I’ll have more reports in the coming days about the Constitution Party convention, and hopefully I’ll be able to relate to you some of the more interesting stories and happenings of the Convention. But here is a simple overview of how I felt about Howard Phillip’s speech.
It was foolish.
Was it factually correct? I’ll not speak to that, because i’ll likely have people squabbling about it in the comments section. This question avoids the more appropriate question—was it appropriate? At Convention, few people opposed Keyes more openly than myself (although Red Phillips certainly gave them a rough time). However, what Mr. Phillips did, rather than what he said, was an inappropriate use of his authority. Howard Phillips was given a Convention speaking slot and was, in this fashion, a recognized speaker of the party. He used this bully pullpit to rail against Alan Keyes in a way that made it appear as if the party as a whole endorsed these views. If Mr. Phillips wanted to make that speech then he should have made it at a seperate time.
But even more importantly than the manner and timing in which the speech was presented—it just wasn’t neccesary.
Keyes was soundly defeated before the covention ever got underway, and the speech neither increased nor decreased the size of his delegation. When I arrived at convention and attempted to assess the situation I advised some of my partners-in-crime (who shall remain nameless, until further notice) that by my calculations, Keyes had only about 120 votes. By the end of Roll-Call, Keyes had accumulated 125.7 votes. Baldwin soundly defeated Keyes by a 3-to-1 margin, and did so without the 12-hour delegate-conferences that Keyes was hosting. So here I am calling out Phillips: Next time—don’t go blowing up the bridges that our respective states have built, we can handle it.
And it was obvious that many people, including the most ardent opponents of Keyes, opposed this abuse of power.