RECOVERED HISTORY: RON PAUL'S PAST CONT'D

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[Would that liberals were as willing to look as critically and honestly
at their icons - like the Clintons - as some Libertarians have been with
Ron Paul, particularly the crown at Reason. Here's some of the latest
analysis of Paul in Reason, more proof of why Libertarians are the best
people to disagree with about half the time]

MATT WELCH, REASON - In Ron Paul's statement responding to The New
Republic's story about his old newsletters, he said the following:

"The quotations in The New Republic article are not mine and do not
represent what I believe or have ever believed. I have never uttered
such words and denounce such small-minded thoughts. . . This story is
old news and has been rehashed for over a decade. . .

"When I was out of Congress and practicing medicine full-time, a
newsletter was published under my name that I did not edit. Several
writers contributed to the product. For over a decade, I have publicly
taken moral responsibility for not paying closer attention to what went
out under my name."

Has Paul really disassociated himself from, and "taken moral
responsibility" for, these "Ron Paul" newsletters "for over a decade"?
If he has, that history has not been recorded by the Nexis database, as
best as I can reckon.

The first indication I could find of Paul either expressing remorse
about the statements or claiming that he did not author them came in an
October 2001 Texas Monthly article -- less than eight years ago. Here is
the relevant excerpt, which references a Ron Paul newsletter that
referred to then-Rep. Barbara Jordan as "Barbara Morondon," and called
her the "archetypical half-educated victimologist" whose "race and sex
protect her from criticism":

"What made the statements in the publication even more puzzling was
that, in four terms as a U.S. congressman and one presidential race,
Paul had never uttered anything remotely like this.

"When I ask him why, he pauses for a moment, then says, 'I could never
say this in the campaign, but those words weren't really written by me.
It wasn't my language at all. Other people help me with my newsletter as
I travel around. I think the one on Barbara Jordan was the saddest
thing, because Barbara and I served together and actually she was a
delightful lady.' Paul says that item ended up there because 'we wanted
to do something on affirmative action, and it ended up in the newsletter
and became personalized. I never personalize anything.'"

"His reasons for keeping this a secret are harder to understand: 'They
were never my words, but I had some moral responsibility for them ... I
actually really wanted to try to explain that it doesn't come from me
directly, but they [campaign aides] said that's too confusing. 'It
appeared in your letter and your name was on that letter and therefore
you have to live with it.' It is a measure of his stubbornness,
determination, and ultimately his contrarian nature that, until this
surprising volte-face in our interview, he had never shared this secret.
It seems, in retrospect, that it would have been far, far easier to have
told the truth at the time."

So what exactly did Paul and his campaign say about these and more
egregious statements during his contentious 1996 campaign for Congress,
when Democrat Lefty Morris made the newsletters a constant issue?
Besides complaining that the quotes were taken "out of context" and
proof of his opponent's "race-baiting," Paul and his campaign defended
and took full ownership of the comments. . .

The first time I can find reporting on the controversy is in the May 22,
1996 Dallas Morning News:

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Dr. Ron Paul, a Republican congressional candidate from Texas, wrote in
his political newsletter in 1992 that 95 percent of the black men in
Washington, D.C., are 'semi-criminal or entirely criminal.'"

He also wrote that black teenagers can be 'unbelievably fleet of foot.'"


Dr. Paul, who is running in Texas' 14th Congressional District, defended
his writings in an interview Tuesday. He said they were being taken out
of context.

"It's typical political demagoguery," he said. "If people are interested
in my character ... come and talk to my neighbors." [...]

According to a Dallas Morning News review of documents circulating among
Texas Democrats, Dr. Paul wrote in a 1992 issue of the Ron Paul
Political Report: "If you have ever been robbed by a black teenaged
male, you know how unbelievably fleet of foot they can be."

Dr. Paul, who served in Congress in the late 1970s and early 1980s, said
Tuesday that he has produced the newsletter since 1985 and distributes
it to an estimated 7,000 to 8,000 subscribers. A phone call to the
newsletter's toll-free number was answered by his campaign staff. . .

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. . .

"If someone challenges your character and takes the interpretation of
the NAACP as proof of a man's character, what kind of a world do you
live in?" Dr. Paul asked.

In the interview, he did not deny he made the statement about the
swiftness of black men.

"If you try to catch someone that has stolen a purse from you, there is
no chance to catch them," Dr. Paul said.

He also said the comment about black men in the nation's capital was
made while writing about a 1992 study produced by the National Center on
Incarceration and Alternatives, a criminal justice think tank based in
Virginia.

Citing statistics from the study, Dr. Paul then concluded in his column:
"Given the inefficiencies of what DC laughingly calls the criminal
justice system, I think we can safely assume that 95 percent of the
black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal."

"These aren't my figures," Dr. Paul said Tuesday. "That is the
assumption you can gather from" the report.

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May 23, 1996, Houston Chronicle:

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Paul, a Republican obstetrician from Surfside, said Wednesday he opposes
racism and that his written commentaries about blacks came in the
context of "current events and statistical reports of the time." [...]

Paul also wrote that although "we are constantly told that it is evil to
be afraid of black men, it is hardly irrational.

Black men commit murders, rapes, robberies, muggings and burglaries all
out of proportion to their numbers."

A campaign spokesman for Paul said statements about the fear of black
males mirror pronouncements by black leaders such as the Rev. Jesse
Jackson, who has decried the spread of urban crime.

Paul continues to write the newsletter for an undisclosed number of
subscribers, the spokesman said.

Writing in the same 1992 edition, Paul expressed the popular idea that
government should lower the age at which accused juvenile criminals can
be prosecuted as adults.

He added, "We don't think a child of 13 should be held responsible as a
man of 23. That's true for most people, but black males age 13 who have
been raised on the streets and who have joined criminal gangs are as
big, strong, tough, scary and culpable as any adult and should be
treated as such."

Paul also asserted that "complex embezzling" is conducted exclusively by
non-blacks.

"What else do we need to know about the political establishment than
that it refuses to discuss the crimes that terrify Americans on grounds
that doing so is racist? Why isn't that true of complex embezzling,
which is 100 percent white and Asian?" he wrote.

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May 23, 1996, Austin American-Statesman:

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"Dr. Paul is being quoted out of context," [Paul spokesman Michael]
Sullivan said.  "It's like picking up War and Peace and reading the
fourth paragraph on Page 481 and thinking you can understand what's
going on." [...]

Also in 1992, Paul wrote, "Opinion polls consistently show that only
about 5 percent of blacks have sensible political opinions."

Sullivan said Paul does not consider people who disagree with him to be
sensible.  And most blacks, Sullivan said, do not share Paul's views. 
The issue is political philosophy, not race, Sullivan said.

"Polls show that only about 5 percent of people with dark-colored skin
support the free market, a laissez faire economy, an end to welfare and
to affirmative action," Sullivan said. [...]

"You have to understand what he is writing.  Democrats in Texas are
trying to stir things up by using half-quotes to impugn his character,"
Sullivan said.  "His writings are intellectual.  He assumes people will
do their own research, get their own statistics, think for themselves
and make informed judgments."

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May 26, 1996 Washington Post:

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Paul, an obstetrician from Surfside, Tex., denied he is a racist and
charged Austin lawyer Charles "Lefty" Morris, his Democratic opponent,
with taking his 1992 writings out of context.

"Instead of talking about the issues, our opponent has chosen to lie and
try to deceive the people of the 14th District," said Paul spokesman
Michael Sullivan, who added that the excerpts were written during the
Los Angeles riots when "Jesse Jackson was making the same comments."

"Ron knows our society and our nation has done some horrible things to
the black community, which has pushed a majority of young black men in
some areas, in Washington, D.C., for example, into criminal activities,"
Sullivan said.

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July 25, 1996, Houston Chronicle:

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Democratic congressional candidate Lefty Morris on Wednesday produced a
newsletter in which his Republican opponent, Ron Paul, called the late
Barbara Jordan a "fraud" and an "empress without clothes." [...]

Paul said he was expressing his "clear philosophical difference" with
Jordan. [...]

Paul, a Surfside physician and former congressman, said he was
contrasting Jordan's political views with his own.

"The causes she so strongly advocated were for more and more government,
more and more regulations and more and more taxes," Paul said.

"My cause has been almost exactly the opposite, and I believe her
positions to have been fundamentally wrong," the Republican said. ""I've
fought for less and less intrusive government, fewer regulations and
lower taxes."

Paul said Morris was trying to "reduce the campaign to name-calling and
race-baiting" so as to avoid more relevant issues, such as economic
growth, taxes and spending, crime and welfare reform.

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July 25, 1996, Dallas Morning News:

Dr. Paul, who faces Mr. Morris in the 14th District race for the U.S.
House, dismissed the criticism as "name-calling and race-baiting." [...]

In a written statement, Dr. Paul said, "Repeated attempts by my liberal
opponent to reduce the campaign to name-calling and race-baiting is just
more of the same old garbage we expect from his camp and will not deter
me from continuing to address the real issues."

Dr. Paul said his opinions about Ms. Jordan, who died earlier this year,
"represented our clear philosophical difference."

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July 29, 1996, Roll Call:

In a statement, Paul said he had "labored to conduct a campaign based
upon the issues that are vital to our nation" and charged Morris with
"repeated attempts...to reduce the campaign to name calling and
race-baiting."

He called Morris's request that he release all back issues of the
newsletter "not only impractical, but...equivalent to asking him to
provide documents for every lawsuit he has been involved in during his
lengthy legal career."

Of his statements about Jordan, Paul said that "such opinions
represented our clear philosophical difference. The causes she so
strongly advocated were for more government, more and more regulations,
and more and more taxes. My cause has been almost exactly the opposite,
and I believe her positions to have been fundamentally wrong: I've
fought for less and less intrusive government, fewer regulations, and
lower taxes."

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http://www.reason.com/blog/show/124339.html

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