Ken Cuccinelli Has Temper Tantrum at Republican National Convention

On the first day of the Republican National Convention, former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli not-so-silently seethed.

Then he not-so-silently seethed some more.

Cuccinelli is the chairman of Virginia’s block of 49 delegates, and he wanted a roll-call vote on convention rules -- not necessarily to halt Donald Trump's nomination as the party's nominee for president, but to give grass-root activists an opportunity for more of a say.

But Virginia and several other state delegations were rebuffed by the Republican National Committee, leaving Cuccinelli -- who had backed Ted Cruz for the nomination -- to angrily throw his credentials onto the floor, as seen on various cable news outlets.

As he told CNN, "This is about decades of growing establishment power in the rules, and having an opportunity (for) anti-establishment delegates in this hall – and I venture to say that if more of these Trump delegates knew the whole story they’d be voting with us. But you don’t have the opportunity to deliver that message."

Cuccinelli, who a little more than two years ago lost Virginia's gubernatorial race to Terry McAuliffe, also conveyed his sentiments via Facebook in the days leading up to the convention.

There was this on Friday, July 15: "Disgusting day in the GOP rules committee. . .This must be like what North Korean political conventions feel like. Weirdest thing to see today: 'Trump/RNC' vote instruction cards (saw it on C-SPAN). So much for 'anti-establishment.' This was worse in many ways than 2012. Sad."

And this: "There is some confusion in the comments... For the record, some people here seem to lump all of us doing anything related to rules into the bind/unbind debate; however, the effort I have been working on with delegates does not address that subject. We're trying to shift the influence and control in the GOP from centralized RNC to the grassroots; remove lobbyists from the RNC; get rid of the selection committees that pick delegates with no voter input (rigged system?!); and encourage Republican voters to pick the GOP nominee."

And then this: "There is other confusion in the comments, specifically re "Unity." Unity cannot be demanded, it has to be achieved through effort. While I heard a lot from the Trump/RNC partnership about how important unity was to them, the way they have conducted the rules process (so far) goes in the other direction. Unlike 2012, they were voting against things they (supposedly) believe in, just because grassroots conservatives were proposing them. For example, Trump railed against how rigged the system is during the nomination... and one of our proposed amendments would have gotten rid of the worst example: state parties that pick the delegates behind closed doors, with Zero voter input. Do you remember the Trump folks' protesting this in Florida, Tennessee and Indiana? We were trying to get rid of those rigged systems - and the Trump machine locked arms with the RNC and killed that amendment! Can someone explain that to me???"