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In Denver, not everyone’s throwing out the welcome mat for Bob Barr
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Reasononline has this interesting take by David Weigel on the first hours of the Libertarian Party convention in Denver and the reception that Bob Barr’s getting.
Here’s a snippet that includes some good background on the LP’s internal dynamics:
It would be a bit much, right now, to call the 2008 Libertarian nomination fight “heated” or “bitter.” The delegates trickling in to Denver, ever-aware that this city hosted the embryonic stirrings of the party 36 years ago, are happy to see each other. They’re gorging on free food, face-to-face conversations with people they’ve known only online, and brainy discussions that aren’t so easy to come by back home.
Still, there’s a battle gearing up, and not just over the headline fight over who will win the nomination. Two years ago, the self-described “reform caucus” of the party took over a convention in Portland and shaved the platform from 61 planks to a pocket-sized 15. The non-aggression principle in the party’s declaration survived, but only narrowly. Even before Bob Barr entered this race, radicals, who estimate they have one-third of conventioneers firmly on their side, were planning to use Denver to “Restore ‘04” and resurrect the older, more far-reaching platform.
The specter of a recent Republican transplant leading the LP has cranked up this platform fight to 11. A flyer labeled “CALL TO ACTION: The Libertarian Party—Not For Sale!” is being distributed around the Sheraton, spelling out a six-point theory of the right-wing takeover strategy. “The Barr campaign’s principals are veteran ‘partyjackers,’” says the flyer. Smoking gun? The appearance at the convention of conservative direct mail pioneer Richard Viguerie, who is filling a speaking slot that was once going to go to radio host Neal Boortz. “If [Barr and Viguerie are] successful, the Libertarian Party will become just one more mouthpiece for malcontent Republicans.”



DEL.ICIO.US

Comments
By Eric Dondero
May 23, 2008 4:35 PM | Link to this
Not a big deal if the Radicals do take over the Convention and ditch mainstreamer Bob Barr. Just means mainstream libertarians will switch en masse to John McCain. A “Libertarians for McCain” is already in the works, much like the successful Libertarians for Bush from 2004, that was backed by Atlantan Neal Boortz.
If the Libertarian Party rejects Barr, Libertarians for McCain will be launched Sunday night.
By Eric Dondero
May 23, 2008 4:36 PM | Link to this
Not a big deal if the Radicals do take over the Convention and ditch mainstreamer Bob Barr. Just means mainstream libertarians will switch en masse to John McCain. A “Libertarians for McCain” is already in the works, much like the successful Libertarians for Bush from 2004, that was backed by Atlantan Neal Boortz.
If the Libertarian Party rejects Barr, Libertarians for McCain will be launched Sunday night.
By Will Jones
May 23, 2008 4:38 PM | Link to this
Pistol-popping, no-man Barr is CIA…whose JFK-killing hit-team was led by George H.W. Bush and Richard Nixon. The CIA was founded by Knight of Malta Donovan, and Vatican-running Knights of Malta have been DCI more than not.
Viguerie is a Roman Catholic activist working in Rome’s Fifth Column to overthrow the Jeffersonian Whig Revolution whose “Light from the West ignited a volcano under the thrones of Europe.”
Libertarianism is the opposite of Roman Catholicism. Unfortunately the Libertarian Party, for many years, has just been for Republicans who want to smoke pot and come out of “the closet.”
Obama/Webb is the solution this cycle. They are just a move in the right direction.
Bush, Cheney and their nearest accomplices must be tried, convicted and hanged for 9-11 and their false war for oil, heroin, the Saudis, and a corrupt faction of false Jews in the State of Israel.
www.theamericanfundament.blogspot.com
By Mike K.
May 23, 2008 5:56 PM | Link to this
“The appearance at the convention of conservative direct mail pioneer Richard Viguerie, who is filling a speaking slot that was once going to go to radio host Neal Boortz.”
HA! Like Boortz is a libertarian anyway.
By Will Jones
May 23, 2008 6:20 PM | Link to this
Boortz is a tool of fascist plutocracy and a racist wannabe no-man.
By GodHatesTrash
May 23, 2008 7:44 PM | Link to this
Let’s face it - the LP is almost as big a collection of thieves and inbred morons as the GOP.
Trash all.
By Jack Parkman
May 24, 2008 12:31 AM | Link to this
Why is Eric Dondero still commenting as if he has any credibility? This clown has been exposed time and time again as a hack with his own personal ax to grind. More importantly, Dondero isn’t a libertarian. He’s a warmongering hypocrite with an ego so large, he thinks he’s entitled to speak on behalf of others (like anyone believed his lies that a significant cadre of “libertarians” were backing “Benito” Giuliani).
By Ron Paul Supporter
May 24, 2008 7:41 AM | Link to this
Millions will still vote for the ONLY qualified candidate, by writing him in on their ballots…Dr. Ron Paul
www.RonPaul2008.com www.DailyPaul.com
Google Ron Paul
By Joe Lawson
May 24, 2008 2:13 PM | Link to this
Will never vote for McCain - Ron Paul is still tops for me, but in the event he isn’t the nominee, I am pushing Bob Barr. The guy actually has traction, support and is a billion times better than war monger boy McCain and racist Obama
By Ernest L Lippert
May 24, 2008 9:45 PM | Link to this
What is the United States comming to? The choice between Clinton, Obabma, and McClain is no choice at all - there is no lesser of the evils. In my opinion, none of them represent the basic ideas of most Americans. Barr and some of the others like Paul, have a better idea of what is needed to return our Country to the respected power that it should be. Who would Barr select as his VP and his Cabinet? I think these are questions too often ignored in our selection of the best cadidiate.
By Churchill
May 24, 2008 9:56 PM | Link to this
Ru Paul and Bob Barr are both boobs. RU/Barr 08
By Richard Dickerson
May 24, 2008 10:10 PM | Link to this
Churchill is a pimple on Al Sharpton’s Tush
By Ken V.
May 27, 2008 4:12 PM | Link to this
The first Libertarian presidential candidate I voted for was Roger MacBride in 1976 — and I voted for every Libertarian candidate since.
Not this time!
If it’s McCain, Clinbama, and Barr on the ballot, I’m staying home and voting for None of the Above!
By o~
May 28, 2008 6:29 AM | Link to this
That’s the way to show them whose boss! You go Ken V!