Oops! No Fat Lady singing yet in Florida

The Romney partisans and the 'Pub establishment would like you to believe that Romney has the nomination in the bag.  He may, at some point in the future, but not now.  One of the 'Pub establishment's talking empty heads was on the radio yesterday. I think it was a spot on a news break. He was crowing that with the Florida delegates, Romney had an unbeatable lead for the nomination.

Not so.  the 'Pub establishment's been tripped by their own rules.  It seems, by the rules established by the 'Pubs, that no "winner take all" primaries can be set before April 1, 2012.  That means that Romney does NOT win all of Florida's delegates.  They will be apportioned to the candidates according to the percentage of votes won in the primary.

Rut-Roh!

Florida primary might not be a done deal

by Carl Cameron | February 01, 2012

TAMPA, Fla. -- Florida's primary might not be over just yet.

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.

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus warned Florida Republican Party Chairman Lenny Curry of the violation in a December letter quoting the rule, "...'winner-take-all' states cannot hold a primary or caucus before April 1, 2012."

Tuesday night's Romney victory in the Sunshine State awarded the former Massachusetts governor all 50 Florida delegates (the state was already docked half its delegates for moving the election up on the calendar). Romney won the primary with 46 percent to Gingrich's 32 percent. Rick Santorum finished third with 13 percent and Ron Paul with 7 percent.

Read more: http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2012/02/01/florida-primary-might-not-be-done-deal/#ixzz1lEzTJXNZ

The establishment has once again reversed the chicken and egg sequence.                               

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From their rhetoric, it's clear the democrats worst nightmare is Newt Gingrich as the 'Pub nominee for President.  It's the 'Pub establishment's worst nightmare too.  They know they can't control Newt like they are Romney.

That fear is becoming more apparent every day.  It's just not my opinion.  Others, as observant, agree.

Fearful GOP Party Bigwigs Sabotage Gingrich Campaign

By THOMAS SOWELL Posted 01/31/2012 06:27 PM ET

The Republican establishment is pulling out all the stops to try to keep Newt Gingrich from becoming the party's nominee for president of the United States — and some are not letting the facts get in their way.

Among the claims going out through the mass media in Florida was that Newt Gingrich "resigned in disgrace" as speaker of the House of Representatives, as a result of unethical conduct involving the diversion of tax-exempt money. Mitt Romney is calling on Gingrich to release "all of the records" from the House of Representatives investigation.

But the Wall Street Journal of Jan. 28 reported that these records — 1,280 pages of them — are already publicly available online.

Although Speaker Gingrich decided not to take on the task of fighting the charge from his political enemies in 1997, the IRS conducted its own investigation which, two years later, exonerated Gingrich from the charges.

His resignation was not due to those charges and occurred much later.

Did the Romney camp and the Republican establishment not know this, a dozen years later? Or were they less concerned with whether the charges would stand up than they were about smearing Gingrich in the Florida primaries?

There were also charges made about what Congressman Gingrich said about Ronald Reagan on March 21, 1986. But this too is a matter of public record, since his remarks are available in the Congressional Record of that date, so it is remarkable that there should be any controversy about it at this late date.

On that date, Gingrich praised Reagan's grasp of the foreign policy issues of the day but later questioned whether the way the actual policies of the Reagan administration were being carried out was likely to succeed. Gingrich was not alone in making this point, which such conservative stalwarts as George Will, Charles Krauthammer and others made at the time.

Since a column of my own back in the 1980s suggested that the administration's policies seemed to be to "speak loudly and carry a little stick," I can well understand the misgivings of others. But that is wholly different from saying that all who expressed misgivings were enemies of Ronald Reagan.

One can of course lift things out of context. But if you want to read the whole context, simply go online and get the Congressional Record for March 21, 1986.

Among the other places where the smears are exposed are the Wall Street Journal of Jan. 29, Jeffrey Lord's article in the American Spectator's blog of Jan. 27 and an article by Heather Higgins in Ricochet.com of Jan. 29.

Unfortunately, there are likely to be far more people who will see the smears than will have time to get the facts. But, if nothing else, there needs to be some understanding of the reckless accusations that have become part of the all-out attempt to destroy Newt Gingrich, as so many other political figures have been destroyed, by nonstop smears in the media.

...

But the poisonous practice of irresponsible smears is an issue that is bigger than Gingrich, Romney or any other candidate of either party.

...

Character assassination is just another form of voter fraud. There is no law against it, so it is up to the voters to punish it at the ballot box — the only place where punishment is likely to stop the practice.

Go here and read the complete arrticle.  It will be an education.

The battle between the establishment and the party's conservative core continues. Has the well been poisoned beyond recovery?  I don't know. It's too early yet.  I can say, however with a great degree of confidence that if the power of the 'Pub establishment isn't broken, the party will fragment and it will go the way of the Whigs.