July 2007 Archives

Not only is he on the campaign trail with his wife, but Bill Clinton is burning up the campaign cash with a little note of his own to people. Apparently he can smell the taste of another round at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. This ought to be easy. He starts with;

The only reason to get involved in a campaign for President is that you believe a candidate will be the best President.

Not really. I'll support a monkey or slug, rather than think my vote for President has any value or meaning.
Whether it's a hippy anarchist or mealy mouthed radical, I'm perfectly happy to stand outside in the pouring rain and protest the hypocrisy and two-facedness of the average politician who has risen to a position to accept money from special interests and favoritism from a vapid press corps whose analytical skills amount to nothing more than naive hagiography.

Bill goes on to tell us about her charity to the poor in law school. The Children's Defense Fund work and part of the staff on the House Judiciary Committee. Aren't there some choice quotes/moves from that stint that were applied during your impeachment ?

I'm still torqued at Pat Moynihan for clearing the decks for the carpetbagging First Martyr. That disdain rivals the feelings for a pathetic GOP that can't even find a candidate to put up a good fight. I suppose 2012 would be the first possibility to try my own hand at it. We could be four years into a Lady Bubba White House though . . .

Even though he's not endorsed by Steve Kubby or duking it out over Ron Paul with George Phillies, Kent McManigal still wants your vote. And while he seems more prolific than the writer in the race, Kent takes his time talking far more than I do . . .

I'm not sure when Kent came on my radar, but I've liked him ever since. Sure, he's not the third party gambler like some, but he does have substance and style. Kent's a little taller than I expected and quite thin. I met him on my way to the LNC meeting in Pittsburgh this July. Kent lives just outside Scranton and had me meet him at Lazybrook Park across from a lumber operation about thirty minutes off the Interstate. I was glad to catch him in his own element so to speak. The Arby's in Scranton just wouldn't cut it for a guy like this. So if your just sick of all the choices and still feel voting is important, you might write-in 'Kent McManigal' for President.

Every time I use Mapquest to negotiate Pennsylvania I end up on short stretches of local highways that are invariably undergoing some type of construction. This last trip to Pittsburgh was no exception. The LNC met this last weekend in Pittsburgh. Despite interruptions in order to facilitate print and radio interviews for Chairman Redpath and former Congressman Bob Barr, the committee was able to pick bylaws, credentials and platform committees. While I was only able to attend the Saturday functions, which included formal photos of LNC members and a group photo, it's always good to see people give up a weekend in order to promote Liberty.

Whatever criticisms one may have of Mr. Barr's former position or positions in life, he is amiable and generous in real life. He seems to have embraced his counterparts on the LNC and took the time to autograph his book, The Meaning of Is, for me. I even got the impression that had I wanted a free copy he would have provided it. As we strolled to lunch we had a brief discussion about former Congressman John Sweeney and the troubles he had last Fall. The committee decided that Mr. Barr would be the keynote speaker at the 2008 convention in Denver next May. As Secretary Sullentrup summarized, ' I can't think of a better person to speak about the reasons why people should leave the Democratic and Republican parties'. Hopefully the rabid, hardcore libertarians in the ranks can appreciate the value of a high end speaker with no expectation of honorarium requirements for his stance on Freedom.

This week's Chris Matthews had Cynthia Tucker calling John McCain the only true war hero in the current race. While it may be a stretch to call a flight surgeon in the early stages of Vietnam a ' war hero ', certainly he was a hero to anyone he treated at the time. While McCain has the romanticism and real scars of a pilot in a prison camp, he deserves no more or less in terms of the honor of his service.

My fear that the pain of the experience and the tendency of people to emphasize the dramatic and ultimately the emotional, will continue this sentiment for heroes. Neither man was instrumental in the start or conclusion of the conflict. They rose to the skills of their competence and both should be lauded at the heights of man's understanding of both. Yet the talk is better spent on the personalities, money and the horse race. As the real metrics and events come trickling over the next few months, we can breathe release during the Presidential holidays in February that the need to pay attention only lasted a month and one more to come. Issues matter not at this stage . . . .

I have to admit this book might not have been on my 'A' list to read, but Mr. Barr's recent appointment to the LNC prompted me to get this one. While I have already met Mr. Barr and recorded his speech in Portland, I will also be serving with him during this term of the LNC. The most important aspect of this relationship is that Mr. Barr is serious and reasonable.

While I was rather indifferent to the whole impeachment of Bill Clinton, I didn't have a big problem with the proceedings. Indeed, as a Libertarian it's frequently assumed that most Presidents violate some aspect of the Constitution and should be held more accountable to principle rather than promoting power and partisanship. Putting aside (and I'll come back to it) any reservations about Mr. Barr's past as a drug warrior, it seems certain that Mr. Barr is cognizant of the relationship of principle and power. For that reason alone I recommend this book and support his tenure on the LNC.

There's a lot of chatter about libertarian GOP candidate Ron Paul. The upcoming prospect that he may have raised 2.4 million doesn't put him in the Obama netroots category, but the average GOP folks don't have as much experience as the other side. Whatever online support, YouTube viewers or whatever metric one wants to attribute or take away from the campaign, he is getting MSM coverage. That's something no declared Libertarian candidate can ever really claim.

While there are prominent naysayers in the LP camp over Dr. Paul, the spirit of the Ron Paul supporters is something to be carefully watched. The creative videos and quasi-commercials on the Net may never reach the encrusted GOP'ers in paneling graced family rooms with land lines who get most of those random poll calls, but those willing to go out and reach out is increasing. This seems more so than any other 'second-tier' candidate as some in the elite core of the MSM like to call them. The question for us hardcore LP'ers is not whether we can compete with the Paul campaign, but is whether this enthusiastic rabble in arms not in the clutches of corporatism and special interests will have any interest beyond the brief glimpse and hope that Paul offers in terms of message.

Now the think tanks have my address. The Heritage Foundation sent me a survey to be submitted by June 25th. Another deadline missed. This thinly guised plea for funds is to be given to all the influential folks in the conservasphere in DC. I know that Alberto Gonzalez reads this blog, unfortunately he has trouble recalling exactly my point many times.

Like Hillary's recent missive this one touches on all the good stuff. Immigration, War on Terror, Security at Home, Government Spending and 'other critical' issues. One even gets a shot at the Prez and his cohorts on Capital Hill. With no further ado, here's a sampling of the secret survey.

Dear Tim Morgan,

Congratulations on you appointment ( or did you suffer a plebiscite for such a noble position ? ) as the Republican National Committee's new Treasurer. If you'll consult your records, I'm sure you'll find that I have never been a Republican, nor made any contributions to the NY GOP, let alone the RNC. So I am surprised that you know how generously I have helped the Party in the past.

I don't want to believe you've abandoned the Republican Party, but I have to ask . . . Have you given up ? . . . . I promised Mike Duncan, the RNC Chairman and former Treasurer himself, that I'd contact you at once to get you back on our team.

Okay Tim, let me check my trade clause with the chairman of my Party, the Libertarian Party before I get back to you on this. I'm sure Bill Redpath will be disappointed with me to find out I've given up on my position on the LNC in order to donate to a party that starts illegal wars, implements illegal wiretaps and suspends hapeus corpus. But you never know . . .

Apparently Hillaryis44 isn't impressing enough regular folks as the insiders when a 1/4 million of them produce a 35 million windfall that must be making Joe Trippi wet his pants that he picked the Edwards campaign to spin his new Dean rocket.

Somehow I managed to toss the last Hillary missive via my wife's previous enrolled affiliation so it missed the the libertarian purview that these entreaties have provided so much blog fodder. The latest 'Act for Change' survey and the fact that I'm invisible to the government (if only . . ) make for a whole bunch of hearty guffaws as the sad reality of the Bush/Clinton/Bush/Clinton dialectic marches on.