I noticed several visits to a previous Bob Barr post from browsers in Georgia, maybe his supporters in Georgia are larger than we think. Or his campaign can afford a couple of computers1
ATLANTA — He has been called a spoiler. A would-be Ralph Nader. A thorn in the side of Senator John McCain and the Republican establishment.
None of it bothers Bob Barr, the former Republican congressman from Georgia turned Libertarian Party candidate for president, who gleefully recounted what he says a group of Republicans told him at a recent meeting in Washington: Don’t run.
“ ‘Well, gee, you might take votes from Senator McCain,’ ” Mr. Barr said this week, mimicking one of the complainers, as he sat sipping Coca-Cola in his plush corner office, 12 stories above Atlanta. “They all said, ‘Look, we understand why you’re doing this. We agree with why you’re doing it. But please don’t do it.’ ”
But with the Libertarian nomination in hand, Mr. Barr hopes to follow in the footsteps of Ross Perot and Mr. Nader, whose third-party presidential bids wreaked general-election havoc.
For one, he is hoping to hitch his wagon to the enormous grass-roots movement behind Representative Ron Paul, the libertarian-minded Republican from Texas who recently abandoned his own presidential bid.
[From A Candidate Runs to a G.O.P. Chorus of ‘Don’t’ – NYTimes.com]
Barr’s problem is that not very long ago that he was the kind of Republican busy-body that the Libertarians hate. How much does he really believe in core Libertarian principles?2
While libertarian philosophy generally bows to the rights of the individual — and against government intervention — Representative Barr voted for the USA Patriot Act; voted to authorize the war in Iraq in 2002; led the impeachment charge against President Bill Clinton in 1998; and introduced the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996.
After joining the Libertarian Party two years ago, Mr. Barr declared his intention to run for the 2008 presidential nomination only 10 days before the party’s convention in May. (Mr. Barr is also remembered for an incident in 2002, while preparing a Senate bid on a gun-rights platform, when he accidentally fired an antique .38-caliber pistol during a fund-raiser, shattering a sliding glass door.)
But Mr. Barr has largely disavowed his record in Congress as a Republican, a turnaround his campaign manager, Russell Verney, sunnily referred to as “the journey that Bob went through.”
Now, on the war in Iraq, he advocates for a speedy and complete withdrawal of troops, with no permanent bases; on same-sex marriage, he believes that states should make their own laws; and on wiretaps without warrants, he is fiercely opposed, arguing that the bill that would legalize searches without warrants violates an individual’s constitutional rights.
What are Barr’s bona-fides, in other words. A glib “journey he went through” doesn’t cut it. I’m also skeptical that many Ron Paul supporters will transfer their loyalties to Barr.
Footnotes:- donated from former Ron Paul supporters, or not. [↩]
- I am not a member of the Libertarian party, or any party for that matter, but I do strongly enjoy the idea that the government should never be involved in moral discussions, should never bother with policy regarding drugs, sexual preference, and so on, nor should the government spy upon its citizens. [↩]