Texas Delegates To RNC Thanked For Pro-Business Climate, Told God Selected McCain, Palin

Empty Texas Delegation Seats

Every four years, when Texas Republicans pack their bags and head off to a GOP national convention, you can count on lots of interesting tidbits getting picked up by the media.

This week, the Texas Observer picked up on a couple of interesting tidbits.

The first, to no one’s surprise, relates to the religion. It seems as though whatever pastor (or, in the alternative, whatever lay Republican led Wednesday’s prayer) believes the Republican Party is a monarchy ruled by God. Why? Because that’s who the guy said selected the party’s nominees.

No, we’re not kidding. Via the Texas Observer blog:

There was some serious business worship at the Texas delegation breakfast this morning.

First came the worship. The opening prayer thanked God for the party’s nominees, John McCain and Sarah Palin, “whom you selected to be our next leaders.”

Wow. I’m sure it’s a relief to Tina Benkiser and the rest of the GOP crowd that they can just go home and sit this election cycle out. After all, if God picked your nominees, it’s not like you really have to worry about anything as pesky as an election. Of course, this begs the question of why God took so long to make up his mind between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. We know it wasn’t because he was vetting Sarah Palin.

After thanking God for sending them Sarah Palin and John McCain, the Republicans let the moneychangers takeover the temple and heard from–yes, you guessed it!–a lobbyist:

Matt Schlapp, the lobbyist who addressed the Texas Delegation Wednesday morning at the Republican National Convention, participated in the Brooks Brother's Riot during the 2004 Florida Recount. He's number 6 in the photo above.

Then they got down with business. After Anita Perry talked about Hurricane Gustav relief efforts (what would people have been talking about if not Gustav these last few days?), the delegation heard from reps from two major corporations — BNSF Railway and the energy company, Koch Industries.

Matt Schlapp, of Koch, openly thanked the delegation for helping to create a friendly business environment in Texas. Schlapp is a former Bush White House aide who joined Koch’s Washington office as a lobbyist in 2005. (Schlapp also served as a Bush campaign aide in 2000 and took part in the infamous “Brooks Brothers” riot during the Florida recount.)

How much more could Texas Republicans do to inspire the faith of voters? After all, they’ve already brought out a seasoned, battlescarred hero of the Brooks Brothers Riot.

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Technorati Tags 2008 Republican National Convention, Anita Perry, BNSF Railway, Brooks Brothers Riot, Hurricane Gustav, John McCain, Koch, Matt Schlapp, Republican Party of Texas, Sarah Palin, Texas Delegation, Tina Benkiser

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