Ron Paul zealots respect no rules but their own

Nevada’s delegates to the Republican National Convention showed a lack of class and acted like spoiled brats during Tuesday’s roll call vote for the nomination of Mitt Romney for president. Under national and state party rules, they were required to cast 22 votes for Mr. Romney and six votes for Rep. Ron Paul. Instead they cast 17 votes for Rep. Paul, five votes for Mitt Romney and five delegates abstained.

The actions by these fanatical zealots are not the actions of most Ron Paul supporters. The egregious actions of those delegates who broke their oaths are theirs alone and should not cast a pall over the sane Paul supporters. Unfortunately, all Paul supporters will now be lumped in with these few zealots, and that is the worst part of this whole situation.

For the past four years we have heard the mantra from the Paul supporters to “follow the rules,” but when the time came for them to follow the rules they threw out the book and decided they knew better than the voters of Nevada, who showed up at the caucuses and overwhelmingly supported Mr. Romney.

Delegation leader Wayne Terhune is squealing like that the GOP changed the rules. Get over it. You didn’t have the votes, and you lost. Four years ago, you changed the rules and disrupted the Nevada Republican State Convention at the last minute and created a scenario where the national party selected our delegates to the national convention. Rep. Paul’s backers supported last-minute changes to the rules of the Clark County and state conventions and helped drive out fair-minded Republicans from both these meetings. In Clark County, Paul supporters tried to change the rules on how the caucus votes were counted, and when they lost that fight they threatened litigation to try and get their way. They’re happy when they control the votes and can change the rules to their satisfaction.

If Rep. Paul’s Nevada supporters believe in liberty, as they so love to say, they will support Mr. Romney in November. If they do not do so, they will show their true colors.

Dan Burdish

Las Vegas

The writer is chief executive officer of Citizen Outreach and was an alternate Nevada delegate at the Republican National Convention. He directed Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign in Nevada, and he is a former executive director of the Nevada Republican Party and a former treasurer of the Clark County Republican Party.

Two times the folly

To the editor:

Congratulations, representatives of Nevada. Within two months you have managed to make folly of the great state of Nevada twice.

First, our illustrious Sen. Harry Reid makes unsubstantiated claims about Mitt Romney’s taxes from ephemeral and shadowed “sources”; now our Ron Paul delegates to the Republican National Convention create disruptive and embarrassing scenes on national television.

And you wonder why you lose our trust and support.

George Pucine

Las Vegas