Anon referenced these two posts over at Delaware Politics in an earlier thread. It truly is popcorn worthy.
Let’s start with some snippets from Angel’s post:
For those of you who are unaware, Don recently announced he would be running for the Delaware GOP Chair seat against Tom Ross. Don simply sent out an email to his networks informing them of his decision to run (the letter was sent to a few thousand people by The Coastal Network and Judson Bennett). The simple announcement including a blog post link was sent out 1/9/11. The Coastal Network follow-up email was sent a short time later. The following email was sent by the newly appointed Parliamentarian Bruce Fitzgerald:
Don Et all
1. You all are outside of the rules
2. Don you have to take care of your bride & son How can you do this in a NON PAID JOB
3. How are you able to be a spoke person for ALL of Delaware ?
4. Why & under what premise do you think you have the POWER & WISDOM to as you said to UNITE when you & your crowd have tried to KILL SUSSEX ?????
So to sum up. go get a beer with VanceInterestingly enough, this letter was not addressed to Don Ayotte, but instead to the head of the GOP. Don apparently sent a response (which I was not privileged enough to receive) which included the statement that Bruce was “not qualified to use the restroom by himself”.
That’s the background. Needless to say, Vance Phillips didn’t like the beer comment and demanded an apology. Apparently, his plea fell on deaf ears. BTW, love the restroom line. Stay classy, Don. Here’s what happened next…
Throughout this whole discussion Don Ayotte was walking up and down the aisles, asking for time to speaking and loudly protesting that Bruce Fitzgerald had made it painfully obvious he could not be objective.
Wow! Is this sort of disruptive behavior what the GOP is looking for in a Chairman?
The crowd was yelling, playing musical chairs, and Ron was banging his gavel repeatedly. He called a few people out of order, and continued to ignore the motion. One woman stated loudly “In all of Sussex County, if you can’t get a better Parliamentarian than that then it insults all of us!” There were even thinly veiled threats regarding Ron Sams and his position as Chairperson.
Are these people in grade school? Also, what were the thinly veiled threats against Ron Sams? If I were him I’d look into security. Talk about a mob scene – a mob apparently being led by a man who was walking up and down the aisles, asking for time to speaking and loudly protesting that Bruce Fitzgerald had made it painfully obvious he could not be objective.
Not to be out-done by Angel, Don Ayotte weighed in. I’m including his post because I’m loving the overly emotional rhetoric of a drama queen. Indulge me.
As a Sussex County Committeeman, I attended Monday night’s GOP meeting that started in chaos and ended in chaos. Instead of parliamentary rule, a dictatorship emerged and seemingly established itself over the cries of dissension of the the body of republicans. People attempted to move resolutions to the floor and were disallowed and no reason given.
Ooh, a dictatorship! Keep the popcorn coming!
At 9:00pm someone raised a motion to adjourn without any business of substance taking place. A vote was taken and the nays took the vote. Ron Sams refused to conduct any business and shut off the lights. a person yelled, “we’ll meet in the parking lot.” The dictatorial manner that this meeting was conducted in, by Ron Sams was inexcusable and and out of line with the bylaws and any American tradition. He has shown disregard and loathing for the rank and file Republicans of which more than 250 were present.
Ron Sams shut off the lights? Priceless! And he’s dictatorial again with disregard and loathing – loathing! – for rank and file Republicans.
But that is not the point, what Ron Sams has done on Monday has split the Sussex County GOP and shattered any credibility that he had left. My Representative District Chairperson told me that I was being too passionate. I replied, “if not now, then I ask you, when?
Too passionate? Try too nuts. And Sussex is now split? Could someone make more popcorn? I’m out.
I’m telling you that the people of Delaware deserve better and we mean to see that they have it!!!
A nation can only be disgraced by the failure of its citizenry to take action in the face of tyranny.
Tyranny. Yet again, Republicans using over-the-top rhetoric. You’d think they’d learn that words have meaning. And as much as I joke about popcorn, what happened last night in Sussex is disturbing and… a predictable outcome given the last few years.