Regular customers of the blog are familiar with the blog's Five-Minute Rule regarding the followers of Ron Paul. Devotees of Crazy Uncle Liberty (!) make sense for exactly five minutes. For precisely that space of time, you find yourself nodding along, and agreeing with what they say, and admiring their passion. And at precisely the 5:00:01 mark, they will say something that takes the entire conversation completely off the rails and into the universe populated only by Art Bell and the people who listened to him. This is political history as written by that guy in the pompadour who does the Ancient Aliens show on History 2.

Over at No More Mister Nice Blog, Steve M. has found a remarkable specimen in this guy, Frank Szabo. Szabo and I share the opinion that the Iraq War was unconstitutional because of how the congressional war powers have leached over into the Executive for the past 50 years. We do not, however, share the opinion that local sheriffs are the ultimate constitutional authority.

(I've known local sheriffs, liked a few, and voted for more than that. I am not prepared to hand over all governmental authority to guys who ran because the field for Register Of Probate looked too tough.)

That having been said, what the Republican National Committee is trying to do to the Paul delegates who got nominated in their state conventions because they knew the rules better than the people organizing the conventions knew them, and because obvious anagram Reince Priebus could screw up a two-car funeral, fairly reeks of unfairness. Things got really noisy in Maine over the weekend, and the RNC is trying to negotiate a Romney-friendly compromise to preserve the stated goal of both parties that absolutely nothing of note will happen at a national convention.

And is there a reason why Republicans won't let Ron Paul speak? They're letting his dim spalpeen have a slot on Monday, and Rand is a nut that did not fall far from the tree. The guy ran through the entire primary process. He clearly has a constituency within the party. Let him speak, and, all of you out there, start paying attention when he gets to five minutes. That's when the really good stuff starts.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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