Paul Kooks: Poll Was Rigged!

This is just too rich.

After months of spamming every online and phone poll imaginable, the knuckle-dragging troglodytes from the Ron Paul camp have the temerity to whine about a poll being rigged.

Projection, anyone?

After their candidate's third-place showing in the Texas Republican Party straw poll Saturday, Ron Paul supporters are spreading a theory online that the contest was rigged.

Their main piece of evidence is a five-minute video posted on YouTube. It shows Paul supporters being denied entrance to the Fort Worth Convention Center on Saturday morning to participate in the nonbinding poll.

The clip, titled "Tyranny at the Texas Straw Poll Ron Paul," has been viewed more than 100,000 times and linked to by more than 60 blogs.

In the clip, a man working for the Texas Republican Party tells Paul supporters that it is after 10 a.m. and that registration has closed. The supporters argue that they registered and paid for the event in advance but that no one told them they had to arrive before 10 a.m.

Activists are seizing on the video as proof that the state party went out of its way to keep Paul, a U.S. representative from Surfside, from winning the poll because of his opposition to the Iraq war.

"This Poll has all the earmarks of a Fascist Regime and a staged event to discredit only one man. Ron Paul," writes a Paul supporter who blogs at the Leicester, N.C.-based GrannyWarriors.com and says she witnessed the event. She writes that a busload of Paul supporters from San Antonio arrived at the poll and were told registration was closed, only to see other attendees allowed in after them.

U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter of California won the poll with 531 votes and 41.1 percent support. Actor Fred Thompson, a former Tennessee senator, came in second with 266 votes and 20.5 percent. Paul collected 217 votes and 16.7 percent.

Apparently, these folks have a little problem with rules and reading comprehension.

Texas Republican Party spokesman Hans Klingler said the party had made it clear for months that registration would close at 10 a.m. Saturday.

"It is regrettable a very small group of people did not read their information more thoroughly and follow the protocol for both Friday and Saturday's registration process," Klingler said by e-mail.

Let's remember what we're dealing with here.