The mainstream libertarian world is reacting to the Ron Paul newsletter controversy by denouncing the kookiness that the leading paleolibertarians around Paul seem to attract and even encourage. David Boaz at the Cato Institute gives the most perceptive take on it so far:Assuming Ron Paul in fact did not write those letters, people close to him did. His associates conceived, wrote, edited, and mailed those words. His closest associates over many years know who created those publications. If they truly admire Ron Paul, if they think he is being unfairly tarnished with words he did not write, they should come forward, take responsibility for their words, and explain how they kept Ron Paul in the dark for years about the words that appeared every month in newsletters with “Ron Paul” in the title.Paul says he didn’t write the letters, that he denounces the words that appeared in them, that he was unaware for decades of what 100,000 people were receiving every month from him. That’s an odd claim on which to run for president: I didn’t know what my closest associates were doing over my signature, so give me responsibility for the federal government.Reason's Radley Balko's take is a close second in perceptiveness. The Free Liberal calls on the newsletters' "contributing editor" Lew Rockwell to identify who wrote the decades' worth of damning material. In a very effective defense of his role in the scandal, Ron Paul told CNN that he was merely the "publisher" and that "the editor is responsible for the daily activities." Wendy McElroy says the identity of the author is an "open secret" in her circle, and calls on the author to not "further sully the libertarian movement by your silence". She approvingly quotes someone speculating that the author is someone "equally as prominent to Paul and remains a close confidant of the Paul campaign" and says Paul was a "mentor" to the author -- again, this sure sounds like Lew Rockwell. However, Reason editor Matt Welch opens the Nexis kimono and quotes extensively from articles in the mid-1990s, in which Paul repeatedly declined to deny authorship of the milder quasi-racist newsletter comments that were questioned during his 1996 congressional campaign. The most bizarre thing about this whole sorry episode is the deafening silence coming from Ron Paul gadfly and disgruntled ex-aide Eric Dondero, whose extensive archive of movement literature would presumably have included some of these newsletters. Is he just sulking that he got scooped by Kirchik?
-- Posted By Brian Holtz to Libertarian Intelligence at 1/12/2008 09:54:00 AM
