Central Texas Groundswell Learns How To "Get Sent"

"We don't work with nobody didn't get sent." - South Chicago
Committeeman

By now, everyone has heard of that mythical moment when
President Barack Obama got his start in politics.

It's almost as famous in certain parts of Texas as Travis'
line in the sand at the Alamo.

The story goes that after he had graduated from Harvard Law,
he went down to the District Committeeman's office on the
night that august person did business there "back of the
yards" in South Chicago.

Now, anyone who is anyone goes to see the committeeman to
get anything done in Chicago. There are ways of doing
things, and this is how you get anything done - from fixing
a pothole to getting Cousin Hughie appointed to the police
academy.

The cigar chomper at the front desk asked him what he
wanted. Fair enough.

Naturally, that's how things are done in Chicagoland.

It was then and there that Mr. Obama volunteered his
services.

Volunteer? To do what?

Whatever they needed done.

The functionary disappeared into the back office.

Soon, he returned with the question.

"Who sent you?"

Why, no one sent him. He just wanted to get involved.

The man made another trip into the inner office.

This time, when he returned, he said, "We don't work with
nobody didn't get sent."

Famous last words?

No way.

Some people here in Texas want to help end Obama's
career in just the same way.

They want to "Get Sent."

There is a groundswell movement afoot here in Texas that
will put the lie to that sentiment - at least, this time
around.

The mission - dump Obama and Company, take back the U.S.
House of Representatives and the Senate of the United States
of America in 2012.

The immediate goal: Raid the Republican Party of Texas
State Convention Senate District Executive Committee Caucus,
to be held sometime between 11 a.m. on June 11 and the final
gavel at the Dallas Convention Center on June 12.

The problem to be addressed: There is a certain District
Committeeman, Chris DeCluitt of Waco, who, along with his
esteemed colleague Joe B. Hinton, McLennan County Republican
Chairman, insists that voters should cast their ballots for
State Senator Kip Averitt, even though Mr. Averitt has
announced that he is not seeking re-election due to health
problems.

If nominated, he will not run; if elected, he will not serve
- or some part of that famous double dicho once iterated by
Lyndon Johnson in 1968.

And then?

If Kip Averitt is nominated and still refuses to run for the
office, even though Burleson venture capital and insurance
broker Darren Yancy has made a good showing in the primary
election, it changes everything.

The County Chairmen will have a hand in nominating their own
candidate to fill the slot in State Senatorial District 22.

Problem: This means the Democratic County Chairmen will be
able to do the same thing.

Basically, the dynamic will result in a change from an
unopposed election to a very important political post - a
virtual Republican shoo-in - into a hotly contested partisan
knife fight at the worst of times for everyone concerned.

It's a census year. This means redistricting, the time when
gerrymandering the U.S. House of Representatives Districts,
rears its ugly head in the state legislatures across the
nation.

Thus was the system engineered by the Founding Fathers, the
old boys who drafted the U.S. Constitution at Independence
Hall, Philadelphia, September 17, 1787.

On that day, a Philadelphia woman is said to have asked none
other that Benjamin Franklin, a delegate to the
Constitutional Convention, "What kind of nation have you
given us, sir?"

Franklin is said to have replied to her, "A republic,
Madame, if we can keep it."

Now comes a road show nonpareil, at least, in that
department.

Speaking to a crowd of more than 100 Republican Party
faithful at Clifton's Church of Christ last night, Janet
Jackson of GOP Is For Me.com, a training and development
specialist whose day job is that of a ranch real estate
agent, explained to the folks that there is a little thing
called the Primary Convention, which will be held a half
hour after the polls close on March 2.

All you have to do to attend is prove you voted. How? Your
name is on a list kept by the election judge, that's how.

Once there, you let the temporary chairman of the convention
convene the meeting, then you cast your name or someone
else's in nomination for delegate to the Republican County
Convention at the Courthouse, to be held on March 20.

Apparently, there is a power vacuum and it's creating a
distinct draft. Often, she told her audience, the election
judges have to serve as delegates to the Precinct
Convention, even though it's not their job.

That will never do.

Her goal: To see to it that delegates from all of Bosque
County's 16 precincts show up at that County Convention in
the District Courtroom on that Saturday morning. There, the
delegates to the June State Convention will be chosen and
this will affect the choice of State Senatorial District
Committeemen - and women - in the Caucus to be held then.

Republican Party rules call for a man and a woman from each
of the 31 State Senate Districts to be chosen as members of
the Republican Party State Executive Committee.

That's how you get sent.

Any questions, you could start by dropping Janet Jackson an
e-mail at janet@gopisforme.com

Her phone: 254-709-1187.

No doubt she will be glad to explain it to you. She has
"scripts" for the Precinct Conventions. Just how do you do
it once you're there?

She has telephone call lists of the numbers of registered
Republican voters known to have voted in the latest
Republican Primary, complete with "scripts" of how to handle
the call, and information on early voting - all supplied by
the Republican Party of Texas.

When last seen, she was packing her car with her laptop and
Power Point Presentation gear, Republican handbooks and
other literature, and headed for the Bryan-College Station
area to organize a similar groundswell movement in Brazos
County tonight.

It seems there are many Hispanic people there who would like
to be Republicans and "get sent." They want to form a
Hispanic Republican Club just like the local Bosque County
Republican Club or the Hispanic Republican Club of McLennan
County.

It's just one of 16 counties she and Duke Machado of GOP Is
For Me.com have targeted in their quest to "get sent."

So far, they have been to a number of other counties on
similar missions in the 16 county area contiguous to
District 17.

Proposed bumper sticker: A stylized profile of the GOP
elephant logo emblazoned on day-glo red background with
bold letters beside it - GET SENT!

jim@downdirtyword.com