The following is in response to the front-page article in The Pilot on Dec. 6, "Boylan Backer Seeks Ouster of GOP Officials."

The Pilot failed to report the basis for the dispute between Joan Thurman, Bob Tweed and Lorraine Tweed and the group with whom I am associated. My friend Ed Kennedy, a member of this group, is one of the most principled political figures in the county. However, from time to time, his language does become a bit "salty."

The three citizens listed above are all well intentioned, but they share an arrogant sense of entitlement and believe themselves to be exempt from the rules of our Republican Party. Why do they feel so privileged? Are they exempt from the North Carolina GOP disloyalty provisions?

I submit for your edification the state disloyalty provision, which follows:

"Any registered Republican attempting to influence or influencing the outcome of any election against a Republican nominee or Republican endorsed by the appropriate Republican Executive Committee or Legislative Caucus may be declared ineligible to hold office under the State Plan of Organization at the State, District, and Precinct level for Party disloyalty by two-thirds vote of the State Executive committee."

Not one of the threesome listed above denies any of the violations with which they all are charged. I am sick and tired of a small group of people in leadership positions within the Republican Party not complying with the provisions of our party. They know they are guilty as charged and can only come forth with excuses like little children who get caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

They are unable to deny or disprove our charges. They actually admit to their indiscretions with pride. There is no justification for their disloyalty. In unison, they all cry out: Kill the messenger.

I am told Mrs. Thurman thinks Bud Shaver is a better Republican than Joe Boylan. If so, she should step aside and form another party. She had no business being in a leadership position within the Republican Party and using her leadership position to support a non-Republican candidate in our recent general election.

If she felt so strongly, she should have encouraged Mr. Shaver to run in the primary. What Mrs. Thurman refers to as the divisiveness of our group to the Republican Party would not have been an issue had the Tweeds and Joan Thurman fulfilled their obligation to the Republican Party.

Our small group has no intention of dividing our party. But we do object to those in leadership positions vacating the ship and remaining in leadership positions. All we are doing is attempting to clean "our house" of those who refused to fulfill their leadership obligations. What is divisive about this? To steal a line from a Pilot editorial, this could be a breath of fresh air!

If you read The Pilot, you would think our small group has no principles. We don't want anyone -- and I mean anyone -- ignoring and making meaningless the Republican Party's rules and provisions from positions of leadership. If we don't step up to the plate now, we will end up with an undisciplined and divided party well into the future.

The quickest and best way for our party to become united again is for the aforementioned citizens to resign their leadership positions. I would also encourage others who have flaunted these Republican provisions to also do so. What is our problem? We are principled, we have moral convictions and we don't want the above threesome and others like them destroying our party from within.

The Pilot reported: "Owen pointed out that the state party didn't consider the petition." It quoted him as saying: "It was not heard because there is no merit." How could this be so? The three petitions were never submitted to the state party. And this person is our leader? Can this man build consensus? Can this man unify our party?

At the County Republican Executive Committee on the evening of Nov. 6, someone stood up and commented that Mr. Owen had been neutral in regard to the campaign between Mr. Shaver and Mr. Boylan. Mr. Owen did not disavow this comment. Hello! It is not Mr. Owen's job to be neutral! It is his job to support the Republican nominee in full regalia, leading the charge.

Ralph Redmond lives in Pinewild.