Well now, Bill Still was warning about this back.... oh..... in February, I think.
TAMPA, Fla. — Just as this thing was becoming no fun, bless my soul, the last of the great ratfkers arrived. You can have your Republican pieties, because Roger Stone is here, and he is being Roger Stone all over the place.
....
He is actually on a mission for former New Mexico governor and Republican presidential candidate Gary Johnson, who is now the Libertarian standard-bearer.
Now remember, The Libertarian Party -- National and Florida's State Party -- just spent quite a bit of money, time, effort, and solicited a scadload of volunteers to come to Tampa and try to siphon off disaffected Paul supporters. I think we got 36, incidentally (at least that was the last number I saw.)
You would think that National and/or The State Party would have gotten the approval of the Paul contingent to do this. Not an explicit, public approval of course, which Ron Paul could not give before the Convention -- after all, the RNC might have done the right thing and like it or not Ron Paul is a Republican.
But a conditional, back-door approval? Oh yeah, especially considering that he expected to get screwed in Tampa by the "establishment" Republicans.
If we went there without that, and without coordinating this not only with Gary Johnson and all who are working for his campaign then we were fools.
Guess what: We were not just fools, we were damned fools.
Which is not to say that there isn't friction between the libertarians Johnson and Paul.
"I hired thirty hookers and sent them into Ron Paul's speech at the Sun Dome wearing these really skintight low-cut Gary Johnson T-shirts — they weren't hookers they were dancers, exotic dancers, pardon me. I sent them because they wouldn't let us in."
Why wouldn't Ron Paul let you into his speech?
"Because Ron would like to hand the franchise off to Rand. The Pauls are about money. They raised $47 million, and at least 5 of it was spent on the campaign. And a lot of the rest of it went into the pockets of Rand Paul family members and other hangers-on. It's a great franchise, so we're gonna try to hand the franchise to the idiot son. It's not going to work, because when this is over, I think Johnson will have greater cache.
So let me see if I get this right.
The National Libertarian Party and Florida State Libertarian Party set up camp to woo disaffected Ron Paul supporters on the come expecting that Ron would get dissed at the RNC. We were right -- he did get dissed. That was a good call, but it was the last good call we made.
It appears, however, that we failed to get the tacit approval from Ron Paul and then worse, the guy who we had people there at the event shilling for winds up with one of his "hot hands" showing up and ****ing with the very candidate who we are supposed to be wooing the supporters of!
What's worse, he then goes and takes a low shot at Ron Paul's (and his supporters') balls in print alleging that his positions are not about liberty at all (or even politics and policy in general) but rather that Ron Paul's entire goal is making money and specifically getting the money to Rand, and then he goes on to call Rand an idiot!
How in the hell do you spell "hypocrite"?
And people then wonder why, on Jay Leno, Ron Paul said exactly nothing about either the Libertarian Party or Gary Johnson?
Who expects an endorsement from someone after you kick him in the balls?
This is an outrage.
Our State Party has absolutely no business being engaged in this sort of crap and we should not be supporting candidates in any way, shape or form that engage in this sort of duplicitous behavior. It is one thing to have a difference of opinion on policy; I do that all the time and that is part of political discourse and debate. There are parts of the State Party apparatus that don't like me piping up on policy matters but that's just too damned bad -- that's part and parcel of public discourse and debate and discourse is how policy should be set.
But it is another matter entirely to attempt to intentionally disrupt a campaign event of someone who you claim to be seeking support from and to effectively, by doing so, spit on the very people that you are simultaneously trying to get to support you in the next venue down the street!
Our Standing Rules currently prohibit the EC from raising a censure motion or disavowal of a National Candidate; only the general assembly at the annual business meeting can do so. Due to the time at which our meeting is held this currently renders the ability of the assembly to disavow a national candidate impotent. This part of our Standing Rules obviously needs to change so that such actions by candidates and campaigns can meet with immediate disavowal votes to send a strong message that this sort of tactic, especially when coupled with solicitations for our Party in both money and volunteer time that is directly acted against by a campaigns' own affiliates, is over the line and unacceptable.
The author is a member of the Florida Libertarian Party, an EC Member at-large, and an officer of the Okaloosa County Libertarian Party. The opinions expressed are his own and not necessarily that of the EC, the LPOC or LPF.
