Paul a Republican speaking out against the war
Published 9:03 pm Monday, November 26, 2007
By Staff
Rep. Ron Paul, 72, R-Texas, campaigns like he didn't get the memo detailing the conventional wisdom that his White House bid doesn't stand a chance.
The former obstetrician has been the most outspoken candidate in either party on the Iraq war.
So blunt, ironically, that he banked more campaign cash than Iraq-backer Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the Vietnam prisoner of war.
In fact, Paul has garnered more contributions from military families than any candidate in the race.
On Nov. 5 Paul raised $4.2 million online – a single-day record for a GOP presidential candidate.
"We are now spending close to a trillion dollars a year" on defense "when you add up every single thing we do overseas," Paul said in a recent interview with Tim Dickinson.
"You could start off easily cutting $100 billion. Bring the troops home, you could save $200 billion the next year. And maybe $250 billion the year after that.
"Quit paying to blow up bridges in Iraq and then paying to rebuild them. Bring that money home. Our bridges are falling down … The only way we can get enough money is by stopping this insane foreign policy of running this empire that we can't afford," Paul said.
In a recent debate, criticizing former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee for supporting the war, Paul insisted we're only staying in Iraq to "save face."
Asked if leaving wouldn't be a propaganda win for Osama bin Laden, Paul responded, "Everything is much worse if we stay. Right now they're very content to bleed us in Iraq. Bleed us financially and by killing Americans. We lose lives, we spend money we don't have, it furthers our financial crisis. The longer we're there, the stronger Al Qaeda gets. Our being there is the greatest incentive conceivable to help Osama bin Laden. The evidence is very clear. There's more Al Qaeda now than before. Which means we're in greater danger of being hit by terrorists than before.
"Besides, who are the people telling us there'll be problems if we leave? The same ones who said it would be a cakewalk. What kind of credibility do they have?"
"They're capable of telling us anything if they want to go to war" in Iran, Paul said. "And that's what they want."
Speaking of Huckabee, a bassist who as governor in 2006 pardoned Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards' 1975 misdemeanor reckless driving conviction in Fordyce, Ark., Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi Nov. 29 finds him "something entirely new – a cross between John Edwards and Jerry Falwell, an ordained Southern Baptist preacher who actually seems to (care) about the working poor – a marriage of Christian fundamentalism with economic populism.
'Rather than employing the patented Bush-Rove tactic of using abortion and gay rights to hoodwink low-income Christians into supporting patrician, pro-corporate policies, Huckabee is a bigger-government Republican who emphasizes prison reform and poverty relief … Huckabee recognizes that the only thing he has to lose by talking about poverty and high CEO salaries is the support of the big-money wing of his party – something he doesn't have anyway … He is the Howard Dean of the Republican Party, an insurgent candidate who shot toward the top by appealing to a disaffected base."
"He identifies with ordinary people," Arkansas Times editor Max Brantley, a Huckabee critic, said.
Huckabee criticizes his own party for harping on the supposed success of the overall economy.
"The reality is," Huckabee says, "there are many families that really are working as hard or harder than they've ever worked in their lives and they're not seeing that pay off."
As Arkansas governor, the man compared to "Blue Dog" Democrats outraged Republicans with his plan to expand health coverage for children, his embrace of Hurricane Katrina refugees and support for higher education subsidies for children of illegal immigrants.
Worse still, from a GOP perspective, he showed little hesitation in raising taxes to pay for such programs – a $505 million net tax hike, according to one analysis.
"Huckabee has an anti-CEO message that resonates with small-business conservatives," says conservative pollster Frank Luntz. "He's the only Republican who regularly talks about Wall Street accountability."
Buy America: Fueling the dollar's decline is a huge budget deficit forcing the United States to borrow abroad – particularly China, which alone holds more than $1.4 trillion in dollar reserves. In September, the U.S. trade deficit stood at $56.5 billion with the rest of the world.
The weak dollar could lead to greater buying of U.S. assets by foreign countries. Maybe America's largest banks will be taken over. Chinese inflation is a growing international concern.
Less reading: Concludes a National Endowment for the Arts report. Fifty-four percent of 9-year-olds read every day for "fun." The percentage of high school graduates deemed "deficient" in writing in English by employers is 72 percent. The number of 17-year-olds who "never or hardly ever" read for pleasure has doubled, to 19 percent, and their comprehension scores have fallen.
Recommended reading: "The Road to Bad Newz," by George Dohrmann, a Pulitzer Prize winner at 27 in 2000, and Farrel Evans, Sports Illustrated, Nov. 26, six pages about Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick's undoing by "ghetto loyalty."
"Michael Vick is not a thug. And the majority of black athletes who are lucky enough to make it out of the ghetto are not thugs," says Todd Boyd, professor of race and popular culture at USC and the author of "Young, Black, Rich and Famous."
Stem cell breakthrough: Two teams of researchers, including a scientist from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, reported reprogramming ordinary human skin cells to behave like embryonic stem cells, seen as key to treating a host of diseases. Isolating stem cells previously required destroying embryos – a method laden with ethical issues.
Australia ousts leader: The Bush administration lost one of its staunchest political allies Nov. 24 when Australians elected Labor Party candidate Kevin Rudd, 50, over Liberal incumbent John Howard, 68, the second-longest-serving prime minister in Australian history.
Rudd, a former diplomat in Sweden and China, promised to pull combat troops from Iraq and to ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which would leave the United States as the only major industrialized country shunning the global warming initiative.
More Malibu wildfires pushed by Santa Ana winds Nov. 24 destroyed the $10 million home of Flea, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist.
john.eby@leaderpub.com