This is for any of the Kos crew I may have provoked with this post over there:
Recent attacks on Representative Paul from a spooked right wing amalgam is understandable in the context of fearful neocons watching their empire dwindle in the final days. I have to admit I was surprised by posts first seen on DK suggesting he was a racist. 
While this sentiment is easily dismissed (as much as Eric Dondero)in the Liberty movement it's quite disconcerting to see the orange drupal corps. continue their own vilification effort.
Anyone who has followed Ron Paul's career would be hard pressed to find a genuine angry or personal bone from the country doctor who has delivered over 4000 babies in his district. There simply is no David Duke-like pattern of malfeasance and hatred that is so easily discerned in those types of personalities. Perhaps the constant association with the power of a major party allows for such aggressive and angry behavior towards the 'other' side, but is it possible that a principled, constitutionally based anti-war message is a threat to more than just the traditional Kirkian conservatives ?
Sometimes an act of political bravery comes from more than the Dennis Kucinich's of the world. Cleveland's ex-mayor will unlikely be able to excoriate the President of 9/11 in an open format. The Hillary, Obama or Edwards dance would have a hard time countering Paul's anti-war record. Equally unlikely is an anti-war progressive taking the leap to a free market, anti-welfare Republican if he were on the ticket. But it is that exact ticket which may be the only hope for the GOP in '08.
So perhaps its not surprising to see the muckraking and twisting of the words and record of one of the most honorable men to walk the halls of Congress. While the LP would probably welcome a second candidacy of Dr. Paul for its nomination, we ultimately know that ours is a refuge of quirky and spirited souls who believe that justifying force for political purposes is never cool. Sometimes it's good to be the geeky bystander without many friends yelling the truth into the tower of babel.
I've never seen so many people coalesce around such a vicious attack on character as this bunch of anti-Ron Paul freaks at DKos. It's genuine swiftboating from the left, where distortion and flat out lies have become their mainstay.
I've won more neighbors over to Paul's side that I would have ever thought possible by simply pointing out the dangers to this country of single party rule. Paul is the *only* logical choice among the opposing party candidates, with the badge of the constitution shining brightly on his record, to balance a soon to be heavily-weighted Democratic congress. You'd be surprised how many people agree with that logic.
Don't go off on all of DKos. There is a group who've used the racist meme to denigrate him. There's a bunch that have defended him (I won't say support him, as DKos is a progressive/democratic site). I realize that Rep. Paul isn't a progressive's dream, but I do think that he's heads and shoulders above the other Republican candidates, and I think that Dems should want the best Republican cadidate to run against them on the chance the the Republican 'wins' the election ('' because of the questions about the last two elections).
rjones - Fair enough and I agree and thank those who have defended truth. My previous experience over there has been mixed, but is often assailed for not being 'true blue'.
I've been reading Ron Paul's writings for nearly 20 years and I have never seem anything remotely racist in them.
The interesting thing about it is that the common cause with Ron Paul people are the Kucinich and Gravel people (I'm one of them). I've pointed out that Ron Paul would be on the DKos side, in theory, about half the time (the half the time something's constitutional, against war, etc.). I know that that Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul would be thought of as polar opposites, but they're both right on the occupation, and on our dabbling around with other countries as if we own them. I think we also point out that Ron Paul's head and shoulders above the other Repubs in the race (head, shoulders and upper body over Newt and Fred!).
There's a strong support whoever's on top meme over at DKos, and so Kucinich, Gravel and Paul are treated as non-entities.
I'm just pleased to see the ideas out there being churned around instead of the 'love it or leave 'it mentality 24/7. Kucinich and Gravel are on target about the war, no doubt.
As a third party person I find myself making outreach and contact with Greens in this regard. Common efforts and frequent prejudice tend to take highly intelligent persons who can coalesce on common matters. Unfortunately some in the LP would like to moderate the message in order to build what they think will be a big tent project, while ignoring the real forces and interests in politics.
Therefore to turn the Paul campaign into a retro and tenuous muckraking endeavor set me off a bit. Some of the moronics are evident in the DIGG comments, I haven't ventured back to the KOS flak from this post yet. Figured I'd let marginalized folks have a microphone here first.