Bradley Jansen, who was a staffer for Ron Paul from 1997 until 2001, offers some interesting insights into Bob Barr when he was in Congress:
Six years ago, I parted ways with the Libertarian Party over its misguided attempt to defeat Bob Barr in the Republican — that’s right, Republican — primary. Just as many Libertarians cling to their pipe dream that they had a role in defeating him despite evidence showing their efforts backfired, many now harbor similar delusions about Barr himself.
My favorite criticism of Bob Barr now is that he is a prohibitionist neocon who voted for the USA PATRIOT Act. Some critics decry his Defense of Marriage Act, support of the Fair Tax. Others go further, claiming that he has “changed his whole world view” to snooker the Libertarian Party to get their presidential nomination to “ride Ron Paul’s coattails.”
As Dr. Paul’s banking staffer, I used to have ask Barr to scoot his chair in so I could pass him on the dais to get to my boss, and we always worked closely together. For one committee markup, Barr and Paul both showed up with amendments to withdraw the United States from the International Monetary Fund. His staffer and I hastily cut and pasted ours together for our “ransom note” amendment with different margins, font styles, and sizes. See how fun politics can be?
Like Bob Barr, Dr. Paul himself supports DOMA (neither one supports a constitutional marriage amendment) and either a flat tax or the Fair Tax as preferable to the mess we have now. This “neocon warmonger” Barr joined Dr. Paul in suing President Clinton to stop his illegal bombing of Kosovo without congressional approval.
The “prohibitionist” charge carried some weight, but even while in Congress when the tension of protecting privacy and civil liberties challenged the drug war, Barr defended privacy. He joined my fight against the Know Your Customer bank spying proposal and managed Dr. Paul’s floor amendment on it. He was a leader in reforming civil asset forfeiture abuses.
In other words, a Republican until Bush and the neocons took over. So, it’s not surprising that he jumped ship and changed his mind.
June 2nd, 2008 at 3:12 pm
I saw a video that said Bob Barr was a federal prosecutor and a Cia Operative?? doest any one know if this is true. My friend told me Root is racist but I cant find any evidence to support that. I was also wondering if Ron Paul did or didnt endorse Barr? How does Paul feel about Wayne Root.? Did Paul endorse or oppose Root? IS Paul thinking about a vp spot with Barr? Ive been looking everywhere for this info. Can find it. They have a couple of videos at http://www.BarrRoot.com but nothing about Paul. The Barr/Root ticket is going to fail without paul. I read an article about Ron Paul maybe being a vp or vice ( veep ) on the libertarian ticket? Would this mean the LP will drop Root and run Bar and Ron Paul? Its a pretty good article but I dont know how true it is. Here is the Link http://www.BarrRoot08.com