I refuse to support, promote, or in any way grant any shred of moral approval to the Neal Tapio campaign.
That said, Neal Tapio’s paid campaign staffer Shad Olson claims that South Dakota’s Republican Party chairman, Dan Lederman, has disinvited Tapio from the Union County Lincoln Day Dinner at the Dakota Dunes Country Club on May 14.
Funny: the logo on the SDGOP events page still shows Tapio along with fellow GOP House candidates Dusty Johnson and Shantel Krebs:
Olson claims Lederman has kicked Tapio off the dinner menu because of Olson’s recyclage (Shad inspires abstruse vocabularification) of the Hubbel/Nelson huff-and-puff that Lederman is really an Iowan:
Mr. Lederman has demanded that either Neal or myself apologize for comments that I made a few months ago about Mr. Lederman’s tenure as GOP chair in South Dakota and my referencing of his reported political history as an apparent registered Democrat in the state of Iowa and my assertion that his previous party affiliation might explain much regarding his very mainstream, very carefully parsed bill of lading as GOP chair. And for that critique, my friend and a duly sworn candidate to be your next Congressman is suppressed, punished and shunned from an event where he was a paid ticket holder and an official candidate on the itinerary [Shad Olson, Facebook post, 2018.05.03].
Last winter Tapio was dissing Lincoln Day dinner crowds as unreflective of the views of the majority of GOP primary voters. Now his mouthpiece is complaining that Tapio can’t get in to a country club to talk to those hundred-buck-a-plate establishment elitists. Sure. Great. Carry on.
As I said in December, it’s queer that Tapio, the noisiest Trumpist on South Dakota’s primary ballot, would open fire on Lederman, who used his Trumpiness last February to rally Trump supporters and unseat establishment favorite Pam Roberts as the South Dakota Republican Party chair. If Tapio really has been booted from the Union County dais, I’ll take it as another sign that Trumpists are united not by any policy or governing philosophy, but only by crass opportunism, the recognition that they can use fear, hatred, and other ugly impulses to get power and do whatever they want.
This is one of those things that you just observe with a bemused look and see what happens.
This is one of those issues that reminds us that political parties are NOT government institutions but instead private clubs. As such they can operate by most any mean-girl rules they want to follow.
Shad Olsen sent me a Facebook message this afternoon that said Tapio is back on the agenda for the Union County Fundraiser.
You can’t boot somebody who bought a ticket. Besides, as long as they can keep Mr. Tapio from talking on and on and on, if they let him talk he is apt to put his own boot in his mouth.
Was he ever really off, Roger? Or was Shad just fishing for some attention for his third-place candidate?
Cory, I suspect you’re right and it appears he is still fishing for attention.
Here’s the full Facebook message:
“Public pressure works wonders, Roger. And it did. Neal is back on the itinerary. Hopefully Cory’s reporting on this matter will be as thorough and attentive as his very fine work on EB-5.”
-Shad Olsen
Pull out all your investigative skills, Cory, and get to the bottom of this matter.
Do you know what scares Republicans? The smart ones, I mean? Overturning Roe v Wade. The only difference between a SoDak Evangelical Republican or SoDak Catholic Republican or any SoDak Republican and a SoDak fiscal Democrat is Roe.
~ If Roe’s overturned, by a Supreme Court that’s entrenched with young Republican Justices and can’t be reinstated for decades no matter who wants what, then the Republican advantage in small states like South Dakota disappears.
~ After all, Republicans are actually the big spenders. Republicans love to grow the government. Republicans aren’t at all what they claim to be. Their only real advantage is the highly intelligent and decent religious right.
~ When Democrats don’t even have to address abortion any farther than to say, “I believe in the Constitution and I believe in the rule of law no matter what.” then the playing field is leveled and the brilliance, honesty and organizational skills of Democrats in South Dakota will be unstoppable.
~ That’s why forward thinking Republicans, haven’t and won’t overturn Roe v Wade, even though Iowa’s new fetal heartbeat law is certainly headed to SCOTUS.
Porter,
The South Carolina legislature had a similar “heartbeat abortion bill” as Iowa and the Democrats filibustered it and killed it.
During Obama’s first campaign, Democrats ran on healthcare reform and two years in we had healthcare reform.
Republicans for Trump ran on repealing Roe v Wade and two years in … nothing. I don’t think the Republicans can be believed.
The smart ones know it would be the demise of the small state majority and want nothing to do with repealing Roe v Wade, until the next election where they can lie to the religious right, again.
Roger, Shad and Neal need to get over themselves. Where Dan Lederman lets people sit at the Union County GOP dinner is far less important than EB-5 was. Shad and Neal should be as thorough and attentive in critiquing the real corruption in South Dakota perpetrated by the members of their own party taking money from Chinese immigrant investors as they are in whipping up hysteria over their false fears of non-existent threats from working immigrants.