Paul to critic: If government was the answer, you’d be less bloated
posted at 8:33 am on July 5, 2007 by Allahpundit
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Gratifying, notwithstanding my disdain for the man. There’s something magical about a fat putdown when it’s enlisted to make an actual political point, isn’t there? It’s one of the reasons Michael Moore remains such a, er, large target on the right: his call to share the wealth never seems to reach as far as his own Ho-Ho’s. FYI, if the crowd seems a little agitated here, but that’s because there are no Truthers in the audience. It’s from 1988, when the modern Cult of Paul was still just a gleam in its daddy’s eye.
Don’t ask me where I found the clip. You already know.
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Ron Paul is dangerous, because he is right about allot of stuff. He just needs to take off the tinfoil hat.
I have noticed his followers are a little whacky too. They are nut root republicans.
TheSitRep on July 5, 2007 at 8:47 AM
Speaking truth to corpulence.
flipflop on July 5, 2007 at 9:00 AM
Actually, I saw it as quite rude. The audience member’s an idiot, yes, but Paul sunk to his level of idiocy by launching personal attacks.
amerpundit on July 5, 2007 at 9:03 AM
McCain is right half the time too. And when they are right about something, they are ‘damm right’.
Doesn’t make them any less insane the other half the time though.
LegendHasIt on July 5, 2007 at 9:07 AM
Ron Paul is the second coming of Christ. You are all going to burn in hell for your apostacy.
Immolate on July 5, 2007 at 9:16 AM
I think its funny that Ron Paul would respond to a question with such indignation, then barely 20 years later, a suggestion by Ron Paul, would get the same response from Guiliani. There’s a word that describes when your actions cause unexpected concequences, I just can’t think of it right now.
As a side note: Over the weekend, someone here celebrated the 4th of July by hanging Ron Paul signs all over town, including a spray painted bedsheet hanging from a pedestrian overpass that said “A Reasonable Republican in 2008: Ron Paul.” Seriously, a bedsheet.
BohicaTwentyTwo on July 5, 2007 at 9:33 AM
That hanging of Ron Paul signs might be more than just your area, I saw a few in the Toledo area too.
pb5000 on July 5, 2007 at 9:39 AM
Ron paul is right about a lot of stuff. I got a kick out of his position on illegal immigration. He is the only candidate that wants to shut down anchor babies. It is not that he is a wizard, his only juice it to Follow the Constitition. Any candidate that uses that guide should make sense.
saiga on July 5, 2007 at 9:41 AM
Paul bedsheets in Tempe, AZ, too! Its a movement!
AZCON on July 5, 2007 at 9:55 AM
Paul is a ghandi candidate, he’s pro-life and anti-death penalty for the same reason that he’s an isolationist/non-interventionist. He beleives the use of ‘force’ is always wrong.
what bothers me about him is the naivety, lying/half-truths and everything else when he starts talking about history and FP..
jp on July 5, 2007 at 9:57 AM
Cult of personality.
reppac122 on July 5, 2007 at 9:59 AM
Paul hates the welfare state. His view on what the government has the authority to collect taxes and spend money on is fixed. He won’t get elected, but if he did at least he would be predictable. Like me, he thinks the Illegals are a political football. The cause of their overwhelming presence is the goverments failure to enforce our law that created a huge magnet. To him, the answer is to shut down all aspects of the magnet. Protecting the border is a basic constitutional government responsibility that he would spend whater it takes to fix.
saiga on July 5, 2007 at 10:06 AM
It -was- the morton downey jr show. That was actually an intellectual exchange for the show.
lorien1973 on July 5, 2007 at 10:10 AM
Ace had a quote from his website the other day, saying that the constitution says that there ONLY 3 Federal Crimes…., Ace in his post goes on to show how stupid that is by highlighting some of the crimes the founders made in the first several congress’s.
jp on July 5, 2007 at 10:14 AM
saiga:
There it is. Not complicated. If the government will not operate under the rule of law, you can expect more and worse out of it until the end of time. Even the sainted war in Iraq would be possible–just have Congress make a declaration of war first.
Ron Paul offered just such a thing, and Congress passed on the opportunity. Why? So they wouldn’t have to take responsibility. Half of the trouble we have now with partisan back-stabbing stems from that right there.
Sayeth Henry Hyde:
Good clip, BTW. Dr. Paul makes his point by getting personal, which is exactly what is so bad about government overreach. It’s all well and good for that guy to shout “zero tolerance!”, until he risks losing his house and jail because his roommate sells a little dope to friends.
rho on July 5, 2007 at 10:17 AM
Ron Paul is right about the “War on Drugs.” If the governement stopped fighting the drug trade, stopped funding treatment programs and let drug users fall into the abyss you would see the countries attitude towards drug use change overnight. We as a society can curtail drug use dramatically with a good leather belt (for the kids) or a pool ball and a sock.(for the dealers)
The expectation that government is going to take care of you is dangerous.
Theworldisnotenough on July 5, 2007 at 10:29 AM
the “Iraq WAR Resolution” passed by congress was a “Declaration of War”…the Constitution doesn’t say it has to be a document with the words “Declaration of War” on top, just that COngress has to declare war. If the “Iraq War Resolution” is a declartion of war, then what the heck is it????
Ron Paul is an idiot on many things, reminds me of some biblical fundamentalist groups in the way they interpret the bible(literally, even the passages that are obviously visions)…guys like Paul turn the Constitution into Holy Words and interpret the same way. Completely ignoring the founders intent, and their ACTIONS in the first several congress’s and Administrations
jp on July 5, 2007 at 10:33 AM
Ron Paul is the new Nader.
- The Cat
MirCat on July 5, 2007 at 10:33 AM
I am really unhappy with the trillions of dollars collected and wasted by the government. Every time I read about the budjet and hear about all the rediculous expenditures, I get frustrated. I don’t mind paying fair taxes for appropriate things, but all the trash programs really get my goat.
Unfortunately, I don’t see that changing. My worry is the same old one about the public figuring out they can vote themselves money out of the treasury. Money from my pocket.
saiga on July 5, 2007 at 10:35 AM
There are serious fractures within the Republican party among social conservatives, pro-business folks, and libertarians. Ron Paul’s candidacy is disruptive to the top-tier Republicans because he highlights the rift with republicans who operate from the Thomas Paine notion of “government which governs least”. The immigration debate amplified the fissure between the business wing and the rest of the party. The eventual nominee will have a challenge in 2008 to pull the party together. Rudy seems like he’d have the toughest time.
dedalus on July 5, 2007 at 10:46 AM
Where’s Living Color when you need them….
unamused on July 5, 2007 at 11:32 AM
I’m still waiting for a real barn burner to come out of the woodwork. I haven’t seen yet who it could be, but there is no doubt real ooportunity for a new candidate. No Teddy Roosevelt types in the game yet.
saiga on July 5, 2007 at 11:47 AM
I don’t know that it makes sense to distinguish the modern Cult of Paul from its 1988 counterpart. The guy never really went away, nor did his cult following. Nor did the 1988 version of Paul ran on platforms differing significantly from the nonsense he is spewing today. The only real differences between Paul ‘88 and Paul ‘08 are that the 1988 version of Paul (1) didn’t pretend to be a Republican and (2) did garner a whopping 0.47% of the popular vote.
Xrlq on July 5, 2007 at 11:51 AM
Paul is not my congressman, but he is next door to my district. He understands what he says and seems to me to be a reasonably smart guy. All the old timers up and down the upper Texas coast line between Galveston and Port O’Conner seem to like him. I really think he believes his own stuff. Rare for politicians these days. Most others are focus group driven, but not Ron Paul.
Not a barn burner though. He would need to be more John Wayne-ish to make any big dent. He is more a Hugh Heffner type.
saiga on July 5, 2007 at 12:08 PM
i thought he beleived his stuff till recently.
He loves pork and votes against cutting the budget.
He put forth around 100 different Pork request for last budget, though he voted against the budget knowing full well it would pass when he put his pork request in.
last year when they cut the budget $50 billion, he voted against it along with all the dems and the 1 socialist up there.
jp on July 5, 2007 at 12:18 PM
I read the list of funding requests he placed and recognized many of the projects. To me, pork is bridges to nowhere or studying toad sex habbits. Most of his were waterway improvements and maintenance projects. Those items are critical for all the barge traffic along the intercostal waterway. There are many feeder canals that connect the petrochemical plants to the intercoastal canal. The barge traffic between Corpus Christi and New Orleans is very very heavy. He has the Matagorda Bay/Port Lavaca Ship channel, Freeport Ship channel, and the Galveston ship channel in his district along with about 7 river athorities. (Brazos River, San Bernard river, Tres Palacios River, Oyster Bayou, Bastrop Bayou, Dickenson Bayou, Choclate Bayou, Etc. All these are used by barge traffic to connect Chemical plants and refineries.
saiga on July 5, 2007 at 12:55 PM
Saiga..Now that’s what I like to read…someone who knows his subject and does his homework…good on ya !
DoctorDentons on July 5, 2007 at 1:04 PM
Nice spin, but face it- he made pork-barrel requests for his home district. You might be able to extract a somewhat tortured justification for some of them, but certainly not all.
IIRC, there was one to upgrade computers for a nursing college or something like that- I must’ve missed the article of the Constitution that addressed that one.
Hollowpoint on July 5, 2007 at 1:28 PM
Allah, is any Ron Paul thread truly complete without a poll to spam?
ReubenJCogburn on July 5, 2007 at 1:59 PM
some of the “principled” Ron Paul pork request
he gets the best of both worlds, pork for his district and by voting against a budget he knows will pass anyway he keeps his talking points for his mindless followers. Just like “do as a I say, not as i do” libs
jp on July 5, 2007 at 2:08 PM
I saw that nursing one. That was at the Brazosport Medical Center. I’m not sure what the funding setup is for the Brazosport Community College there. But, some pork is better than others.
saiga on July 5, 2007 at 2:09 PM
Some animals are more equal than others too.
I have no doubt that Ron Paul is an honest person and that he has real conviction for what he believes. He is the only candidate to have released his earmark requests, he’s constantly been a minority of one, ect. I know his excuse would be something amounting to “they tax us we might as well get something back.” But that’s not libertarianism, and that’s not what Ron Paul originally, and still does, pontificate.
It’s part of him being corrupted while in office. Pork is still pork, and gaining funds like that from the government is not something he runs on. It’s still hypocracy.
Keljeck on July 5, 2007 at 2:15 PM
with this excuse, which i’ve seen from some ron paul cultist, I don’t see how they keep it with a straight face. That logic justifies the pork for all congressmen, and the taxes.
jp on July 5, 2007 at 2:26 PM
some of the “principled” Ron Paul pork request
* antibiotic testing of seafood in his hometown.
* “personalized medicine in asthma” for the “disadvantaged” of his hometown.
* shore protection measures for his home county.
* cancer center expansion at his county hospital.
* a Cedar bayou created in his home county.
* the “operation” of a dozen other bayous, swamps, lakes, creeks and waterways in his constituency.
* converting a clipper ship to a classroom for his hometown university.
* building new jetties on his local river.
* a shipping channel between his hometown and Corpus Christi Texas.
* “transportation enhancements” for a local theater.
* buying new buses (local and “regional”) for his hometown.
* a replacement rail bridge in his hometown.
* new trolleys in his hometown.
* funding a scholarship in the name of a tax-exempt religious entity.
* “vanadium safety readiness” training for a private research facility in his hometown.
* distance education courses offered through his local university.
* research into shrimp fishing in his hometown.
* marketing of “Wild American Shrimp”
It looks more like seafood than pork to me. And, you must not have a clue about what it takes to maintain the massive waterway infrastructure along the upper Texas coast. That waterway between “his home town and Corpus” is the Intercoastal Canal. Rest assured he is not digging another one. His home town is Lake Jackson, in the Greater Brazosport Area. And He is not digging a new Cedar Bayou either. With all the development along the coast, flood control is a big issue. Just ask New Orleans. I am not going to complain about him trying to address flood control proactively.
And, I thought the clipper ship was for the Texas A&M branch at Pelican Island in Galveston. Want to be Merchant Marine Officers need that sort of thing. Some could argue that Liberty Ships and their crews have helped National Security in years past. Also, with the seafood industry being big on the upper Texas Coast with thousands of independent shrimpers, oysterman, and fisherman, food safety is a big issue.
saiga on July 5, 2007 at 2:27 PM
Show me in the constitution where shrimp safety is a federal issue and I’ll go along with you.
Ron Paul gave in.
Keljeck on July 5, 2007 at 2:54 PM
FDA has ultimate responsibility. God knows they need thought ledership from time to time.
saiga on July 5, 2007 at 3:24 PM
I don’t remember reading about supporting the Texas coast waterway infrastructure anywhere in the Constitution.
BohicaTwentyTwo on July 5, 2007 at 3:24 PM
As for the safety of the shrimp, not the eaters, that would be The Department of Interior.
saiga on July 5, 2007 at 3:25 PM
And, you must not have a clue about what it takes to maintain the massive waterway infrastructure along the upper Texas coast.
The constitution provides for the congress to do that.
saiga on July 5, 2007 at 3:27 PM
the funny thing in all this is Paul’s remarks after Katrina, saying the Federal Govt. shouldn’t pay to rebuild their infrastructure and it was their own fault for living in hurricane alley’s……constrast that with all the pork he wants for the Galvaston area.
example ofhow stupid Paul is:
http://minx.cc/?post=231967
jp on July 5, 2007 at 3:54 PM
wouldn’t that require the use of force?
Where?
…and finally: I too am from Texas, and I heard a news report some weeks back that Texas gets the lowest per capita pork spending of all the states. I think all the pork should go away, including Paul’s pork, “my” pork, Teddy’s pork, Nancy’s pork, Dubya’s pork, McCain’s pork, Reid’s pork (good, God; please let’s get rid of Reid’s pork), and all the rest. But let’s not lose perspective. Texas is at the vanguard of the pork-reduction efforts in this country.
urbancenturion on July 5, 2007 at 8:18 PM
Luckily he has an annoying voice.
Since the invention of the airplane, his ideas basic are obsolete.
Whether the “war on drugs” is a folly or not, it isn;t the over-riding problem for our Civilization.
It’s resurgent Islamic imperialism.
And “reasoning” won’t work with theocratic irrationalists.
profitsbeard on July 5, 2007 at 10:49 PM
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