What the Bleep Is This Bull Bleep?

P-D:

Missouri GOP to use caucuses to pick presidential nominee

JEFFERSON CITY • Missouri Republicans will probably still get to cast a ballot for a presidential nominee in February, but that vote won’t actually count.

That’s because the Missouri Republican Party voted Thursday to strip the state’s presidential primary of its traditional purpose — picking who gets the Show-Me state’s coveted presidential delegates. Instead, those delegates will be decided using a caucus system.

Unless the Legislature votes to change it, the Feb. 7 Republican primary will still take place. It just won’t have any impact on the selection of a presidential nominee. For members of the GOP, that process will start officially more than a month later on March 17 at party-run county caucuses.

The process for Democrats, who also will vote Feb. 7, remains unchanged.

Under current state law, a primary must be held in February. But national party rules dictate that only Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada can hold presidential nominating contests before March 6, mostly because of tradition. States that violate that rule have been threatened with the loss of half of their delegates to the national convention.

So, let me get this straight.  We get to pay for a public vote on a partisan primary that won’t count because the National Republican Party doesn’t want it to count?  Therefore, interested Missourians will have to caucus in Mid-March.  Why bother with the primary, then?  If I were a liberal Democrat, I’d be hacked off as hell, because I’m helping to pay for what will in essence be a meaningless Republican straw poll.

I’m still sticking to my Michele Bachmann vote.  But it won’t be worth even going to the polls to vote for her if it won’t matter in the delegate tally.  And I’m certainly not enthusiastic enough about her to go and caucus for her.  I did caucus for PJB in 1996, because we really had something to work with there.

By the way, National Republican Party — In spite of your “tradition,” is it really a good idea to be telling Missouri Republican primary voters that they don’t matter?  Missouri is a swing state, after all.

 

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