And so it is in the year 2007 when you say something and become famous or infamous within minutes. Ron Paul's former assistant was perturbed at what the congressman had to say about the War on Terror and Muslim "root causes." Today, he decided to do something about it (note: the link to Redstate is a bit slow due to heavy traffic):
I am calling on Ron Paul to resign his seat, sooner rather than later. Otherwise Congressional District 14 voters from Victoria to Galveston will appear to be endorsing his treachorous, and near treasonous views on foreign policy.
...I am this morning, declaring my candidacy for Congress in the GOP primaries against Ron Paul. If he does not resign his seat, and if another Republican candidate does not declare against him, I will run a balls-to-the-wall campaign for Congress in Texas CD 14.
I am the guy that got Ron Paul elected to Congress in 1996. I can and will defeat him in 2008.
Eric Dondero, Fmr. Senior Aide
US Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX)
1997-2003
As I alluded to at the beginning of this post, the statements by Ron Paul and the rebuttal by Rudy Giuliani are the only two things to be remembered from this debate a year and a half out from the election. Paul may well have destroyed his career and Rudy bolstered his chances of gaining the nomination.
Paul is a ten-year Congressman no one, short of political junkies, had heard of until the last few weeks. Come November 2008, I suspect he will return to oblivion as Texans won't take too kindly to a sitting representative saying that America brought the attacks on ourselves. He's now an outcast and will remain so when it comes time for cash to be raised.
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. That Is Very Interesting. I Have Been In Several Chat Rooms And Message Boards Last Night And Today. It Has Seemed That Whenever Someone Was Trashing Ron Paul 50 People Wold Come To His Defense. As Almost For Every 1 That Disagrees With His Comment He Gets 50 Supporters. Very Strange I Thought So I Asked Them Why Most Were Saying He Is Being Honest And The Rest Of The Republicans Should Be Like Ron Paul. So I Actually Think I Got Hung Up In Some Collage Chat Or Anti War Demonstraters. But I Hope Ron Paul Will Move To Cuba With His New Buddy Mikey Moore.
http://www.todaypolitics.blogspot.com/
bloggershaven at 9:10PM on May 16th 2007
2. Ron Paul is absolutely correct. The United States federal government prompted a severe reaction. There are a great many in this county who cling to the mistaken beliefs that their country can do no wrong, that their government is trustworthy because this is America, and that they know what they are talking about. Clue: The federal government is not a cute little Barbie doll. It's a huge, stinking wild beast that throws its raw power around like a drunken grizzly bear. To those who are upset when Ron Paul speaks the truth about the beast that he has been fighting with for the last 12 years, I have one message: Grow up.
Mark Yannone at 2:01AM on May 17th 2007
3. Ron Paul is absolutely correct. The United States federal government prompted a severe reaction. There are a great many in this country who cling to the mistaken beliefs that their country can do no wrong, that their government is trustworthy because this is America, and that they know what they are talking about.
Here's a clue for you: The federal government is not a cute little Barbie doll. It's a huge, stinking wild beast that throws its raw power around like a drunken grizzly bear. To those who are upset when Ron Paul speaks the truth about the beast that he has been fighting with for the last 12 years, I have one message: Grow up.
Mark Yannone at 2:05AM on May 17th 2007
4. "But I Hope Ron Paul Will Move To Cuba With His New Buddy Mikey Moore."
----------------------------------------------------
Why move to Cuba when our tyrant ruling elite is working to make America a near mirror image to Cuba?
Such comments are about all that is available to attack an honest man speaking truths that make some uncomfortable.
The truth is often not a fun thing; it's just truth.
Those unwilling or unable to handle it ought to go back to your video games, watching American Idol or sports or just go occupy yourselves with the multitude of other mindless nonsense that passes for life in the current Police State of America...
Here is what actually transpired between Dr. Paul and Giuliani, if anyone seeks the truth...
May 16, 2007
Lying Rudy
Posted by James Ostrowski at May 16, 2007 12:28 AM
Here's the New York Times transcript which shows that Ron Paul never said we "invited" the attacks.
MR. GOLER: Congressman Paul, I believe you are the only man on the stage who opposes the war in Iraq, who would bring the troops home as quickly as -- almost immediately, sir. Are you out of step with your party? Is your party out of step with the rest of the world? If either of those is the case, why are you seeking its nomination?
REP. PAUL: Well, I think the party has lost its way, because the conservative wing of the Republican Party always advocated a noninterventionist foreign policy.
Senator Robert Taft didn't even want to be in NATO. George Bush won the election in the year 2000 campaigning on a humble foreign policy -- no nation-building, no policing of the world. Republicans were elected to end the Korean War. The Republicans were elected to end the Vietnam War. There's a strong tradition of being anti-war in the Republican party. It is the constitutional position. It is the advice of the Founders to follow a non-interventionist foreign policy, stay out of entangling alliances, be friends with countries, negotiate and talk with them and trade with them.
Just think of the tremendous improvement -- relationships with Vietnam. We lost 60,000 men. We came home in defeat. Now we go over there and invest in Vietnam. So there's a lot of merit to the advice of the Founders and following the Constitution.
And my argument is that we shouldn't go to war so carelessly. (Bell rings.) When we do, the wars don't end.
MR. GOLER: Congressman, you don't think that changed with the 9/11 attacks, sir?
REP. PAUL: What changed?
MR. GOLER: The non-interventionist policies.
REP. PAUL: No. Non-intervention was a major contributing factor. Have you ever read the reasons they attacked us? They attack us because we've been over there; we've been bombing Iraq for 10 years. We've been in the Middle East -- I think Reagan was right.
We don't understand the irrationality of Middle Eastern politics. So right now we're building an embassy in Iraq that's bigger than the Vatican. We're building 14 permanent bases. What would we say here if China was doing this in our country or in the Gulf of Mexico? We would be objecting. We need to look at what we do from the perspective of what would happen if somebody else did it to us. (Applause.)
MR. GOLER: Are you suggesting we invited the 9/11 attack, sir?
REP. PAUL: I'm suggesting that we listen to the people who attacked us and the reason they did it, and they are delighted that we're over there because Osama bin Laden has said, "I am glad you're over on our sand because we can target you so much easier." They have already now since that time -- (bell rings) -- have killed 3,400 of our men, and I don't think it was necessary.
MR. GIULIANI: Wendell, may I comment on that? That's really an extraordinary statement. That's an extraordinary statement, as someone who lived through the attack of September 11, that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq. I don't think I've heard that before, and I've heard some pretty absurd explanations for September 11th. (Applause, cheers.)
And I would ask the congressman to withdraw that comment and tell us that he didn't really mean that. (Applause.)
MR. GOLER: Congressman?
REP. PAUL: I believe very sincerely that the CIA is correct when they teach and talk about blowback. When we went into Iran in 1953 and installed the shah, yes, there was blowback. A reaction to that was the taking of our hostages and that persists. And if we ignore that, we ignore that at our own risk. If we think that we can do what we want around the world and not incite hatred, then we have a problem.
They don't come here to attack us because we're rich and we're free. They come and they attack us because we're over there. I mean, what would we think if we were -- if other foreign countries were doing that to us?
Dr. Paul has no interest in a "move to Cuba"; he would rather halt America's march towards absolute totalitarianism.
Those that refuse to recognize that our present government treats the Constitution as toilet paper, and disregards the Constitutional limitations that make for a legitimate government that protects Liberty-rather than shredding it on a daily basis-are part of the problem, because-as a previous post exposes-they refuse to grow up and act as free people.
M. Martin at 11:45AM on May 17th 2007
5. The following series of emails should suffice to convince any serious reader of who (and what) Eric Dondero Rittberg really is. Once you know that, you immediately know what he is doing, and why. The rest does not deserve the dignity of any comment, and is entirely left up to the reader's sound judgment. Any news organization that tries to "run" this story will expose itself and its agenda even more.
Background: In 2004, Dondero tried to run for Libertarian Party Vice president in order to gain members for the Republican Liberty Caucus he claims to have "founded", even though he was already outcast from the RLC.
The emails follow:
Eric said he was running for
LP VP not for the benefit of the LP, but for the benefit of the RLC.
If Eric had not withdrawn his candidacy, I was going to personally attend
the convention in Atlanta, and distribute handouts of the attached file.
Even when Eric sent the attached message, he had already been outcast by the
RLC ... so, I'm uncertain exactly who Eric was really hoping to help or hurt
by running for our VP slot.
Alex Wallenwein at 2:24PM on May 17th 2007
6. Something went wrong wit the previous post. Following is the actual series of emails:
-----Original Message-----
From: westmiller@aol.com [mailto:westmiller@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2004 5:23 PM
To: RLC-Discuss@yahoogroups.com; rlc-national@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [RLC-Discuss] FWD: Eric on Eric
I received the following response when I
asked Eric his intentions, for public use.
Bill
-------------------------------------------
Tell them that I'm really not serious. And that's the
truth. Maybe I'll garner a couple more LP Convention
invites and it will be a good chance to talk about the
RLC and libertarian Republicans. I can use the ploy
that Ron Paul and Leon Drolet are both dues-paying LP
Members. That we like the LP. Great guys who are
dedicated. But when it comes time to get yourself
seriously elected to office you should think of the
RLC strategy.
Tell them I'm doing this to recruit more RLC members,
which is essentially the truth.
Eric
-----Original Message-----
From: Westmiller@aol.com [mailto:Westmiller@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2004 10:51 PM
To:
Subject: Re: [RLC-Discuss] FWD: Eric on Eric
> How public is public?
I asked him to provide comments for posting to RLC-
Discuss, which is a public forum for members.
> May I forward to certain LP members for their reference?
Forum participants are warned that messages are
not private and that the eGroup offers no security for what
they may chose to post.
(And, it's certainly not copyrighted! ;o)
> By the way, I view this recruiting tactic as sleazy ...
> and, conducive to bad relations.
I agree that it's sleazy, but Eric does NOT represent
the RLC, so it shouldn't be taken as an impediment to
the relationship between the RLC and LP. He is, as you
say, a "loose cannon", acting for his own purposes.
Bill
From: westmiller@aol.com [mailto:westmiller@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2004 10:51 PM
To: rlc-national@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [RLC-National] RE: [RLC-Discuss] FWD: Eric on Eric
writes:
> For the record, could you please confirm Eric is acting as a "loose canon",
> and that his hostile marketing tactics are not sanctioned by RLC
leadership?
Eric neither consulted with, nor requested any approval
from, any officer or Board member for his "marketing tactics".
I've tried to dissuade him in personal emails, unsuccessfully.
Bill
Alex Wallenwein at 2:30PM on May 17th 2007
7. You may have never heard of Ron Paul, but he is certainly well known in his district - and has been for a very long time. He did not just now jump on the anti-war train. He has been saying this exact same thing throughout his entire political life. He has been overwhelmingly elected to congress by a farmer constituency - and that even though he has consistently opposed all federal farm welfare (ie, subsidies). Even when he was redistricted after 2000 in an attempt to create a district which would not elect him, he has won by landslide margins - including by more than 60% in 2006 when the rest of GOP was pretty much getting its butt handed to it on a platter.
Rocky at 3:00PM on May 29th 2007
8. The more I follow these politics and do my homework, the more this looks like High school all over.
So for anyone that is unsure; Ron Paul symbolizes the majority of students that don't fit into the COOL crowd. The COOL crowd was never really that cool when you look back on it anyway. So don't vote for the Prom Queen based on what the COOL people are saying, OK. We the mass American school body see right through it. Do your homework and then cast your Vote RON PAUL for President/Prom queen? =)
MadAmerican2 at 5:49PM on Jun 6th 2007
9. No, he didn't destroy his chances of winning. He bolstered them. Any grassroots candidate needs this kind of attention.
Why do people think what he said was so unreasonable, when the CIA SAYS it is the reason?
Bweaver at 1:55AM on Jun 7th 2007
10.
I never heard of Eric Dondero, but anti-Pauliens are jumping on it. Here is a balanced link that was helpful to me.
http://westanddivided.blogspot.com/2007/05/dwsuwf-reader-eric-dondero-running.html
Eric demonstrates the brand of Giuliani "Patriotism" that I find so distasteful. I think this tactic will have blowback to hurt them both.
Tom Rasor at 11:05PM on Jun 17th 2007
11. Eric was a phony pundit and is a sore loser...so..
HE GOT FIRED!!..Tell them Eric, tell the people the honest truth.
Karla at 11:55PM on Jul 19th 2007
12. Dondero is a disgrunteled former employee of Paul who sas fired, a neoconservative pretending to be a libertarian, and hasn't a snowball's chance in hell of beating Paul. He hopes that by pretending he is a libertarian that real libertarians might listen to him and vote anti-libertarian.
aynrkey at 9:18PM on Aug 2nd 2007