The Daily Background

Remember that story about Ron Paul’s old political newsletter which contained all sorts of vile racist statements? Well it caused a stir in the blogosphere a while ago, and I still get a good deal of hits to the post I wrote, titled Racism in Ron Paul’s Past Writings? (See the post for examples of the disgusting racism contained in his old newsletter.)

Paul’s campaign later responded to my piece, saying that it was only his staffers writing these vile comments and publishing them under his name, and that he let them do it because he wasn’t paying attention. That’s pretty grossly irresponsible and dishonest in and of itself– to have somebody write a newsletter under your name, lead everyone to believe that you’re writing it, and then try to excuse yourself out of the picture when it turns out that your staffers are racist assholes.

But, as usual, the hero-worshiping Paulbots ate up Paul’s weak excuses and continue to roam around the internet defending him from accusations of racism.

But, now we find out, thanks to some reporters using Lexis Nexis, Ron Paul actually once defended his newsletters’ writings, and claimed that he himself wrote them, and complained that people were taking his racist statements out of context:

To bring those up to speed who might not have followed the events of past week, The New Republic’s exposure of racist writings in Ron Paul’s newsletter was the final straw after which many libertarians who had previously ignored Paul’s past realized they must disassociate themselves from Paul if they wished to retain any credibility. I have quoted the responses of several libertarians here and here. Paul’s defense was that the articles were ghost written by others and that he had not read the articles. He also claimed that he disagreed with the views expressed.
[…]
Reason has reviewed public statements from Paul over the years which are quite incriminating. At times Paul defended the writings, and the context of the news reports suggests Paul was aware of them even if a ghost writer assisted him. For example, the May 22, 1996 Dallas Morning News contains this (emphasis mine): “Dr. Paul denied suggestions that he was a racist and said he was not evoking stereotypes when he wrote the columns. He said they should be read and quoted in their entirety to avoid misrepresentation.”

This hardly sounds like someone who is either denying that he wrote the articles or denying that he agrees with what is published.

Read a collection of his Paul’s inconsistent statements on his racist newsletters over at Reason.

Earlier
Notorious anti-semitic Holocaust denier endorses Ron Paul
Ron Paul pledges to keep contribution from notorious racist leader
Ron Paul compares convicted extremist right-wing tax evaders to MLK
Why did Ron Paul vote against aid for Hurricane Katrina victims?
Racism in Ron Paul’s Past Writings?

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