Ron Paul has a certain sort of superficial integrity that doesn't stand up to heavy scrutiny of his voting record.
Earmarks are, in fact, the easiest place to find the flaw in his character. If you examine his voting record, he frequently votes against enabling legislation for earmarks that, if you examine his congressional web site, he brags about having obtained for his district.
In addition, he has a tendency to abstain from voting against things he claims are 'unconstitutional', when votes on those bills will go against his earmark interest. This is harder to see, but can also be found in his voting record.
There is also, of course, the case of "The Ron Paul Report", a document he published for years with no indication of authorship other than his own, which contained very racist remarks -- right up until it stopped suiting his purposes to appear to be a racist.
And there's his interference in the Pentagon's attempts to close obsolete facilities in his district, something else he brags about.
If he had, perhaps even once, managed to pass legislation supporting his claimed libertarian stance, he might, possibly, be forgiven for being just another congress critter when it came to grabbing the goodies for his own district, but he is just as big a part of the problem as any of the others.
Beyond his integrity, there's the issue of his competence. He rarely gets his bills out of subcommittee into committee, let alone onto the floor, and his presidential campaign to date has been the clearest demonstration of how to raise a lot of money without accomplishing anything with it, ever.
And that's all before you get to his, to be charitable, unusual, reading of the constitution and naive economic philosophy.
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syntheid
Integrity and the lack there of
Date: 2008-05-05 05:18 am (UTC)Earmarks are, in fact, the easiest place to find the flaw in his character. If you examine his voting record, he frequently votes against enabling legislation for earmarks that, if you examine his congressional web site, he brags about having obtained for his district.
In addition, he has a tendency to abstain from voting against things he claims are 'unconstitutional', when votes on those bills will go against his earmark interest. This is harder to see, but can also be found in his voting record.
There is also, of course, the case of "The Ron Paul Report", a document he published for years with no indication of authorship other than his own, which contained very racist remarks -- right up until it stopped suiting his purposes to appear to be a racist.
And there's his interference in the Pentagon's attempts to close obsolete facilities in his district, something else he brags about.
If he had, perhaps even once, managed to pass legislation supporting his claimed libertarian stance, he might, possibly, be forgiven for being just another congress critter when it came to grabbing the goodies for his own district, but he is just as big a part of the problem as any of the others.
Beyond his integrity, there's the issue of his competence. He rarely gets his bills out of subcommittee into committee, let alone onto the floor, and his presidential campaign to date has been the clearest demonstration of how to raise a lot of money without accomplishing anything with it, ever.
And that's all before you get to his, to be charitable, unusual, reading of the constitution and naive economic philosophy.