From Ridiculous To Absurd

Greg Letiecq has jumped the shark. Brazenly. Absurdly. Here's his latest post:

Three Strikes Rule A Phantom

By Greg L | 7 May 2007 | PWCRC | 1 Comment

For as long as most can remember, there’s been a rule that if a member of the Prince William County Republican Committee missed three meetings in a row, your membership would lapse. I looked in the bylaws, and it’s not in there. I asked one of the committee’s officers, who believed it was in the state party plan, and it’s not there, either. RPV says that it’s up to the unit to have rules like this, although there is a rule similar to this which affects the state central committee. Somehow a strange meme made it’s way into the committee, and for years ended up improperly tossing members off the active rolls.

In the past six months we’ve “lapsed” about one hundred members, which has kinda put a cramp on Tom Kopko’s goal of increasing the size of the committee. Instead, without any basis in the bylaws or state party plan that anyone can find, we’ve been booting members out for missing meetings. This has been going on for as long as anyone can remember, and everyone I’ve asked about this is stunned that they can’t find this section in the bylaws.

Who knew that simply by adhering to the rules as they’re written, we’d be able to reverse the trend of a somewhat declining membership? I can’t believe that I was the first person to notice this. At least Tom Kopko can now say he’s done a lot better on achieving one of the goals he talked about when he ran for committee chairman.

Of course, the State Party Plan, Article VII, Section D provides that:

A member of an Official Committee other than an ex-officio member automatically loses his committee position if he is absent three (3) consecutive meetings without representation by a person holding a proxy; provided, however, that a State Central Committee member automatically loses and is deemed to have resigned his Committee position if he fails to attend in person at least fifty (50) percent of the regular meetings in any calendar year. A vacancy created by such resignation shall be filled in accordance with the State Party Plan.

An “Official Committee” is defined by Article II, Section 18, as "the State Central Committee, each District Committee, each Legislative District Committee, and each Unit Committee." Article II, Section 13, defines "Unit Committee" as "County Committee or City Committee."

Apparently, in Greg's zeal to attack the PWC County GOP Committee and Kopko, he just wasn’t looking very hard.

I wonder how long it will be before his post disappears? Or better yet, ends his ridiculous crusade against anyone supporting the political aspirations of the lawyer representing someone who is suing him?

UPDATE: Well, Greg gave himself a chance to impress me, and he did. He didn't pull the post, but simply added a correction. Here it is:

UPDATE: James Young and Valley Republican point out in the comments the proper section in the state party plan that covers this, and in fact there is a provision in the state party plan that does mandate the “three strike rule”. The county committee official that I spoke with told me they contacted RPV, who informed them that there was nothing in the state party plan, and I didn’t see this provision myself. My apologies for getting this wrong, and thanks to these two commenters for helping make sure this got corrected.

The applicable section in the party plan is Article VII, Section D.

The question raised by this is, who is the "county committee official" to whom Greg spoke? And how is it that he/she was so spectacularly wrong? Was Greg the victim of a "draw play"? Was this "county committee official" simply ignorant?

With all of the conspiracy theories that Greg and his commenters regularly float, one has to wonder about their response to this.