At its Convention on Saturday, the California Republican Party adopted the following resolution:

Whereas, the California Republican Party applauds transparency and accountability in government and rejects government secrecy involving monetary policy that impacts the entire economy; and

Whereas, serious discussions of proposals to oversee and audit the Federal Reserve are long overdue; and

Whereas, the Federal Reserve can enter into agreements with foreign governments and foreign central banks and the United States Congress is prohibited from overseeing these agreements; and

Whereas, the California Republican Party believes agreements made by the Federal Reserve with foreign powers and foreign banking institutions should be subject to Congressional oversight; and

Whereas, the United States Constitution, gives the United States Congress the authority to coin Money and regulate the value thereof and does not give Congress the authority to delegate control over monetary policy to a central bank; and

Whereas, auditing the Federal Reserve will allow Congress to assert its constitutional authority over monetary policy and help to protect the value of the United States dollar;

Therefore, BE IT RESOLVED, that the California Republican Party, in defense of the United States Constitution, STRONGLY URGES the representatives of the 111th United States Congress to support the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009 as set forth in H.R. 1207 and S. 604.

The Alameda and Sonoma County Republican Parties recently submitted a resolution in support of auditing The Federal Reserve to the California Republican Party.  The resolution was introduced by two RLC supporters, Jerry Salcido and Michael Erickson.

In addition, RLC-endorsed Congressman Tom McClintock, Assemblyman and U.S. Senate candidate Chuck DeVore, and Congressional candidates John Dennis, Paul Smith and Jon del Arroz have all thrown their support behind the proposed resolution.  In fact, Chuck Devore even spoke passionately on behalf of the resolution before California GOP delegates.

RLC members — such as Matthew Heath, John Dennis, David Latour, Walter Stanley, and David Ewing — were the primary movers and shakers pushing for resolution adoption. More information on the resolution is available HERE.

Congratulations!

The Republican Liberty Caucus of Maryland, which was chartered in winter of this year, held its first annual Convention on Saturday, March 26 in Laurel, Maryland.  John Orlando (photo below), RLC Chair, presided over by-law changes and I oversaw the elections.  Two by-law changes were adopted.

A new board was elected, including: John Orlando, Chair (pictured); Steve Wright, Vice-Chair; Randy Gearhart, Secretary; Ingrid Dean, Treasurer. Outgoing Treasurer Rich Matthews is moving out of state. The Convention business began around 3:00pm and ended around 3:15pm.

A RLC strategy discussion was held from 5:30 to 6:00pm.  Between 3:15pm and 5:30pm, many speakers were heard from — including past candidates, current candidates, organization leaders, and general members.

Overall, the meeting was a great success.  Delegates came away energized and poised to continue their fight for a free Maryland.  After the Convention, delegates gathered for dinner at a local restaurant.  Some photos from the event follow.

Delegate Joe Boteler addressed the crowd. He explained how he wears a t-shirt in his community that says “ordinary citizen” and encourages his neighbors to view him as such.

Delegate Don Dwyer addressed the crowd. Dwyer was quite passionate and was excited about the Tenth Amendment legislation that he will introduce in the near future.

Delegates listened as Collins Bailey discussed his run against House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.  Bailey was endorsed by the RLC in 2008 and also serves on the Charles County Board of Education.

Mr. Collins Bailey speaks to the crowd.

Joe Seehusen talked about his run for State Senate in Maryland, District 42 (Baltimore County).  Seehusen was Deputy Campaign Director for the Ron Paul 2008 Presidential campaign.

Delegates discuss strategy.

Delegates enjoy a laugh.

I attended the 9/12 rally that overtook Washington, DC on September 12, 2009.  I attended to take a few photos and (mostly) pass out literature about the Republican Liberty Caucus to targeted attendees.  To distinguish myself, I wore a Ron Paul hat that said “Real conservatives are against the War” and a t-shirt reading, “The community is worthless without the individual.”

As I handed out literature, I heard people talking about Ron Paul.  One young man from Georgia told his girlfriend, “I’m starting to like him. He makes the most sense.”  I handed out the literature to moms who had “Term Limits” signs and explained that we need to vote selectively for only small government Republican candidates.  Overall, the reception was great, the crowd was very committed, and I was surprised at its size and scope.

I have attended many rallies in DC over the years and this was by far the largest. The media can continue to say 75,000 people attended the rally.  I would estimate the number to be between 750,000 and 1 million.   It was overwhelming — it over took the city.  Even as I walked back to my car — from from the Capitol — I saw the 9/12 rally attendees … soccer moms, working dads, government employees, common folks … uniting for limited government.

What a sight!

Less government? Sounds enticing …

First Amendment and marchers!

This guy had a “Got Beck?” sticker on his driver’s side window.

Rally attendees. Notice all the Gadsen flags!

More attendees.

Dan Halloran, Chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus of New York, has been running for New York City Council for the better part of the year now. But some in the Queens Republican Party are hoping to replace Halloran with another candidate — Paul Vallone — after the Queens Tribune profiled Halloran’s religious faith. According to an article that came out earlier today, “Their choice to replace him is Paul Vallone, who finished third in the district’s recent Democratic primary.

That’s right. Replacing a Republican candidate with a current or former Democrat. This is actually an upsetting trend that I have noticed cropping up in national and state-level politics.

Why are some in the Queens GOP upset with Halloran? Well, he’s engaged in that all American ritual called religious freedom. Yes, Mr. Halloran has chose his own faith, and it’s not a popular one: he’s a practicing Theodist who worships with the pre-Christian pagan faith of Theodism.

Fortunately, it seems that the Queens Republicans are going to make the correct decision and go with their original choice. An article published just a few hours ago, entitled “GOP has faith in Halloran,” says that, “Queens Republicans said they did not believe City Council hopeful Dan Halloran’s adherence to a pagan religion would have any affect on the Auburndale attorney’s bid to fend off Democrat Kevin Kim in the race to replace Councilman Tony Avella (D-Bayside).”

Score one for freedom conscience and for liberty-loving Republicans. Halloran actually has a good chance of defeating Democrat Kevin Kim, and if he does so he’ll be one of only two or three Republicans serving in elected positions in New York City government.

But back to the trend of Republican establishment leaders selecting current or former Democrats over good liberty-loving Republicans.

It’s happened twice to the most prominent libertarian Republican family, the Pauls: once to RLC Advisory Board member Dr. Ron Paul and once (now) to his son Dr. Rand Paul.

In 1995, the Republican Party, which had gained a majority in the House for the first time in four decades, offered U.S. Rep. Greg Laughlin (D-TX) a seat on the Ways and Means committee if he joined the Republican Party.

In the subsequent congressional election in 1996, Laughlin was endorsed by the Republican establishment, including then-Governor George W. Bush, Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, and other members of the party from outside the district and the state. Despite this, Republicans in Laughlin’s district still saw him as too moderate, and he faced a primary challenge from former Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul and his 1994 opponent.

Laughlin won the initial primary election with 42 percent of the vote, but by failing to win a majority he was required to face the second-place Paul in a run-off election. Paul defeated Laughlin by a 56-44 percent margin in the runoff election and went on to win the congressional seat.

In an important race for liberty-lovers across the country, Dr. Rand Paul is running to become the junior Senator from Kentucky. Despite having grassroots support and having raised the necessary cash, he has hit a wall called the Republican Establishment — led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and fueled by National Republican Senator Committee Chair Senator John Cornyn (R-TX).

Cornyn and McConnell have selected a former Democrat, Trey Grayson, to run for the open Kentucky Senate seat as a Republican. They’ve tried to clear the way for Grayson, but thus far have been unsuccessful in doing so. Grayson is another former Democrat and supported Bill Clinton’s campaign in 1992.

Why does the Republican establishment continually insist on backing poor quality candidates who lack principled commitment to the Republican Platform?  Shouldn’t these candidate choices be left to Republican Party voters to decide?

These types of ex-Democrat candidates rarely turn out successful for the Republican Party, as in the case of Laughlin, who lost to Ron Paul in 1996 and has been a lobbyist in DC ever since.

UPDATE: Apparently the potential Halloran replacement nominee (a Democrat-turned-Republican) is now supporting the Democrat candidate for the Queens-area City Council seat — an election taking place in November.

UPDATE #2: Doug Guetzloe, a longtime Republican Party activist and RLC member in Florida, says the following: “Last night the Orange County (Florida)  Republican Executive Committee met.  The Chair is Lew Oliver, the individual who lodged the grievances against both Nick Egoroff and me for ‘violating our oath’.  Last evening Oliver nominated Sarah Rumpf for REC membership. Ms. Rumpf was the campaign manager for Democrat state attorney Lawson L. Lamar last year against our GOP nominee Mercedes Leon. Ms. Rumpf also is supporting Democrat candidate for Orange County Mayor, Bill Segal. Mr. Oliver defended Ms. Rumpf and called out of order a motion from one our Liberty Coalition member David Mack to remove her from the ballot.  Mr. Oliver also threatened Mr. Mack with arrest. Ms. Rumpf was elected to the Republican Executive Committee. Incredible.”

Darren Pope of the Columbia Independent Examiner reports estimates of the turnout to Saturday’s tea party  to have been as many as two million. That’s the largest I can recall, and I am old enough to remember all of the Vietnam protests. It was bigger than Woodstock.  Some claim that Louis Farrakhan’s 1995 Million Man March attracted nearly two million, but according to Wikipedia’s article about Farrakhan’s  march, “organizers…were shocked when the United States Park Police officially estimated the crowd size at 400,000″.  In any case, the size of this march was greater than or comparable to the most publicized public events in my 55 years.

But unlike Woodstock, which still receives considerable media coverage today; and unlike the Vietnam War demonstrations; and unlike the Million Man March, the sources  to  which some Americans still look  for news attempted to minimize it and to spin the tea party participants as wrong doers and extremists. In contrast, Louis Farrakhan’s, the Merry Pranksters’ and the Students for a Democratic Society’s events are hallowed in the media’s view.   They paint the SDS in a more favorable light than the everyday Americans who are concerned about this country’s socialistic direction.

For many participants, this was their first political action.  The  dissonance that they will experience from the media’s distortions will spur them to further action.  Freedom-oriented Republicans need to seize this opportunity.  Organizing new political clubs, becoming active in your community, talking about the bail out and the freedom philosophy are all ways to make ripples.  Lots of ripples make waves and lots of waves make a tsunami.  There are tremendous opportunities, and the RLC is well positioned.

Reason Magazine’s Jesse Walker has an excellent article in this month’s issue concerning the left’s and the media’s strategy of painting people who believe in freedom as extremists who are violent.  Walker traces history going back to the days of Walter Reuther, who urged President Kennedy to use the FBI to attack conservatives, and quotes one of Richard Hofstadter’s articles about how accusations of extremism are often projections of one’s own tendencies.  Socialism and social democracy are  by definition ideologies that depend on violence. Hence, it is natural for social democrats to project and accuse those who disagree with them of violence.  Socialism is a violent creed and projection is a common psychological pattern.

Accusing others of violence is an ancient tactic.  In the late nineteenth century the labor movement was able to defeat more powerful opponents by showing that they had been victimized. Conversely, if labor could be made to look violent, management triumphed.  Public opinion swayed in the direction of those who could paint themselves as victims.  Much of “progressive” labor history  involves discussion of how workers were victimized (see, for example, Irving Bernstein’s Lean Years about the 1920s or John R. Commons et al.’s four volume History of Labor in the United States written in the early twentieth century).

The same tactic is part of what William S. Lind and Thomas X. Hammes have called Fourth Generation Warfare.  Fourth Generation Warfare includes (among other tactics) the manipulation of public opinion to immobilize your opponent.   This idea is not new, although Lind and Hammes show that war has increasingly depended the Fourth Generation strategy. 2,500 years ago, Sun Tzu, a Chinese general, wrote that “the way” or appropriate ordering of society is essential to win a war.

If a political faction can be painted to be disruptive to order or what Sun Tzu called “the way” then it will lose. Walker shows that the Democratic Party and its media are making repeated efforts to paint libertarians, conservatives, and anyone who disagrees with the Democrats’ claim  that we exist to serve the state  as violent extremists.

The reality, of course, is that it is the Democratic Party and the media that are extreme and violent, and the tea party marchers who are moderate and non-violent.  It is critical to keep this clear, not to let righteous indignation get the better of us and to disassociate from extremism.

Mitchell Langbert is associate professor of business at Brooklyn College. He can be visited at http://www.mitchell-langbert.blogspot.com.

Last Friday, the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) Grievance Committee notified Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida Chairman Will G. Pitts of Jacksonville and four other Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC) members that they have been removed from positions within the RPOF or are prohibited from serving in any official RPOF capacity for a period of no less than two years.

“The reasons for this ‘Party Purge’ are that we have collectively and individually called for a complete audit of the Republican Party of Florida finances, advocated for candidates not favored by party leaders, and that we are members of the Republican Liberty Caucus,” said activist Doug Guetzloe of Orlando, one of the ‘purged’ members.

Please help the Republican Liberty Caucus fight the Republican Party of Florida’s direct attack on Liberty Republicans.

Here are a few ways that you can help:

1) Contact RNC National Chair Michael Steele at (202) 863-8500 and the two Florida RNC Committee Representatives, Paul Senft [eMail] and Sharon Day [eMail].

You can link them to this article for details about the situation.

Please be respectful, as these parties may not be aware of the situation. Request that they investigate this matter and then take action against Jim Greer. Explain that Mr. Greer and the RPOF Grievance Committee overstepped its boundaries by booting out NUMEROUS elected representatives of grassroots Republican activists for no reason!

2) Write a letter to your local newspaper highlighting this issue. Please review our sample letters to the editor and our Florida media list.

3) Call the Republican Party of Florida at (850) 222-7920 and (850) 222-7920. Give them a piece of your mind. Delmar W. Johnson, Executive Director of RPOF, voted to have RLC members banned from the party. Let Delmar and his staff know what you think about that!

4) Contact members of the RPOF Grievance Committee — the folks who voted to boot Mr. Pitts and other RLC members. Express your frustration — no, outrage! — that they are purging active Liberty Republicans from the party!

The members include:
Jim Greer (eMail): Phone is same as RPOF HQ: 850-222-7920
Tony DiMatteo, Chair of Committee (eMail): 727-398-5850
Delmar W. Johnson (eMail): 850-681-2063 or 850-222-7920
Doug Adkins (eMail): 904-261-2213
Linda Ivell (eMail): 863-602-9866
Deno Hicks (eMail): 904-819-9170
Richard Solze (eMail): 904-964-5803
Cynthia Henderson (eMail): 850-210-5385
Nancy Riley (eMail): 727-573-5222
Jason Broudeur (eMail): 407-963-9576

Remember, these are the same “leaders” who helped Barack Obama win Florida — a decidedly Republican state — last year. Perhaps party activists have had enough of their “leadership” — especially when they’re booting our fellow liberty-lovers from the party!

5) Join the Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida on Facebook and Yahoo. There is also a reform-oriented Facebook group called “Restore the Republican Party of Florida” operated by RLC member Nick Egoroff. Also, if you haven’t yet done so, please join the RLC or donate today!

6) Tune in to the weekly Republican Liberty Caucus Podcast LIVE on Thursday at 11 EST at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/rlcradio. RLC Chair Dave Nalle plans to interview several of Florida RLC members who were involved in the situation. Hear their story and call in with questions!

Friends, we are winning.  The press is taking notice.  When the party leadership has to stoop this low, it is clear that we are having an impact.  Now is NOT the time to give up, but to keep on fighting!

The fight has just begun!

Our message of individual liberty, free markets, and limited government is gaining support all across Florida.

The Republican Liberty Caucus hopes to provide you with a courageous, principled, and committed voice for reform in the Republican Party.

Please take the above-outlined steps to defend our leading voices of liberty in the RPOF.  It’s the grassroots versus the establishment political class.  Your phone calls, letters, and donations will make the difference.

Below is an overview of media mentions of the Republican Party of Florida’s recent actions to ban Republican Liberty Caucus members from the state Republican Party.

Articles

• The St. Petersburg Times features an article entitled “Boss Greer” accused of ‘party purges’.” They quote RLC member and longtime Republican activist Doug Guetzloe — a victim of the purge.

• The Orlando Sentinel has an article entitled “RPOF Suspends Orange Leaders; Ousted Vow to Fight ‘Purge’.”  It quotes former State Rep. and Brevard GOP Chair Jason Steele, a purged party member, who says, “… if the state party hoped to stifle his activity with the official punishment, ‘that’s just not going to happen’.”

Blogs

• Nolan Chart features an article by Dave Nalle on the situation. Dave also has an article published at TheNextRight, Fontcraft, and Blogcritics. Nalle notes, “This is the culmination of an ongoing assault by a party establishment dominated by big-government Republican hacks seeking to silence grassroots activists who are trying to reform the party and bring it back to the values on which it was founded.”

• Rick George has an article published at the Examiner. He notes, “The nervousness expressed by these neo-con Republicans is very understandable. They know that thousands of Americans are upset, and they also know from some of the town hall meetings and tea parties that Republicans are no safer than Democrats these days.”

• Axis of Right discusses how “the GOP in Florida is shooting themselves in the foot. The RLC has been instrumental in grassroots organization and helping the Republicans achieve majority status in Florida over the last 20 years.”

• Mentions were also given at RonPaulForums, FreeRepublic, and Daily Paul.

Press Release

• The RLC issued a press release [pdf version] on this issue.

Yesterday the Republican Liberty Caucus issued a press release (pdf) and encouraged its members to contact media outlets to alert them of the outrageous behavior of the Republican Party of Florida and its Chairman Jim Greer towards RLC members and other Republicans who have been the target of a Stalinesque party purge.

These pages have already detailed this story and more news will follow.

RLC members like Will Pitts and John Stevens were punished by the Florida Party did nothing but express personal opinions which were not popular with a leadership which has no tolerance for dissent or speech which doesn’t match their version of political correctness.

The GOP has often been a “Big Tent” with room for diversity of opinion and a respect for the right of free expression, but in Florida under Greer the rules are more like those of the Democrats or the Soviet Communists who believed that slavish subservience to the party was more important than individual rights or diversity of thougth.

Grassroots Republican activists are being punished for their idealism and honest disagreement with the policies which have taken the Republican Party away from its principles of limited government and individual liberty in recent years — selling its soul to special interests, only buying a reduced status as a minority party in both houses of Congress and party registration.

Party leaders ought to be looking to the Republican Liberty Caucus for a new generation of leadership instead of singling them out for punishment for stating truths which are painstakingly obvious.

The Republican Liberty Caucus and our chapters and allies around the nation will continue to press this issue until the national party wakes up and cleans house in Florida.

We will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. We are in earnest, we will not equivocate, we will not excuse, we will not retreat a single inch, and we will be heard.

To view a PDF of the official letter sent to John Stevens from the RPOF, click here.

To view a PDF of the RLC press release on this issue click here.

Below are some sample letters to the editor that the RLC is encouraging you to send to local newspapers.  A list of Florida media is available HERE.

NORTHERN FLORIDA:

Republican ‘Party Purge’ Strips Local Residents of Earned Positions

To the Editor:

Nevermind that the Republican Party in Florida continues to prop up Charlie Crist at all costs and that Crist himself has spent the majority of his time as Governor running for the U.S. Senate instead of fixing our state’s problems.

Republicans in our state (and I am one) also have to contend with Jim Greer, the Chairman of the Republican Party, and his dirty tricks and single-mindedness.

For example, last week Greer wrote a letter to two Jacksonville area residents — Will Pitts and John Stevens — to officially ban them from participating in the Republican Party.

Pitts and Stevens aren’t just Republican voters; to the contrary, they are very active in the Republican Party and lead the local (Stevens) and state (Pitts) affiliates of the Republican Liberty Caucus, a 527 political organization that works to defend the U.S. Constitution, including limited government and individual liberties (http://www.rlc.org).

Mr. Pitts and Mr. Stevens did nothing substantive to warrant ill treatment from the Republican Party.  However Stevens was stripped of his Precinct Committee seat — which he gained via election by the Republican voters — until 2013 and Pitts can hold no position in the Republican Party of Florida for at least two years.

The rationale given by Boss Greer, Republican Party of Florida Chairman, and the RPOF Grievance Committee, is that Pitts and Stevens were critical of George W. Bush, John McCain, Charlie Crist, and Greer himself.  So Greer stripped Stevens of his position and banned Pitts from party participation.

Since when did being a Republican require monotone policy and strategy agreements?  The Ron Paul Presidential campaign proved that there is room for dissent in the Republican Party.

Greer’s decision is a slap in the face to grassroots Republican Party activists and voters.  If you disagree with Jim Greer’s decision, please contact the Republican Party of Florida at (850) 222-7920 and voice your dissent.

Sincerely,
[Full Name]
[Full Address]
[Daytime Phone]
[Email Address]

CENTRAL/SOUTHERN FLORIDA:

Republican ‘Party Purge’ Strips Local Residents of Earned Positions

To the Editor:

Nevermind that the Republican Party in Florida continues to prop up Charlie Crist at all costs and that Crist himself has spent the majority of his time as Governor running for the U.S. Senate instead of fixing our state’s problems.

Republicans in our state (and I am one) also have to contend with Jim Greer, the Chairman of the Republican Party, and his dirty tricks and single-mindedness.

For example, last week Greer wrote a letter to two Orlando area residents — Doug Guetzloe and Nick Egoroff – to officially ban them from participating in the Republican Party.

Guetzloe and Egoroff aren’t just Republican voters; to the contrary, they are very active in the Republican Party and serve as elected members of the Orange County Republican Executive Committee.  Both men are also involved in the Republican Liberty Caucus, a 527 political organization that works to defend the U.S. Constitution, including limited government and individual liberties (http://www.rlc.org).

Mr. Guetzloe and Mr. Egoroff are longtime Republican Party activists who did nothing substantive to warrant ill treatment from the Republican Party.  However, both were stripped of their committee seats — which were gained via election by the Republican voters — until at least 2013.

The rationale given by Boss Greer, Republican Party of Florida Chairman, and the RPOF Grievance Committee, is that the men were critical of George W. Bush, John McCain, Charlie Crist, and Greer himself.  So Greer banned them from participating in the party despite that these men were respected enough by fellow Republicans to earn positions in Orange County.

Since when did being a Republican require monotone policy and strategy agreements?  The Ron Paul Presidential campaign proved that there is room for dissent in the Republican Party.

Greer’s decision is a slap in the face to grassroots Republican Party activists and voters.  If you disagree with Jim Greer’s decision, please contact the Republican Party of Florida at (850) 222-7920 and voice your dissent.

Sincerely,
[Full Name]
[Full Address]
[Daytime Phone]
[Email Address]

Party Boss Jim Greer (photo below) has waged war on grassroots Republican activists in Florida!

On Friday, the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) Grievance Committee (full list of members below) notified Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida Chair Will G. Pitts and at least four other RLC members that they have been removed from positions within the RPOF and prohibited from serving in any capacity for a period of at least two years.  Mr. Pitts also put on probation by the RPOF until 2012.

Several other Republican Party activists have also been purged, including former State Representative and Brevard County Chairman Jason Steele and former Chair of the Federation of Black Republicans and Orange County Committeeman Deon Long.

In the case of RLC Chairman Will Pitts, he criticized Jim Greer, Charlie Christ, George W. Bush and John McCain as is also Chair of the Republican Liberty Caucus — an organization that believes in the rights of individuals, a constitutionally-limited government, and free-market economics.

History and Background Information:

• List of press hits after the purge | 9/9/2009
• Complaint Against Will Pitts Filed by St. Johns County GOP
• RLC members Egoroff and Guetzloe Under Attack from RPOF;
• Greer Strips Orange County GOP Committeeman Deon Long of Post

The initial article, “Complaint Against Will Pitts Filed …”, explains the Republican Party of Florida’s objections to Mr. Pitts’ activism.

In addition to RLC member Will Pitts being reprimanded, lifelong Republican and RLC activist Nick Egoroff of Orlando has been expelled for four years. Additionally, Northeast Florida RLC Chairman John Stevens — himself a Republican Committeeman for his precinct — is ineligible to serve in any RPOF position until August 31, 2013.

According to Stevens, “In effect, I [will not be eligible to] serve again until 2016 since the election for the next four year term will be in 2012.”  Florida RLC Board member and Escambria County Committeewoman Elizabeth Campbell was expelled for six months and stripped of her position.

Doug Guetzloe, who has served on the Orange County Republican Executive Committee since 1980, was stripped of his position until at least 2013.

Says John Stevens, “WOW! All the work we have done for the party … and this is how we are treated by the RPOF.”

In response to the news, Orlando Area RLC Organizer Nick Egoroff intends to file a lawsuit against Jim Greer and RPOF. Please contact us if you would like to join in the suit.

The Florida GOP has systematically attacked the Republican Liberty Caucus since summer of 2008, when Jim Greer’s staff notified the RLC that it could no longer use the word “Republican” in “Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida”. They threatened a lawsuit against the RLC.

The RLC has used this title for nearly two decades in the state of Florida and obtained proper permission in writing long before Jim Greer or Charlie Christ came to rule the GOP in Florida.

On a personal note, I have followed the way Republican Liberty Caucus members and supporters have been treated in Florida both prior to and after Boss Jim Greer assumed Chairmanship.

There is no Republican Party leadership in the country that has acted as inappropriately toward grassroots activists as the RPOF under Mr. Greer.

Thankfully, (I believe) Mr. Greer’s time in any significant leadership position will be short.

Lord Acton was right: “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

This party purge is just the latest example of the significant impact that the Republican Liberty Caucus is having on local-level politics all across the country.

The first rule of politics is that you make the most enemies when you are successful.  These RLC members are extremely successful — so much so that Boss Greer decided to shut them up.

Take Action!

But the fight has only just begun.

Please contact “Chairman”-bossman Jim Greer, Florida GOP Media Director Katie Gordon, RPOF Grievance Committee members Jim Greer, Delmar W. Johnson (Executive Director), Tony Dimatteo (Chair), Doug Adkins, Linda Ivell, Deno Hicks, Richard Solze, Cynthia Henderson, Nancy Riley, and Jason Brodeur as well as RPOF Committeepersons Becky Reichenberg, Jon Woodard, and Bob Veit.  The latter three — members of the St. Johns County GOP — are responsible for the complaint against RLC Chairman Will Pitts.

Better yet, give them a ring on the phone:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RPOF: (850) 222-7920
Delmar W. Johnson, III, RPOF Executive Director: (850) 681-2063 or (850) 222-7920
[Note: Mr. Johnson voted to have our members booted from the party!]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tony DiMatteo, Chair of Committee: (727) -398-5850
Doug Adkins: (904) 261-2213 or (904) 277-8566
Linda Ivell: (863) 602-9866 or (863) 802-5262
Deno Hicks: (904) 819-9170 or (904) 739-2115
Richard Solze: (904) 964-5803
Cynthia Henderson: (850) 210-5385 or (850) 422-1011
Nancy Riley: (727) 573-5222 or (727) 822-9111, ext.163
Jason Brodeur: (407) 963-9576
[Note: All of the above folks voted to have our members booted from the party!]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Becky Reichenberg: (904) 287-0752
Jon Woodard: (904) 797-5790
Bob Veit: (904) 794-1602
[Note: These three bullies filed the initial complaint against Will Pitts!]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

RLC members, please let these “leaders” know what you think about their decision to expel grassroots Ron Paul supporters — each elected to their positions by Republican Party members — from participating in the Republican Party.

Additionally, please contact RNC Chairman Michael Steele [eMail] at (850) 222-7920 and Florida National Committeepersons Sharon Day [eMail] and Paul Senft, Jr [eMail].

It is likely that Steele, Day, and Senft are unaware of the ‘purge’.  Please be polite and kindly inform them of the situation.  Then ask for their intervention in this matter.

Also, please write letters to the editor on this issue. Sample letters and a media list are available at this website.  Also, here is a link to six ways you can TAKE ACTION in response to this purge.

Finally, please donate to the Republican Liberty Caucus today so we can effectively fight these charges against our cherished members and supporters.