, the media and the politically correct continued to talk of the personal offense taken, the ungodliness of our intolerance, and other such ails due to our atrocities. Barbara Madsen sent a request to immediately remove her poster from the booth (it was caught on the photo by the papers and on television camera) and expressed her public horror how we entangled her in this controversy, of which, she would never approve.

There it is again - if you stand up for the truth you will be marginalized. And all those who want to appear tolerant will express their indignation for your actions. Just like I wrote about in yesterday’s post.

Oh, by the way, if I was chairman of the CC today, I might have asked the man in the booth to hand out the three dollar bills on his own time - but there would have been no apology because there was no evil done. Your sense of offense does not establish my principles.

PS: You can purchase the three-dollar bills from http://slick.com/.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at 1:23 pm