One typically thinks of Libertarians as “don’t tread on me” types, who want the government out of their business - and their bedrooms.
Yet one of the odder developments of the 2008 presidential race is that a former conservative Republican who led the impeachment fight agaist former President Bill Clinton, is positioning himself to pull libertarian-leaning voters away from presumptive GOP nominee John McCain, and act as a Republican spoiler.
Robert L. “Bob” Barr Jr., a former GOP congressman from Georgia, also known for his introduction of the Defense of Marriage Act, is running as the Libertarian Party’s nominee for president and is trying, among other things, to siphon the grassroots groundswell for Libertarian-leaning Ron Paul.
“Bob could be the Ralph Nader of 2008,” Dan Schnur, a GOP consultant in California told the Associated Press, referring to Nader’s role in helping George W. Bush eke out a narrow victory over Democrat Al Gore in 2000.
While Libertarians have never cracked more than one percent of the popular vote in a presidential election, some analysts believe Barr could peel away enough GOP voters in key states such as Colorado, Nevada and his home state of Georgia, to conceivably swing them into the electoral college column for Democrat Barack Obama.
Barr, who joined the Libertarian Party in 2006, is taking his political cues from two populists before him. His campaign manager is Russell J. Verney, who was national chairman of the 1992 campaign run by Texas businessman H. Ross Perot that took 19 percent of the popular vote – an unprecedented figure for a third party campaign.
He is also doing everything he can to tap into the enthusiasm generated by another Texas maverick, Ron Paul, who also ran for president as a Libertarian in 1988.
Whether Paul will actively help Barr now that he has ended his campaign for the Republican nomination is unclear, especially since his seniority on several Congressional committees is dependent on GOP leaders.
Yet Paul has made no effort to hide his distaste for McCain.
“I can’t endorse someone that basically disagrees with all the things that I have worked for for the past 30 years,” he told CNN after he ended his own campaign. “. . .I just will not be endorsing John McCain. Nor do I intend to endorse Obama.”
In the same interview, Paul went out of his way to praise Barr, as well as another Baptist pastor and radio host Chuck Baldwin, the presidential nominee of the Constitution Party, calling both men friends.
“I think he’s running a very important race,” he said of Barr. “I’m encouraging him. I haven’t endorsed him. But he’s saying the kind of things that I like to hear said and that I think are important.”
Paul then brought up Baldwin, describing his views as “very close to mine. He worked very hard on my campaign. So for me to pick one over the other is not easy.”
Barr has been called a maverick by his supporters – and a ‘Johnny come lately’ to the Libertarian cause by critics.
A former federal prosecutor, Barr was swept into Congress with more than 70 other GOP freshmen in 1994. Besides being the first Congressman to calll for Clinton’s resignation over the Monica Lewinsky scandal, he was known for his staunch support of the war against drugs, as well as for gun rights.
He voted in favor of the war in Iraq and for the Patriot Act, but has renounced those positions since joining the Libertarian Party.
Asked by Stephen Colbert, host of The Colbert Report, why he deserted the Republican Party, Barr replied: “I didn’t walk away from that legacy. What happened was the Republican Party walked away from its own legacy. It left libertarian-leaning and conservative-leaning Republicans by expanding government and taking away personal freedoms.”
He suggested he had been led astray by the Bush Admninistration to vote for the U.S. Patriot Act. He has said elsewhere that he now works with the American Civil Liberties Union to combat the erosion of civil liberties.
Colbert, at least, did not find the argument persuasive.
“What’s the difference between you and [Ralph] Nader other than the fact that you evidently own a comb?” he asked.
To hear Barr’s interview on The Colbert Report, click here:
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