The corronations become official

Let the corronations begin. Well, actually the corronations were done long ago. Mark Kennedy will be officially crowned tonight as the GOP endorsed candidate for US Senate. Even though I called the GOP and told them to remove my name from the list of delegates/alternates and any other list that implies membership I still received a delegate convention call for this weekend's formalities (there were not any contested races allowed so "event" seems to be an inappropriate word).

Tonight is the sham of endorsement of Mark Kennedy. I say sham not because it was a safe bet that he would have won the endorsement. I say sham because the MN-GOP, Kennedy's campaign, and his partisan supporters continued the anti-democratic method of denying the existence or legitimacy of any other candidates. Harold Shudlick, nice guy but not a dynamic speaker, deserved to be heard as much as Mark Kennedy. John Uldrich, well spoken and a moderate, deserved to be heard as much as Mark Kennedy. Up until tonight the three of them should have been treated as equals.

Why weren't they? Because the MN-GOP wanted to "create the appearance of unanimity". The supporters are loathe to accept that ANYONE should be given any thought except the person they support. Because Kennedy does not want his positions to be challenged from any flank other than uber-Left, which Shudlick & Uldrich had the capacity to do. In doing so it showed a complete breakdown in character from them all...especially the candidate.

In a complete bastardization of what Reagan stood for I am willing to bet that insinuations of being a Reagan Republican will ooze from Kennedy's speech (and from what I understand the rules were changed this year aside from others to make certain ONLY Kennedy had the floor in this race). Bastardization because Reagan would have welcomed the two upstarts. He understood the importance of the marketplace of ideas...that opposition makes one stronger. That is a lesson the Pawlenty-supporters, Jeffers-haters and Kennedy-supporters all seem to have ignored.

Oddly enough many of them think it was great to have 4 candidates in the 6th Congressoinal District GOP endorsement race. Hmm, that seems like a double standard...which they will explain away as a difference between "legimate" and "not legimate" candidates. But what makes a candidate "legimate", at least "legitimate" enough to be treated with respect? They fail 100% of the time to quantify that criteria.

Instead they engage in personal attacks that have no relevance. "Just seeking their 15-minutes." "Just a liberal." "Is a goofball." Those have been used to describe 2/3 of the field of candidates seeking the GOP endorsement in the US Senate race.

Never, never and never have any of those anti-democratic Kennedy-supporters or the anti-democratic corronated candidate himself address WHY these other challengers warranted the dismissal they received and will receive tonight.

No, the Democrats are not any better...at least so some will say to justify this behavior. But conservatives hold a higher standard than the smoke and mirror excuses of "nothing against the rules" and parsing words.

The party sat by and refused to hold a straw poll for 2006 US Senate race. Make your own conclusions as to why but the most common excuse was that Shudlick was not legitimate enough of a candidate (Uldrich was not in the race at that time). The very same party officials saw fit to hold a straw poll tomorrow night for the 2008 Presidential election. How are they going to determine which candidates to eliminate on that poll?

Give the world an actual reason for analysis. Why did Mark Kennedy's campaign feel it was necessary to engage in trying to silence opposition (that alone is an anti-American thing to do)? Why did Kennedy's supporters feel it was legitimate to shield Kennedy from internal criticism (which makes the candidate unable to strengthen the weaknesses)? Why did the party feel is was acceptable to endorse a candidate over 18 months ago effectively shooing away everyone else from entering (which does not help to find the best candidate...only the first candidate)?

And the race for Governor is shaping up to be the same thing.

This may be an internal matter for the party, but the same attitudes seep outside of the party.

Some may wonder why people like Peggy Noonan and Glenn Beck are beginning to support third parties for this year. I don't...it is this disassociation by the candidates and partisans from everything except victory. Actually, their top priority is the defeat of the other party, second priority is their own victory and after that are some semblance of principles.

Tonight, this ill-behavior becomes a stark reality in the US Senate race. Saturday this ill-behavior becomes a dark blot of truth in the Governor's race. There was a time when the GOP's clarion call for public officials was "character matters". Character does not accept the anti-American behavior of trying to silence opposition ESPECIALLY when it comes from within one's own ranks.

They planted these disgusting seeds...let's see what fruit they bear over the long haul of several years.