"There's been discussions about a conservative option," she said.  "We feel that a conservative would better represent a majority of the party."

This is where the phrase "loose lips sink ships" comes to mind.  If we're actually going to get Calley at convention, then it'd probably be useful if camera magnets would resist the temptation to shoot their mouths off into a live microphone and telegraph our intentions.  By the way, as I pointed out in the comment threads of both aforementioned news stories, let's keep in mind that this is the exact same Joan Fabiano who publicly endorsed Brian Calley for the running-mate nomination back in 2010 during the run-up to the "Gathering of Eagles" town hall on convention eve.  Merely mentioning that in another forum drew fire (screenshot on file):

Heine: I'm onboard Joanie, but I will point out that you publicly endorsed Brian Calley for the running-mate nomination back in 2010.

Fabiano: Publicly?  Care to cite that?  And I will point out that Calley used to be considered a conservative ... Three years can change a person, can't it Kevin

Heine: Shall I drag in every tea party leader who was present at the "Gathering of Eagles" just before the August 2010 state convention?  I'll be happy to do that.

Fabiano: "Gathering of Eagles?"  And what is your point Kevin in "publicly" pointing out that three years ago I may have thought a Rep who was considered a Conservative to be appropriate for Lt Gov?

Oh, other than that you're about three years behind the curve?  Nothing in particular.  But . . . "three years can change a person" . . . hmm; what about four years?  I seem to recall a certain "tea party leader" who insisted that the one bad vote on a certain challenger's record (which said challenger has publicly admitted was a mistake) was cause enough to completely disqualify him going forward.  And if I were really interested in getting another urinating competition going this weekend, I'd discuss at length the sheer irony of the argument in the context of "turnabout is fair play."  Instead, I'll point out the obvious.

• First, I'm not going to pretend that I understand what Joanie was thinking (or even that she was thinking) in broadcasting to the entire world that, "the tea party is talking about booting Lieutenant Governor Brian Calley from the GOP ticket next year."  But let me clearly state that Mrs. Fabiano does not speak for every tea party organization in Michigan.  At best, she speaks for the 1st Michigan Tea Party Alliance, and I'd have to verify that with Gene Clem.

• Second, with respect to the larger liberty-minded network in Michigan (which I defined a little over a month ago), the total membership of the tea party network (including, but not limited to, the 1st Michigan Alliance) comprises - at best - a mere forty percent of the entire liberty-minded network.  That's not to say that the tea party voice is unimportant, but let's keep things in perspective and mind the larger context.

Now, I'm not, by any stretch of the imagination, saying that kicking Calley off the ticket is a bad idea.  But I'm of the mindset that that's not something we'd want to advertise, at least not this early in the process.  However, now that that the cat's out of the bag, I want you to consider a term coined and defined by Dave Wells (you'd know him on here as The Patriotist):

sammoore:  The tactic of using a popular figure from among your own ranks as a "challenger" to the establishment leadership, whose true intent is to delay the entry into the race of a bona fide challenger.  (Reference: Roy Schmidt)

The reference is to Sam Moore, who was the original challenger to Bobby Schostak's re-election as MIGOP Chairman.  Rightly or wrongly, his unannounced premature exit from the race generated widespread speculation that the only reason he was in it in the first place was to provide a vulnerable Bobby Schostak with the cover he needed to shore up his defenses against the credible challenger that would eventually come.  The "unannounced" part of the exit is a special sore spot, given that accurate knowledge that Moore was out may have brought Todd Courser (or someone else) into the race sooner, and an extra couple of weeks may have been all that was needed to produce a different result on the convention floor.

In Sam's defense, I have personally known him for at least 4-1/2 years, and believe that speculation to be misplaced.  That hasn't stopped a few tea partiers from using the term, though.  And now that the talk is "out in the open" regarding the potential to boot Calley, I've been hearing from a few leaders within the network about this interview introducing the potential for a false-flag challenger, so as to keep a real challenger out of the race as long as possible (perhaps until after the proposed filing deadline).

Which brings me to what should be my final point for now.  Keep in mind that the proposed change to Convention Rule 22 is exactly that, a proposed change.  Until such time as the full State Committee ratifies the change, the original rule remains.  According to the original rule, the filing deadline for all convention candidates for a ballot office is 5:00 p.m., Eastern Time, on the business day before the county convention, which should put it at Monday, August 11th, 2014 (because I think that the convention is exactly one week after the primary election, thus on August 12th, 2014).

To cite a quote misattributed to Franklin D. Roosevelt, "In politics, nothing happens by accident.  If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way."  It's not a coincidence that someone tried to provide the gubernatorial nominee with exclusive executive discretion to appoint his running mate.  There's a reason that the blueblood elites occupying the party's halls of power are scrambling to cover Brian Calley's ass.  One of my colleagues told me earlier this week of his sense that there's a twist coming up in the gubernatorial race.  The proposed rules change seems to indicate that something's afoot that we haven't yet anticipated, or maybe that TPTB are aware of a potential challenger who's already well underway in his preparations.

Either way, strap in, keep your heads on a swivel, and mind your six.  It's going to get real interesting further on.