The Republican primary is a clown show, and Newt Gingrich is about to put on his red nose and floppy shoes and do a little dance.
The Gingrich campaign plans to challenge the results of the Florida primary on the grounds that the RNC’s rules state that no “winner-take-all” primaries (like Florida’s) may be held prior to April 1, 2012.
Seriously.
From Fox News:
The Newt Gingrich campaign is gearing up to challenge the results of the Florida Republican presidential primary based on the Republican National Committee’s own rules which state that no contest can be winner-take-all prior to April 1, 2012. (See RNC memo.)
It was assumed that Mitt Romney, who won Tuesday’s contest, would gain all 50 of the state’s delegates. But the Gingrich campaign plans to challenge Florida’s allocation and demand the delegates be divvied up proportionally. (See Gingrich memo.)
Fox News has learned exclusively that on Thursday, a Florida Gingrich campaign official will begin the process of trying to have the RNC rules enforced so that the Sunshine State delegates are distributed based on the percentage of the vote each candidate got.
The Republicans can’t seem to get their shit together.  Newt Gingrich is spewing racist bile like a malfunctioning liver.  Snowbilly Snooki awoke from her slumber just long enough to endorse Newt and piss off the Teabilly Palinites.  Mittens is so rich and out of touch that his butler has to remind him to take off his monocle and top-hat before making campaign appearances in Real Amurrika.  Rick is hoping that C.U.M. will produce the next Santorum Surge.  And Ron Paul  — who the fuck even knows what Ron Paul is doing; probably out shopping for eyebrows.
What an epic disaster — like “the Hindenburg exploding on the Titanic while Mt. Vesuvius erupts spewing molten hot lava” disaster.
Oh, the fuckwittery!
(h/t General Stuck)
[cross-posted at Angry Black Lady Chronicles]
AA+ Bonds
Please continue to post about Fox News, I am not even joking, not in the slightest
AA+ Bonds
Many people on this blog need to read about it
General Stuck
LOL – golden snark!!
kc
I love this story so much …
Tom Levenson
Hell. Why shouldn’t Newt challenge the delegate allocation in FL? If the RNC says no winner take all primaries – it’s their nomination process, and Newt has a point.
(And yes, I’m rooting for injuries.)
dmsilev
I actually approve of this Gingrich initiative. Both on the substance (I think primaries should be proportional rather than winner-take-all) and more importantly I believe that the longer Gingrich stays in this race, the more clownish Mittens looks as he continues lurching to the right to keep trying to appeal to the base.
scav
Epic. and Florida! Does it get any more schadenfreudelicious?
Left Coast Tom
I think its great that Newtie wants to complain about the way Florida allocates its delegates after the election is over. Probably the RNC can simply quote back to Newtie the ruling of the judge who threw out his after-the-fact lawsuit over Virginia’s ballot access laws. Maybe he’ll eventually learn after hearing the same words several times in a row.
@AA+Bonds: as I read it, she was posting about Newtie’s idiocy and its resemblance to the rest of the GOP clown car, w/ a Fox News citation offered as proof. In what way does that constitute a “post about Fox News”, which we “need to read about”?
Omnes Omnibus
@Tom Levenson:
There are those who will scold you for this. Not me, I say let the clown-fail continue until Tampa.
dr. bloor
Thank God the eternally unified Democrats would never get caught up in an intramural shit-show like this *coughMichigan2008cough*
RossInDetroit
Much as I enjoy internal GOP conflict, you have to admit that the state parties all set themselves up for this kind of thing. 50 states, 100 sets of rules.
dmbeaster
This is too funny. I also do not understand why this issue just arose, or perhaps more accurately, why it got no play anywhere. What a clusterfuck.
RAM
I could be wrong, but I suspect this is excellent news for John McCain.
Steve
For all I know, Newt might have a point here.
JPL
@Steve: Me also, too. MSNBC.com explained the possible scenario days before the election. The repubs rules are all over the place. I hope that Newt and Sarah run as a third party. Good Times.
Ron
@Steve: He does have a point. Maddow (I believe) talked about this recently. The RNC said Florida had to award its delegates proportionally when they scheduled the primary so early.
AxelFoley
Didn’t they make a movie like this with an All-Star cast back in the 70’s?
gwangung
@dr. bloor: Which is why this is so amusing to ME.
Alesis
I’m with Tom this is a smart move for Newt and one I kind of expected.
My understanding is that the Florida is normally a state where delegates are awarded proportionally but they switched it to winner take all after half its delegates were cut in the scheduling fight.
After the shenanigans in Iowa and Virginia (I do not believe for a moment those were accidents) Newt has no incentive to play fair.
Not that anyone in the clown car would ever play fair.
Left Coast Tom
Suppose Newtie “has a point”. Why did he not raise that point prior to the election? In 2008 every major candidate other than Clinton stayed off the Michigan ballot because MI was violating the rules, they all (not counting Clinton) made their case up front. Not Newtie.
Cacti
Dr. Gingrich raises a good point, and I believe this is best settled by a long, protracted, public dispute.
Perhaps even some litigation.
jl
@dr. bloor:
Any disputed primary will be a shit show.
People can read the history and decide
Michigan Democratic primary, 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Democratic_primary,_2008
Looks like the FL primary will turn into a shit show, and Newt is bringing a fan.
It will be an interesting compare and contrast.
Left Coast Tom
I do, however, agree with Cacti…
patroclus
I really really really want to hear Harriet Christian’s views on this issue.
Warren Terra
I heard or read someplace a few weeks ago that the rules said Florida couldn’t go so early, and had to be proportional – but that the penalty for either or for both was the same: Florida losing half its delegates, a price they accepted. Not a good system, but it doesn’t seem likely Florida will pay a further price being having lost half its delegates, especially with the party establishment backing Rmoney.
amk
Go noot. We root for ya.
pragmatism
What’s the Vegas line on a brokered convention these days? 3/2?
ShadeTail
On a more serious note than schadenfreude over GOP fail, this is an argument for some centralized rules. There should be just *one* election day. Just *ONE* day, goddammit. Every election in every state should happen on the same day. Make it Super Tuesday or whatever the hell you want, but let’s have a little more organization, for fuck’s sake. Then crap like this would be much less likely to happen. Not coincidentally, it would also deprive the “liberal” media of much of its reason to spend so much time on the election horse race.
Egg Berry
The Florida GOPers were on NPR crowing about how great all the publicity was for the state, even though they took a delegate haircut.
jl
I think there is a difference between FL today and MI in 2008. As I remember, all the candidates made their case up front before the primary. Everyone knew there would be a problem. The campaigns disagreed. The rhetoric was much calmer and more rational.
Would Newt have made a fuss had he won? Would Romney suddenly have discovered problems with the primary had he lost?
So, I predict a standard issue disputed presidential primary election. Except it is the GOP so no one has to explain their actions, they are just in it to win it one way or the other and you getter GTF outta the way. And except it is Newt, and he is bringing a fan to make it more fun.
If I have misremembered the history, let me know.
Time will tell, but you have my prediction, more shit flying on this one.
ploeg
@Tom Levenson: Florida was already in violation of RNC guidelines by holding their primary on 31 January, and was punished by losing half their delegates. I’m in for a food fight as much as anybody else, but nothing says sore loser like complaining about the rules after you had your ass handed to you straight up.
amk
@ploeg: who gives a shite about sore-loser stuff. I say, bring it on. Cage fight, cage fight…
gbear
@Left Coast Tom:
He wouldn’t have brought it up at all if he’s won. I hope Newt makes as much trouble for Mitt as humanly possible.
not motorik
Can she post without a neologism or overused British expression or intentional misspelling, innit?
PaulW
I do think Newt has a point about the Winner-Take-All results, if the party has rules that all primaries before April 1 have to be proportionally delegated. The only thing is, Mitt trounced Newt for the most part: I doubt Newt will get enough delegated awarded to him to make a huge difference.
All that really matters for Newt now is to secure the Deep South primaries and prolong the GOP torment.
Left Coast Tom
@gbear: Exactly. So he has no basis for a complaint now that he lost, even if the rule in question is horribly unfair. Which is what the judge told him and Rick “did I put on pants today” Perry regarding their suits over access to Virginia’s ballot. Nobody ruled on the core question of whether VA’s rules were fair or otherwise, because Newtie and…I forget the other one…couldn’t complain after the fact, having failed to complain before the fact even though they were perfectly able to do so. Someone else, in another election, just might win against VA’s rules, we don’t know.
Steve
@Left Coast Tom: There is no rule that says you need to boycott a primary in order to protest the delegate allocation. The non-Hillary candidates boycotted MI in 2008 because they thought it would be politically beneficial, not because of some made-up principle. Ultimately they were able to negotiate a good outcome from the DNC in the name of party unity.
The states are going to hold their primaries whenever they decide to hold them. The parties can’t force them to do otherwise. All the parties can do is decide what the consequences are for breaking the rules. It doesn’t seem like Florida should have any power to declare that they’re holding a winner-take-all primary if the rules say they can’t, but ultimately it’s a political decision for the RNC to make.
ploeg
@amk: Let’s just say that, if I wanted to drag this out as long as possible, I’d forget FL and devote my fullest attention to racking up wins on Super Tuesday, rather than pissing away time and money on an ever shrinking pot of delegates, while Mitt goes forth and drinks your milkshake.
Steve
@ShadeTail: It would be horrible to hold a 50-state primary on the same day. No one without the financial resources of Mitt Romney or the Koch brothers could even have a prayer of competing in all 50 states at once. The only reason anyone can do it in the general election is because they have the full-throated support of a major political party and half the voters in the country.
No one like Barack Obama would have a shot at becoming President with a system like that, that’s for sure.
gbear
@ploeg: But Newt just wants to piss in the milkshake now…
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@dr. bloor:
I couldn’t decide between “You lie” and “both sides do it.”
amk
@ploeg: noot is all about the past. Let him do the stuff that damages the rethugs brand even more. Plenty of pissed off people on core-less mittens’ horrid ads in FL. I say go forth, noot and pull all the stunts that only you are capable of pulling off.
Left Coast Tom
@Steve: Sure, the RNC can decide that it wants to strictly enforce its rules in this case. Or not. Go back and look at the news articles describing the outcome of Newtie’s suit over access to VA ballot access. Newtie (and Goodhair) was not even allowed to make the case regarding the fairness of VA’s rules because he and Goodhair were perfectly able to raise their claims at an earlier and more reasonable time, and refused to do so.
My point is that prior to the FL election, Newtie was told that complaining after the fact about a rule that he knew before the fact wasn’t something that would go well. If the RNC wants to reward him for refusing to listen, then fine. But given that they don’t really want to see Newtie get more delegates, they have an absurdly simple answer: they can simply quote an already published court decision.
All of that said…I’m as happy as anyone if Newtie wants to make the GOP nomination process an even bigger joke than it already is. I just won’t agree with the idea that Newtie’s effort in this case is anything other than a big joke.
amk
@gbear: rimshot.
dogwood
@ploeg:
I don’t think Newt has the campaign infrastructure to rack up wins much of anywhere. His only hope is to dredge up controversy and stay in the news that way. Feb. is going to be a fairly quiet month for the GOP, so Newt needs to create some chaos.
Roger Moore
@Cacti:
I think the proper, traditional response for a Southern gentleman like Dr. Gingrich would be a duel at dawn. Might I suggest car bombs at 5 paces?
ShadeTail
@Steve:
Gee, that’s a good point. It argues for even more central control, with public financing of elections and the like.
priscianusjr
Shouldn’t he have brought this up beforehand?
feebog
Actually, Noot is 100% right on this, and anyone who bothered to read the RNC rules would have to agree.
1. States who moved up their primary before Feb. 6 would be penalized 50% of their delegates, thats Iowa, New Hampshire, So. Carolina and Florida.
2. States running their primary or caucus before a certain date had to be proportional, states after that date could award delegates on a winner take all basis. The Florida Republican party does not have the authority to make the unilateral decision to award their delegates as winner take all, no more than they have the authority to award the full number of delegates.
3. This is not some last minute sour grapes on the part of the leperous amphibian. It was expected that Florida’s decision to go winner take all would be challenged.
GO NOOT! Fuck this thing up beyond all recognition!
feebog
Here is the actual rule, 15 b.2.:
Sloegin
Aye, the Newt has read the rules and and has FL dead to rights, problem is; Republicans play electoral calvinball even on their own kind.
Smart money is on Newt getting the bums rush.
Cacti
@feebog:
Of course his motives are transparent bullshit…
But he’s factually correct.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@ShadeTail: Good god. How do you plan to determine who is eligible for public financing of their primary campaign? That’s asking for having 23 people on the ballot and a winner who picks up 12% of the vote nationally.
No, how about realizing that political parties should have the ability to pick whoever they want to be their candidate and set their own rules for doing so? The British have done that for centuries, and their system seems to work pretty well.
thm
One further complication here is that the rule that feebog cites was made by the Michael Steele-headed RNC, but the Reince Priebus-headed RNC did, in fact, approve Florida’s winner-take-all plan. More from Adam Smith in the Tampa Bay Times.
Steve
@feebog: Did Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina in fact lose 1/2 of their delegates? Perhaps I haven’t been following.
chrome agnomen
@Tom Levenson:
injuries?? hell, i’m rooting for fatalities!!
feebog
Steve @ 55:
yes
Bago
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): TTP (JMN) Yeah you know me!
Sorry. It’s music night. The pandora “station” for R2DJ has been kicking my ass. I’ve already downloaded two albums from iTunes. Tonight.
It’s been so long since I have DJ’d that a dive back into music is nigh frightfuly amazing. Musicians who do this, create these kind of experiences, are totally worth it.
I apologize for gushing, but this is making my night.
Chuck Butcher
Some of you are mistking a Court case with taking issue with the National Party. Providing that the Party has not violated the law, it is the Party’s business how to dispose of the issue. Newt’s case was argued under law not under Party policy and he got handed his head.
Schlemizel
@Steve:
Iowa did not because their pig-n-sow show was for entertainment purposes only. No delegates changed hands. They won’t be awarded till they caucus. I know SC lost half their delegates but I don’t recall hearing about NH.
kay
.@feebog:
Any presidential primary,
caucus, convention, or other meeting held for the
purpose of selecting delegates to the national convention which occurs prior to the first day of April
in the year in which the national convention is held,
shall provide for the allocation of delegates on a
proportional basis.
If that’s what he’s relying on, I don’t think it’s a strong basis at all.
I think the FL GOP can say that’s a rule that applies to the selection of delegates, not the awarding of delegates selected. They can say the primary wasn’t held for the purpose of selecting delegates, but instead was held to determine who gets all the delegates.
This is how FL selects their delegates this year:
I assume they did that because they didn’t calendar any caucus or election to elect delegates, because they pushed their primary up.
mikeyes
@Left Coast Tom:
He didn’t raise the point because there was a time when he had a chance to win Florida. I suspect that Gov. Romney would be saying the same thing if Gingrich had won the state.
Besides, delegate proportionality is the rule of the GOP right now and Florida did not go along. Newt may have a second suit later on in the summer at the GOP nominating convention in Tampa that states the delegates from Florida are not legit because the Florida GOP failed to follow the rules of the party when they elected the delegates.
Lex
like âthe Hindenburg exploding on the Titanic while Mt. Vesuvius erupts spewing molten hot lavaâ disaster.
James Carville emerges from the conflagration riding a burning alligator.