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What is left of Ross Perot's Reform Party held a fragmentary nominating convention at Long Beach, California from August 10 to 13th, which reminded me more of an episode of the old television series, Fractured Flickers. Sporadic coverage was available at FOX ( FNC cable channel ), but the only semi-continuous coverage was over at ( DN )C-Span, which was mundanely adequate, as opposed to the derogatory job they did on the GOP convention.
Breaking up like a kamikaze in the sights of a 40mm bofors gun on it's final dive, the so-called Reform Party lefties cried sour grapes all the way to an alternate conference room to declare their own pre-ordained candiate, John Hagelin as alternate Reform Party candidate for the presidency, instead of casting their votes at the real general assembly. A well known name, Nat Goldhaber, was given the title of alternate Reform Party candidate for vice president? I was saddened to see these Democrats in Reform Party clothing try to ruin and destroy the fledgeling third party while it is still in the first phases of it's existance.
Enough about the party poopers.
Gerald Moan ( groan? ), acting chairman of the Reform Party, mugged, " Is everybody happy ". This worn out, crude attempt at humor would set the pace for a convention which showcased the lack of organization or professionalism by this poor excuse for a third party. There were some bright spots, but mostly there were only dim bulbs:
Gatewood Galbraith, Reform Party candidate for the United States House of Representitives in Kentucky was a real equal opportunity liar, criticizing both Democrat and Republican parties alike with some questionable remarks, containing much emotion and little truth. For instance, he insisted, " The Republicans, in 1994, abandoned their pledge for less government and no new taxes ". If my memory isn't failing me, the GOP has been fighting tooth and nail to resist Democrat measures in these areas specifically? Didn't VPOTUS Al Gore cast the deciding vote in a deadlocked Senate vote in 1993 for the largest tax increase in history, spawning the GOP gains in 1994 under the Contract With America?
Jo Streit, a young female so-called film maker, offered up a documentary film, featuring extended credits. She addressed the crowd, with, " The Constitution guarantees a free press, not a fair press ". I think she is a better speech maker than film maker. Echoing something we talked about years ago ( News, news, news...( 7-2-98 ) ) she offered, " The news...so much commentary...someone's opinion ". Trying to pump up the audience further, she opined, " A vote for a third party candidate is a wasted vote; that is just somebody's opinion ". I think it is wasted. Or maybe they are all wasted? She eventually sunk down to attacking the two major parties with, " They vote against who they hate the most ". I have done that before, I just don't like someone hawking an non-candidate candidate, telling me so! She did cough up one actual fact, and all good Republicans should think long and hard about it ( and just why the current inhabitant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has been living there for eight years instead of only four ), " We had more non-voters than voters in '96 "!
Pat Buchanan, Reform Party candidate for the presidency in 2000, who I actually voted for in a primary once, picked Ezola Foster, a negro teacher who with her husband Chuck, grew up and was educated in the South Central Los Angeles city of WATTS ( a rough neighborhood, folks ). Buchanan declared, " She will go out and explain to people why we do not need a department of education ". Gutsy pick by someone who the liberal talking heads like to paint as a racist!
Ezola Foster began, " Being poor only means your pockets are empty, not your brain ". She seemed to indict the morally bankrupt forces of the left, who will do or say anything for their so-called causes, with, " My husband was called a white supremicist for standing up for Proposition 187 ( this measure banning taxpayer funded services from illegal aliens was passed by the voters of California and overturned by one liberal federal judge ). Foster began to hit her stride with a rhetorical question, asking, " We have welcomed more immigrants legally than all other countries combined; how much more compassionate can we be "?
The role call nomination vote finally went off on Friday without the defecting sour grapes criers in the so-called alternate party, contrary to them portraying being locked out, they were not. During the role call, the New Mexico chairperson described her state as home of the " Los Alamos nuclear secret clearinghouse ". Yeah baby, you go girl!
Buchanan made a short appearance, preaching, " You wrote us off months ago, you don't know this peasant army... We ride out of here tomorrow to take America back ".
William Grutzmacher, Reform Party candidate for United States Senator from Nevada spoke on Saturday and was a heavy hitter. Toward the beginning he started, " They have us; they just don't know what to do while there are 200 million guns in the hands of the public ". He then told them to, " Go back to their socialist drawing board ". Oh man, this is strong stuff, though hitting the nail firmly on the head, he orated, " The Founding Fathers never meant that a foreigner passing through JFK ( airport ) who has a baby in the washroom has a meal ticket to the United States welfare system ". Whoa, he finished with, " Playboy is in the library, but the Ten Commandments are banned "!
Pat Choate, 1996 Reform Party candidate for vice President, took credit for the " budget surplus " for his party and suggested that more work was needed for campaign finance reform.
Pat Buchanan fianlly spoke on Saturday, promising, " I will bring the troops home from Kosovo, Kuwait and Korea and put them on the borders of Texas, Arizona and California ". He reinterated Ezola Foster with, " Proposition 187 won by a landslide and was turned over by a single federal judge ". He continued to attack the bloated centrist federal beaucracy with, " We believe the Department of Education is the problem ". He closed with a call to, " Drive out the money changer from the temples of our society ".
I believe this third party rhetoric is all much ado about nothing, except airing rightful frustrations publically; though watching the biased way the media covers these political events leaves there no measurable amount of doubt as to just how far to the extreme left the media as a whole truely is!
- Bongo ( Pass the Prozac? )
Updated ( 8-13-2000 )
(c)2000 Bongo.