A Hole in the GOP Big Tent

Nothing like losing a delegate just before the big party. From the Phila Inquirer:

The Pennsylvania Republican State Committee has touted its own breakthroughs this year: record numbers of minorities in its delegation, the election of the delegation's first African American and first female chair, and the election of its first openly gay delegate.

That was before a seam in Pennsylvania's tent ripped - partially, anyway.

Ten days before the convention's opening next week in New York City, Jesse Walters, a Philadelphia resident and the party's first openly gay delegate, submitted his resignation. He said he was unhappy about the direction the Bush administration was taking on the war in Iraq and on social issues such as same-sex marriage.