Posted on 12/26/2011 9:17:36 AM PST by TBBT
Congressman Ron Paul grabbed the lion's share of headlines among GOP presidential candidates last week, and not just because he is the latest improbable figure to challenge the inevitable nomination of Mitt Romney.
The conservative Weekly Standard ran a rehash by writer James Kirchik of an article he wrote for the New Republic in 2008 that collates, to deadly effect, the astoundingly bizarre, racist, and anti-Semitic comments Paul broadcast in a series of newsletters he published for two decades. Paul implausibly claims the newsletters (written in the first person and bearing his name) were produced by others, but it really doesn't matter. The time has come, as Kirchik helpfully reminds us, to recognize Paul for what he is.
He is not -- as some disillusioned moderates and media pundits like to believe -- a refreshing, small-government Republican with a healthy distaste for Wall Street and foreign adventurism. He is a clinically paranoid (and likely bigoted) conspiracy theorist. And you don't even have to cite his newsletters to prove it.
I paid some attention to Paul's 2008 campaign, because at the time I was assigned by my newspaper to cover two of his biggest fans: Ed and Elaine Brown, a pair of New Hampshire tax cheats who engaged in a months-long standoff with the U.S. Marshals Service over the couple's refusal to pay federal income taxes. The Browns believed they lived on a sovereign enclave atop a hill in rural Plainfield, N.H., stockpiled scary weapons, and threatened violence against any federal agents who came on their property.
You would think a presidential aspirant would want to distance himself from such wackos. Not Paul, who declared in a videotaped interview that the Browns were "heroes":
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.sfweekly.com ...
Exactly. Remember in 2008 at the convention he didn’t get to speak and had to talk to his supporters downtown somewhere. Think any of his supporters voted for McCain.Same thing will happen again. Keep trashing Paul and his supporters will give the election to Obama in a landslide.
Guess the republicans are so confident of victory they can afford to kiss off all those voters.
“He’s a bit of a loon.”
His supporters are nuttier.One guy in our neighborhood is a big Paul supporter,if he ever goes off his meds there’s be problems....
Ron Paul’s support is growing across the board, not just among Republicans. If he should go third party, he would take voters from both Dim and Repubs, unlike the Tea Party, which would siphon off primarily Republicans.
Paul shot his own character...
And his spam monkeys just keep forcing it to be replayed to their own detriment.
I am trying to go to each “example” of Paul’s “looniness” to understand them in context.
In this case, you have misquoted and mischaracterized what he said in the interview. He gave a lengthy and reasoned explanations and (paraphrasing) said that it was heroic to stand up against unjust laws.
In context, I really don’t see what the problem with his statement is. Didn’t the original Tea Party folks break the law of the day when it was unjust and related to taxation? Were their “illegal” efforts heroic?
Perot was right.
Hus actions and words speak for themselves. They literally scream nut bag.............
The death throes of the Republican elephant are so ugly.
True dat...
"President" Ron Paul circa 2014:
"I didn't know my Sec. of State surrendered to Iran, I just appointed them, I am not responsible for what they say and do or what I sign when they give it to me..."
I am so glad we thought of this.
This is much more important than defeating Ubama.
He would get the Tea Party vote after the GOP establishment is trying to kill off the Tea Party and Palin.
It is very productive, the sooner Paul is out of the mix the less crazy our side looks.
Should has nothing to do with it anymore. Rotten to the core.
See also: “Jury Nullification”.
He’s either crazy or malicious or stupid or just gravely careless about what he says and writes (or allows to to be written in his name). None of which I find particularly attractive in a back-bench Congressman, let alone a presidential candidate.
Tom, are you guys working to draft Congressman Paul as your nominee yet?
Ron Paul is nuts (while being absolutely correct on most domestic issues), but unless the Virginia GOP either willingly, or under duress by court challenges, finds a way to put Gingrich and Perry on the primary ballot or allow write-ins in the primary, I hope every FReeper in VA votes for the nut in the GOP Primary to deny the establishment their intent of making sure Romney gets all the VA delegates.
At least he wouldn’t destroy the Repbulican party and position as badly as Mitt would.
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