Ron Paul looks for speaking slot at GOP convention

I blogged about this eventuality way back in early February. Now it looks like Paul is pushing for a slot.

From the second link:

And he’ll probably get one. But here’s betting it won’t be in prime-time, early prime, or even afternoon drive…

The GOP convention …

… in September should be a more interesting affair than I realized. There’ll be plenty of sideshow at this circus.

From the link:

And then, on Sept. 1, comes the virtually all-white G.O.P. vaudeville in Minneapolis-St. Paul. You’ll be pleased to know the show will go on despite the fact that the convention manager, chosen by the McCain campaign, had to resign last weekend after being exposed as the chief executive of a lobbying and consulting firm hired by the military junta in Myanmar.

The conventioneers will arrive via the airport whose men’s room was immortalized by a Republican senator still serving the good people of Idaho. This will be a most picturesque backdrop to the party’s eternal platform battles over family values, from same-sex marriage to abortion.

For good measure, antiwar demonstrators from within the G.O.P. — Ron Paul devotees — could provide at least a smidgen of the 1968-style disruptions the Democrats may avoid. In April, the Nevada Republican state convention abruptly adjourned in midsession after the Paul forces won rule changes. The Los Angeles Times reported last week that other Paul cadres, operating below the national press’s radar, have also been fighting guerrilla battles “at county and state conventions from Washington and Missouri to Maine and Mississippi.”

McCain scandal update — brokered GOP convention scenario

Here’s a Daily Dish post on David Brook’s coverage  of John McCain’s little, er, issue:

Brooks Covers the McCain Beat

22 Feb 2008 03:29 pm

by Reihan

Little-known fact: David Brooks began his career in journalism at Chicago’s City News Bureau, where he pounded the pavement on the crime beat. In today’s column, he unravels the rivalries and wounded egos that threaten to bring down the McCain campaign shoe-leather-style. And he also notes McCain’s Hart-like vulnerability.

At his press conference Thursday, McCain went all-in. He didn’t just say he didn’t remember a meeting about Iseman. He said there was no meeting. If it turns out that there is evidence of an affair and a meeting, then his presidential hopes will be over.If no evidence surfaces, his campaign will go on and it will be clear that there were members of his old inner circle consumed by viciousness and mendaciousness.

Remember when Gary Hart dared the press to find evidence of his, ahem, “Monkey Business”? Well, they did. The bluster and bravado that I like and admire in McCain, and that my lefty friends can’t stand, might indeed be the end of him.

Brooks’s column reminded me, oddly enough, of Sam Anderson’s brilliant investigative feature on The Splasher. It’s awesome.

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So if there is fire behind an admittedly pretty feeble smoke trail, would the derailing of the Straight Talk Express lead to a brokered GOP convention? Seems that would allow Saint Fred or Saint Mitt — hell, maybe even Saint Newt — step to the podium and “save” conservatism as is remains today.