List: Paul supporters peel off after protest

TAMPA, Fla. -- You can’t tell the players without a scorecard within the Nevada delegation at the Republican National Convention. And even then there’s a chance someone will quit their team.

That’s what’s happened within the core group of ardent Ron Paul supporters, whose protest Tuesday night at the Tampa Bay Times Forum resulted in a red-faced moment for state party officials.

Former Nevada Gov. Robert List, one of the more vocal critics of the Paul-backers’ activity, on Wednesday said, “At least a couple of the folks in the delegation are now saying they no longer support Ron Paul. Apparently they’re split into two factions. It’s just a very dysfunctional group, no matter which side you’re looking at it from.”

List then reeled off some of the GOP presidential candidates who were originally favored by some of the other delegates: Santorum, Gingrich, and Cain among them.

“There are supporters of a whole array of candidates other than Ron Paul who came to reality a long time ago,” List said. “If Congressman Paul had any class, he would have conceded.”

Paul has said he had no plans to endorse GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney at the convention. While that has pleased Paul's political followers, it does little to forward the party’s agenda, List said.

“They haven’t awakened to the realities of what it takes to be successful in this world,” he said. “You do not win all the time. I can remember my first convention. I was a Goldwater guy. We lost in November, but I didn’t walk away from the party. We don’t always get our way. … For them to suggest they might not vote for Romney defies the reality of how the process works. The process is almost always incremental – for both sides."