Super Pachyderm: Tampa has been called the strip club capital of America but not even this city can handle the influx of delegates looking for a lap dance. They are busing in strippers from out-of-state to handle the crush, including a Sarah Palin look-alike. I just hope Newt Gingrich keeps his clothes on!
All eyes were on
Ms. Cruz of
The Romney campaign selected her to make the motion, said Robert Gleason, Pennsylvania Republican chairman.
"She's been active with Hispanic organizations and she is Hispanic herself," he said.
Ms. Cruz is an attorney at Kerns Pearlstine Onoratto & Hladik and is a Delaware River Port Authority commissioner.
TAMPA -- The Republican National Convention had already been buffeted by the winds of Isaac. Then, when its business session finally got underway a day late, it was rocked by waves of loud, angry protest from supporters of Rep. Ron Paul and their allies.
The targets of their ire were the pre-convention decisions of the Rules and Credentials committees which stripped the Paul forces of delegates in Maine, and buttressed the party establishment against insurgent challenges in the future.
Resolving a longstanding dispute over procedures in the Maine caucuses, the Credentials Committee last week decided to split the Maine delegation between allies of Mitt Romney and those of Mr. Paul. The effect was to deprive Mr. Paul of the majority that would have given him control of the Maine delegation.
A variety of rules changes also angered the Paul adherents who had artfully exploited party rules in Iowa, Nevada and Minnesota to gain control of those delegations even though the Texas libertarian had not finished first in any of those contests. Under revised rules approved last Friday, such states will have to change their procedures to ensure that their delegations to future conventions reflect the vote totals of their nomination contests.
Another change, perhaps the most controversial in the package, would empower the Republican National Committee to change party rules at any time, as opposed to the having to wait for the next national convention.
The rules changers were perceived as strengthening the hands of the party establishment in general and Mitt Romney in particular. Should Mr. Romney win in November, they would also help shield him from an intra-party challenges in 2016.
Before the roll cal of the states that would formally nominate Mr. Romney, Republican officials muscled through those changes over the loud and angry objections of the Paul forces. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, presented the credentials report and supervised its adoption in a voice vote, while dissenters chanted, "Seat them now; seat them now.''
House Speaker John Boehner, the honorary chair of the convention, then called for a voice vote on the rules package. To the layman's ear, the volume of "nays'' was indistinguishable from the volume of the shouted "ayes.'' But the practiced parliamentarian's experienced ears had no trouble as he immediately declared the rules approval, prompting a cascade of "boos across the floor.
On one level, the disputes were inside baseball, affecting issues irrelevant to the vast majority of voters. And there is no doubt that the rules and credentials reports would have been overwhelmingly approved had they been put to a roll call of the delegates. But the noisy wrangling was a reminder of the challenge the Romney campaign has faced in maintaining the allegiance of the intensely loyal Paul forces, who, like their candidate, hold views well outside the mainstream of the GOP.
Our story Sunday on the battles that could be looming over provisional ballots and Pennsylvania's new voter ID law mentioned concerns among Republicans that poll workers may not enforce the new requirements on Election Day. (Opponents of the law said on the other hand they were worried workers would be intimidated.)
A nice overview by NBC News today of Pennsylvania's questionable swing state status has a notable quote along those lines from state GOP chair Rob Gleason. He says the party is recruiting hundreds of election inspectors to watch precincts in Democratic-heavy Philadelphia to make sure poll workers follow the rules.
From the story by Tom Curry:
But [Gleason] said Philadelphia is "where we get crushed. We lost it by 478,000 votes in 2008....Our biggest problem was that there are 1,999 precincts" in Philadelphia "and in 1,000 of them we didn't have a Republican on the election board. You're allowed to have a minimum of two Republicans on the (five-member) board. We didn't have any.... I hope that by Election Day we'll only have 600 uncovered."
The importance of having Republicans on local elections boards is that now with state law requiring photo ID for voters, "they'll make sure everybody shows a photo ID."
Every Pennsylvania polling place has five workers: a judge of elections in charge of overall supervision, majority and minority inspectors, and majority and minority inspection clerks.
TAMPA -- Keith Rothfus got his moment in the Tampa sun Tuesday, as he joined a select handful of GOP congressional hopefuls the first round of speakers at the Republican National Convention.
Mr. Rothfus is challenging Rep. Marc Critz, D-Johnstown. He ran strong race in 2010, falling just short of ousting another Democrat, Rep. Jason Altmire, in the district that was merged with the Critz seat after the 2011 redistricting.
In his brief remarks, Mr. Rothfus invoked his history as a cancer survivor as he denounced the Affordable Health Care Act -- Obamacare, in the GOP coined term that Democrats have come to embrace -- and tied it to an attack on Mr. Critz. The Democratic incumbent has said that he would have voted agains the controversial measure, which passed before he took office. But Mr. Rothfus assailed him for a series of more recent votes that upheld portions of the law.
"Having developed and survived a very rare form of cancer that kills 75 percent of its victims within five years, I know all too well the importance of a health care system that empowers the doctor-patient relationship and respects the decisions of the family,'' he said. "There is no greater threat to the health care of our nation and the health care of our seniors than Obamacare. No matter what path we take to save Medicare, the very first step is to repeal Obamacare.
The Critz campaign was delighted when Mitt Romney chose Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate, in anticipation of being able to exploit Mr. Ryan's plan to substitute a premium support system, for Americans under 55, for the current structure of Medicare.
But Mr. Rothfus, like other GOP candidates, is not distancing himself from the top of the ticket. In a recent appearance in the district, however, he was hesitant to endorse all of the specifics of the Ryan proposal for future Medicare recipients.
"My district, Pennsylvania-12, has one of the largest Medicare populations in the entire country,'' Mr. Rothfus said. "My opponent, Congressman Critz, voted over 20 times to support Obamacare, including voting against repeal of the Independent Payment Advisory Board, which empowers not doctors and patients, but bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.''
His remarks got an enthusiastic reception from the convention floor, particularly from the Pennsylvania delegation, seated just to the speaker's left.
"Keith Rothfus did a phenomenal job," Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley said. "No one tells the Medicare story better than Keith Rothfus. He knows he likely wouldn't be alive if not for the healthcare system we have."
Delegate Lawrence Tabas, a Philadelphia attorney who serves as general counsel to the Republican State Committee, agreed.
"He hit the key issues," he said, noting that Pennsylvania has more seniors than any state but Florida. "Our senior citizens will be hit hard by Obamacare."
State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Cranberry, said Mr. Rothfus's message will resonate with his district and that his invitation to speak reinforces his position as a strong contender for a congressional race the national party expects to win.
The Critz campaign was quick to push out a statement assailing the Republican's remarks.
"Today's speech is further proof that keith Rothfus wants to end Medicare as we know it by turning Medicare into a voucher program that will cost seniors an additional $6,4000 a year,'' said Mike Mikus, of the Critz campaign.
UPDATE 5PM: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said Mr. Rothfus stumbled over the last line of his speech. The P-G regrets the error.
Following is the full text of Mr. Rothfus remarks as prepared for delivery: