For the second time in the row, Florida politicians decided to ignore the rules of the Republican National Committee and moved ahead with their plan for an early primary. Like 2008, this means that Florida Republicans will lose half of their delegates at the national convention, but this time around they face even more draconian punishments: the delegates that do get to attend could be relegated to crappy hotel rooms and the loss of their VIP passes. This, even though the Republican National Convention is being held in Florida. Oh, dear Lord, the indignity! The horror! The shame! The injustice!
Yesterday, the RNC's rules committee passed a resolution condemning Florida delegates to "reduced priority" for hotel rooms and seating. For security reasons, all delegates must stay in hotel rooms, but Florida's delegates could now face the horrid fate of possibly being put in hotel rooms far from the convention center. If that wasn't bad enough, they could also lose their VIP passes.
While the ruling hasn't been finalized, some delegates are already crying foul. Especially those who disagreed with elected officials' decision to move up Florida's primary.
"We're screwed," Pinellas County Republican state committeeman Tony DiMatteo tells Naked Politics . "We're going to have lousy floor space and lose a little prestige. And for what?"
Screwed, really?
Being a working man out of a job because rich bankers, businessmen, and politicians decided to pursue policies and tactics that spun our economy into recession seems like being screwed. Being a single mother who has to pee in a cup to receive welfare benefits for her kids seems like being screwed. Losing breaks on payroll taxes while the richest people in America still get hefty tax breaks seems like being screwed.
Not getting a good hotel room or a VIP for a glorified week-long party in which a bunch of Republicans sit around and tell each other how awesome they are, well, that seems like a mild inconvenience in the scheme of things really.
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