Republican dirty tricks — it’s just how they roll

It’s Just How They Roll

by digby

This account from a former Republican candidate about the machinations by the establishment GOP to destroy his campaign is fascinating. It’s not like we didn’t know, but it’s always interesting to see it confirmed:

This is a tale of democracy, of meeting a lot of honest, hard working Americans and small business owners, and of funny experiences, but it’s also a tale of deceit, corruption, and buy offs. It’s also an admission of my own mistakes.

The Convention
Let’s fast forward to the weeks just before the Republican Party of Wisconsin convention, which was held May 22. I am still receiving hundreds of inquiries from business people all over the state wondering how the convention endorsed a candidate who had just announced less than a week before, and that is another reason I share this with you.

While I was busy shaking hands and greeting people around the state, Ron Johnson’s team was readying its bag of dirty tricks, starting with hiring away my direct-mail vendor, who told my manager: “Financially, I stand to make a lot more from Johnson.” (Here was my first mistake; not insisting that my manager follow through on my request to have my vendors sign non-compete contracts.)

The next dirty trick came in the form Johnson’s team trying to hire away my staff while at the convention with job offers that just might come with above-market compensation, backed by rumors that Johnson committed to spend $8 million of his own money.

Then there was the chaos during the balloting, which is critical to understanding this tale.

Read on.

This sounds like a very nice,conservative fellow who is laboring under the delusion that the Republican party is sincere. He apparently didn’t know about such recent historical luminaries as Richard Nixon, Lee Atwater, Karl Rove, Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed or Grover Norquist. It’s quite a gap in his education.(There are other gaps as well — he also thinks that he needs to save the United States from going the way of Russia.)

I’m sure the party establishment finds him to be adorably naive.

h/t to howie
.