I would get carpal tunnel trying to put this ongoing Ron Paul Circus into one post, so I had always planned to spread it into several different posts with different aspects of the fiasco. A circus does have three rings, after all.

The original plan was to have the candidate and his views first, then the operatives, and then the supporters. But recent on-the-record correspondence with Jeff Greenspan, the Regional Director of the Ron Paul campaign has vaulted him ahead of his candidate in the pecking order.

I started with insider quotes from my team of sources, and was amazed at how level-headed the GOP'ers were in light of how the convention turned out to be so bitter. In their own words:

"The way the convention moved overshadowed a lot of good. Record turnout, more than 200 applications to be national delegates, excited membership. The biggest thing glossed over is that so many of the Ron Paul delegates are new to the process and most want to help John McCain, Jon Porter, Dean Heller and the like. We also have a lot of new Mitt Romney delegates who want to do the same.

The difference is that a small minority of Ron Paul delegates somehow thought this was a UFC match rather than a state convention. They fed off of Mike Weber who always tries to rile things up but this time had a group of people willing to follow blindly. The whole process is a shame because it unfairly lumps normal Ron Paul supporters in with a small few who fail to bathe, treat others with respect, follow rules, understand politics or care about the results of their actions. What should have been a great day of reward for Mitt Romney's delegates who worked hard and won, Ron Paul's delegates who worked hard and performed well and John McCain supporters - most of whom worked for Paul or Romney - turned into an embarrassment for anyone who can complete a sentence and supports Ron Paul. What a shame. Hopefully when all is over normal, honest, sensible people will prevail and hopefully that coalition comes from supporters of all campaigns."

"When it comes down to it, Nevada doesn’t have 34 delegates, they have 34 votes. Those votes should go to who Nevada wants to be the nominee. Ron Paul got 14% of the vote in the caucus, 14%. This is roughly 500 votes more than McCain and that is all. Considering every other Republican Presidential candidate in Nevada’s caucus has endorsed McCain, including Romney who won our state and was there to speak on his behalf, would it be fair in any way for Paul to get more than 14% of the delegates, if that? Delegates have always been people who have worked hard for the Party or been contributors, so I am just unsure as to why people who were attending their first ever Republican convention should be considered as delegates to the National Convention when party faithful who have been volunteering and contributing for twenty years are being turned down. Doesn’t make much sense for the Party."

"I think as far as the Ron Paul enthusiasts – they have some bad apples ruining the bunch. Most of us agreed with most of Dr. Paul’s message during his speech at the convention. I would bet that Sen. McCain would agree with most of the message. But it is clear that he will not be the messenger … or at least the nominee … of our Party heading into November. He ran. He was included in dozens of debates and forums … and I don’t think he won a single state.

I hope those supporters of his will continue to stay involved in politics and that they will not only support our Republican nominee in November, but that they will support our Republicans down the ballot, as well. For those who have and continue to stir up trouble for the sake of causing chaos … I have no comment. Besides, my words won’t influence them in the slightest, and I can live with that."

This is the response from three different top GOP operatives who were each asked for their insider opinion, and were promised that their quotes would not be attributed so that they could be as brutally honest as they wanted. Their response is hardly caustic. If anything they sound saddened by the shenanigans of the Ron Paul brigade.

During this, a back and forth between fellow blogger Chuck Muth and Ron Paul Regional Director Jeff Greenspan turned ugly. You can follow the details of this on Muth's blog.

Chuck Muth does not treat anyone with kid gloves when he feels strongly about something, but he is not the type to make things up. The worst I would accuse him of is being blunt with his opinions, which can make for a good read. But the exchange turned so bitter and so personal that I honestly did not believe that any political operative would be so stupid as to actually put the things into an e-mail that were on Muth's blog. So I had to investigate.

At this point, I had been corresponding with Jeff Greenspan about all of the convention goings on, and we had exchanged lengthy and civil e-mails until I asked him about the dust-up with Muth. All of a sudden Mr. Greenspan turned from passionate defender of Dr. Paul and the Constitution into the green-pea soup spewing demon from The Exorcist.

In his own words:

"Chuck Muth is a character assassin and nothing more. You can show him film of something and have three people swear to it and it wont matter. He'll write toward whatever agenda he has in his mind regardless of the veracity or fact checking.
By the way. Wally Edge = Chuck Muth. Hi Chuck. Only you can come up with "this is taking on a life of its own." You did it on your blog. What a coward going "undercover". Nice try."

That erased any doubt in my mind as to whether Mr. Greenspan is capable of putting stupid, paranoid, conspiracy-crazy things in writing. His open and unabashed megalomania is amazing, and after this we've gone back and forth now a few more times and his e-mails get more snippy at each turn. It's kind of funny to watch him beat up a pseudonym. It must feel good to for the big man to give Casper a good butt-whooping.

I've written to Mr. Muth and have asked him to take the same line on this that I always do when people guess who I am: I will neither confirm nor deny any guess. I could be anyone, except maybe Jeff Greenspan at this point.

But so far the operative scoreboard reads like this:

GOP Establishment Operatives: level-headed and logical

Ron Paul Operatives: stark raving lunatics

More to follow. Much, much more.