Have you had your Snickers?

Playing off the popular Snicker's commercial which shows a person as someone other than themselves when hungry, conservative Jeff Phillips created a funny meme on newly elected State Representative Todd Courser, whom in tea party circles was credited with being extremely conservative.  

Todd upset some in the tea party conservative movement with his endorsement of a candidate other than Kimberly Shmina or Norm Hughes for Michigan Republican Chairman.

Jeff Phillips, was one of the leads on the Kimberly Shmina campaign for Michigan Republican Chair.    He states the meme was in good fun and has posted the following statements under this picture on his Facebook page.

Kim Shmina did ask me to remove this post because she doesn't want to be negative. IDK, I'll think about it. I'm putting this out in a humorous context, and am not holding any ill will. Just know that it is NOT coming from the Shmina's--this is entirely my own jest and I take full responsibility for it personally.
 Todd and I remain good friends. We did talk things over and I understand 80% of his reasoning on this decision. I do hope that he'll take the time to get to know Kim & Michael more as they are really good people, and I think everyone involved in the various campaigns can agree that we've grown as a movement from our collective experiences in all that has transpired over these recent weeks. Oh, and the snickers bar is kind of an inside joke--they don't let him have a lunch break in his schedule in the legislature.
 I must say I've always been nervous about the MIGOP chair position going to anyone connected to the Romney political machine, only because of our past experiences in 2012. My biggest beef was what the Romney team came up with for RNC rule changes which were pushed through completely fraudulently--they actually kidnapped Morton Blackwell, the RNC Committeeman from Virginia, along with his whole state's delegation trapping them on a bus so that he couldn't introduce the minority report opposing the rule changes. Michigan's liberty delegates were the backup plan & when they tried to make the motion to introduce the minority report, Romney's supporters got right up behind the delegate and started screaming "USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!" at the top of their lungs deliberately for the purpose of drowning out his voice so nobody could hear him make his motion from the microphone. Then John Boehener read pre-scripted vote results straight off a teleprompter which had been typed up before the vote even happened--and there was no vote count at all. It was downright shameful.
 I've seen youtube videos of convention fraud all across the country, and I know it's all true because I've seen it here in Michigan. My county followed the rules but shut us out nevertheless. Without being a delegate that year, I still attended the Cobo convention as a volunteer usher, where I was left out in the hall with all the Ron Paul delegates who were not allowed inside because their name wasn't on the list. Through this experience I met a great friend from Genesee county who was among those disenfranchised by criminal election fraud committed by some of our former party leaders. While justice wasn't served and the appropriate criminal charges were never filed, we have at least had a change of leadership and those known to be responsible for such acts are no longer in charge.
 Looking back on it now, if it hadn't happened the vote count in that convention cycle would have been only slightly different and would not have impacted the final outcome, except that I would never have had the opportunity to meet so many new friends along the way. Perhaps the time has come to put the past behind us and move on---although moving on does include the need for us to repair the rule changes, and strengthen them with a system of checks and balances this party is currently lacking.
 I have not actually met Ronna McDaniel personally. I wanted to shake her hand at the convention but we were so busy I never had a chance. I do think it is unfair to judge a person according to who their family is. Perhaps she is a better person than all of what we experienced among the supporters of her uncle. I probably wouldn't have been as concerned if she had gone by the Ronna McDaniel name. She chooses to associate with the Romney's by emphasizing her maiden name as her middle name in a way that most people do not. That does bother me a little bit, but I did hear just yesterday that when she tried leaving off Romney from her name, she took slack from people saying she needed it in there. It must be an awkward position to get those sorts of gripes both ways as she can't please everyone.
 When Mitt announced that he is not running in 2016, this did go a long way to reduce my fears of what could happen.
 Another factor was when Ronna selected Jeff Sakwa as co-chair. I really do think he'll help provide some balance and keep things in check. I've met Sakwa before and I think he's a pretty decent guy. He is strong in opposing any retaliatory acts from state party when they don't get what they want out of the counties. I think that in and of itself is huge. We don't agree on everything of course--certainly not forign policy as we debated about those topics a year or two ago. But we aren't sending him to congress. At the time it was MSU's board, now it's MIGOP co-chair. Our areas of disagreement are mostly irrelevant to these positions anyway. So there's no point in arguing.
 The results of this convention are what they are. Everyone involved in every campaign has learned and grown a lot in this convention cycle. Much has been discovered and we are all better positioned to do great things leading into 2016.
 Now it is simply time we laugh things off and work together moving forward.
 PS: On a side note, I have only heard positive things about Norm's running mate, Marian Sheridan. I don't know her personally, but given the rumors people have been spreading about me and Norm I just wanted to say that Marian isn't any part of that riff and by all accounts I've heard, a good strong conservative.