Parrots Abound
Posted by Mike@RadarPress on January 14, 2008
| Racist Rantings in Old Newsletters Aren’t the Only Skeletons in Ron Paul’s Closet |
Maverick GOP Candidate Hotly Denies Being Author of Anonymous ’80s and ’90s Screeds in Newsletter That Bears His Name and Insists He’s Not a Racist, But Why Is His Campaign Being Openly Supported By — and Accepting Donations From — Avowed White Supremacists?
By Skeeter Sanders
Supporters of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul have complained for months that the mainstream news media have engaged in a conspiracy to keep him out of the public eye by ignoring his maverick campaign.
Now, however, they may be wishing that the media had continued to ignore him, for the Texas congressman — who’s made a name for himself as the only candidate in the GOP field who staunchly opposes the Iraq war — is suddenly in the eye of a very unwanted media hurricane.
The New Republic magazine and CNN have uncovered a series of newsletters published in Paul’s name in the late 1980s and early 1990s that contain numerous racially-charged articles — including one that says order was restored to Los Angeles after the 1992 riots when blacks went “to pick up their welfare checks.”
But Paul has an ever bigger problem than the newsletters: Several prominent white supremacists have endorsed Paul’s candidacy — one of whom gave his campaign a $500 donation and another of whom is insisting in a statement posted on a far-right-wing Web site that the candidate has “extensive involvement in white nationalism” and is a “closeted” white nationalist himself.
Among the self-described “white nationalists” backing Paul’s candidacy include former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke — whom the national Republican leadership, including then-President George H.W. Bush, loudly repudiated in 1991 when he ran unsuccessfully as the GOP nominee for governor of Louisiana.
Bill White, leader of the American National Socialist Worker’s Party, claims in a posting late last month to the Web site of the far-right-wing Vanguard News Network that “Both Congressman Paul and his aides regularly meet with members of the Stormfront set, American Renaissance, the Institute for Historic Review” and other far-right groups at an Arlington, Virginia restaurant on a weekly basis.
Jesse Benton, a spokesman for Paul’s campaign, angrily denied White’s claims, telling the Internet edition of The New York Times that neither Paul nor his aides ever attended these restaurant meetings, nor has the Texas congressman ever “knowingly” met White.
Norman Singleton, a congressional aide to Paul, acknowledged to the Times, however, that he met White at a dinner gathering of conservatives “several years ago,” after which Singleton expressed his “indignation” with White’s racial views.
Newsletter Articles Rail Against Blacks, Gays and Israeli Lobby
CNN acknowledged that all of the bigoted rants published in the copies of the Ron Paul Political Report newsletter obtained by the network were written anonymously and that the author’s identity could not be determined. In an interview broadcast Thursday on CNN’s “The Situation Room,” the maverick GOP presidential candidate insisted that he didn’t write any of the offensive articles and has “no idea” who did.
“When you bring this question up, you’re really saying, ‘You’re a racist’ or ‘Are you a racist?’ And the answer is, ‘No, I’m not a racist,’” Paul told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, insisting that he never read the articles. “I do repudiate everything that is written along those lines,” he said, adding he wanted to “make sure everybody knew where I stood on this position because it’s obviously wrong.”
The controversial newsletters include rants against the Israeli lobby, gays, AIDS patients and the late civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — who was described as a “pro-Communist philanderer.” The national holiday honoring what would have been Dr. King’s 79th birthday will be observed next Monday.
One newsletter, dated June 1992 in the aftermath of the Los Angeles riots, says “order was only restored in L.A. when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks.” The riots — the worst in the city’s history — were triggered by the acquittal of four white police officers of criminal assault charges in the videotaped beating of Rodney King, a black motorist whom officers had initially stopped for speeding.
The Rodney King case was the most notorious in a decades-long series of racially-charged incidents that poisoned relations between the Los Angeles Police Department and the city’s African American community. The officers were later found guilty in federal court on charges of violating King’s civil rights.
Another anonymously-written rant in the newsletter says, “The criminals who terrorize our cities — in riots and on every non-riot day — are not exclusively young black males, but they largely are. As children, they are trained to hate whites, to believe that white oppression is responsible for all black ills, to ‘fight the power,’ to steal and loot as much money from the white enemy as possible.”
Other Articles Make References to Paul’s Texas Hometown
http://www.skeeterbitesreport.com
I’m a native of New York City who’s called the Green Mountain state of Vermont home since the summer of 1994. A former freelance journalist, I’m a fiercely independent freethinker who’s highly skeptical of authority figures — especially when they’re on the wrong side of the issues I care about. But I’m not afraid to also call into question those with whom I would usually be “on the same page” if and when they, too, are on the wrong side of the issues I care about.
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Dr Paul is a Champion of individual rights Since October 1, 2007 Ron Paul has: • over 247,000 donors • average donation size $76 • Won 19 out of 25 Republican Straw Polls Given this breadth of support, it is not surprising there’s some bad apples in the mix of supporters. Their views do not reflect those of Dr Paul. He is a champion of individual rights regardless of race or religion. by BHorsfield (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 comments) on Monday, January 14, 2008 at 11:27:56 AM
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