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Maybe they can wear hoods. Or disappear into the witness protection program.
After all, they are only nominating a candidate for president of the United States.
Florida's Republican Party is keeping the names of delegates to the national convention in New York a secret lest a terrorist decide to blow them up. A few names - obviously the braver ones - are being dribbled out one or two at a time by party spokesman Joseph Agostini.
Maybe some of them don't want to be seen in public with the party's nominee.
This would be the political party that starts its rules with this phrase:
"Be it resolved that the Republican Party is the party of the open door . . . to ensure that the Republican Party is open and accessible to all Americans."
Balderdash.
Republicans couldn't have found a better way to make themselves look stupid.
First Agostini told us the party's priority "is the safety and welfare of our delegates."
Since some delegates had expressed concern about having their names released "in this post 9/11 world," party chairwoman Carole Jean Jordan decided to let each delegate decide whether to be identified.
A day later Jordan insisted it wasn't the security of the delegates that resulted in keeping the list secret, "It's the decision of the delegates who want to keep their privacy," she said.
"It's not security," Jordan said. "I think everybody feels very confident about the set up."
Okay. Fast forward one day. Agostini calls to direct our attention to the words of Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie, who told reporters in Washington that the party fears some delegates might be the target of protests.
Protests?
God forbid that someone might walk past one of the delegates with dirty words on a sign. It might offend their tender sensibilities.
Privacy or security?
Either way, these are people are going to be standing in the middle of Madison Square Garden night after night as television cameras sweep the room and broadcast their images into every home in America. Where in all of this is there an expectation of privacy?
Shouldn't Floridians, we asked, know who the party has selected to nominate a president?
"Y'all will be up there to meet and greet us and you will get to go to every single event we have," Jordan answered.
Jordan explains that she has never handled a convention before. Gee, we would have never guessed.
This all leads me to think a delegate afraid of terrorists or protesters might want to give the job to someone else and stay at home to watch the convention on television.
The GOP in Florida is fast getting a reputation as the party of secrecy. First Secretary of State Glenda Hood decided to keep a list of 47,000 possible felons secret. News organizations had to sue the state to get the list. Fortunately, Circuit Judge Nikki Clark thought Floridians had a right to see the list.
Then we nasty newspaper types took the list and compared it to reality, only to find that many of the names on the list should not have been there. And, oh yes, there weren't very many Hispanic names on the list. Somehow the compilers of the list missed the Hispanics who might have committed serious crimes.
A mere accident, I'm sure.
But enough questions were raised to force the state to drop any use of the list.
Our GOP seems to have a real built-in problem when it comes to lists. We thought Gov. Jeb Bush might step in and solve the latest problem but he didn't even respond to questions about it.
Maybe we will next have anonymous candidates for the Legislature. There is a bunch that could use some anonymity.