Posted on 01/11/2008 5:57:37 AM PST by SJackson
EVERY ONCE in a while the old ways surface and trump the technology train.
It happened this week on a national scale, and the Wisconsin Historical Society was in the middle of it.
What happened was that a journalist from the New Republic, James Kirchick, on Tuesday posted a story on the magazine's Web site about newsletters written in the 1980s and 1990s under the name of Ron Paul, a Texas congressman who is now running for the Republican nomination for president.
"What they reveal," Kirchick wrote of the Paul newsletters, "are decades worth of obsession with conspiracies, sympathy for the right-wing militia movement, and deeply held bigotry against blacks, Jews, and gays. In short, they suggest that Ron Paul is not the plain-speaking antiwar activist his supporters believe they are backing -- but rather a member in good standing of some of the oldest and ugliest traditions in American politics."
Kirchick noted that the Ron Paul Freedom Report was archived online only back to 1999. But at two libraries in the United States -- at the University of Kansas and the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison -- Kirchick was able to find earlier newsletters that contain the incendiary material.
The New Republic piece has created a firestorm. Historical Society librarians spent several hours Wednesday finding and faxing portions of the newsletters to CNN, which was planning to explore the controversy on its "Situation Room" show Thursday. Paul has issued a statement saying that although the newsletters went out under his name, he did not pay attention to the content and denounces it today.
Kirchick, a New Republic associate editor, first contacted Wisconsin Historical Society circulation librarian Laura Hemming in November. The Historical Society has Paul newsletters under four titles: Ron Paul Investment Letter; Ron Paul Political Report; Ron Paul Survival Report; and Ron Paul's Freedom Report.
At the time, the Historical Society's Paul newsletters were not microfilmed and were stored off site. Because of Kirchick's query, and Paul's presidential candidacy, the society has since put them on microfilm. Kirchick was then able to obtain them through an interlibrary loan.
The newsletters attacked Martin Luther King Jr.; praised the KKK's David Duke; championed quarantining people with AIDS; bashed Israel, "an aggressive, national socialist state"; and supported the right-wing, anti-government militia movement in the United States.
Why were these newsletters collected in Madison and almost nowhere else? Because the Wisconsin Historical Society in general and its longtime librarian Jim Danky in particular have worked diligently to catalog all manner of seemingly fringe publications, because as this week demonstrates, you never know what may one day be important.
"We acquired them because we try to cover politics comprehensively," Danky told me Thursday.
They have perhaps the best collection anywhere of leftist, underground publications. And the Historical Society's collection from the political far right was praised in an essay by Chip Berlet in the Sesquicentennial Issue of the Wisconsin Magazine of History.
Berlet, who is with Political Research Associates in Massachusetts, wrote: "There are other collections at libraries and archives around the country, but none offer the range and depth of the collection combined with the cheerful staff knowledge and painless retrievability. The society's periodical collection is a national treasure as far as our staff is concerned, and we mine it frequently. Where else can you find a librarian who asks if the particular type of hate-group newsletter you are looking for is Ku Klux Klan, racial nationalist, neo-Nazi, Third Position, homophobic or Christian Identity?"
Paul's statement this week, posted on his campaign Web site, concluded with this: "When I was out of Congress and practicing medicine fulltime, 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."
Paul is a racist idiot. The Paultards who follow him are worse.
yeah, I thought the library was interesting though. They’ve got great Wisconsin/midwest collections, political nutjobs seems a little off topic, but obviously highly relevant. People have been looking for these for years and where are they but Madison, WI. If I’d known that I’d have copied and posted them months ago.
Ron, Ron, Ron . . . passing the buck to an alleged cabal of unnamed malfeasants isn't "taking moral responsibility."
Not since Bill Clinton informed the world that he "didn't inhale" has there been a more pathetic attempt by a lying politician to pretend that what happened didn't really happen.
If I allowed crap like that to be sent out under my name, I would lose my job.
And Ron Paul should lose his.
To all Paulistinians:
Your irrational rationalization of that whacko is pathetic.
Get the hook and get that idiot off the stage
To all Paulistinians:
Your irrational rationalization of that whacko is pathetic.
Get the hook and get that idiot off the stage
When you can't attack the ideas, make a personal attack. I'm sure you scream and curdle when the MSM does it to your candidate of choice.
He's aware that a newsletter existed under his name. He's aware that several writers contributed. Yet he claims disinterest to the extent he had no editorial contribution.
This denial doesn't wash. If he knew of the publication and the several writers, why didn't he take action at the time? Because, I'm coming to believe, he agreed with the content. Unless Paul comes up with irrefutable evidence this was done outside of his control (statements don't cut it), he will be seen as racist and anti-semitic. And deservedly so.
“Paultards?”
LMAO!
“Can you speak up? I can’t hear you in that box!”
If he goes on the defensive, he’ll be kept there the rest of the campaign.
I notice that Paul said he didn’t edit them, not that he didn’t write them.
It looks more and more like he wrote at least some of them.
The truth about his newsletter has been revealed and thoroughly documented. The cat is out of the bag and he will be on the defensive about the vile material in those newsletters for the rest of his public life. And justly so.
There are two possibilities here:
(1) Paul is lying about not knowing what was printed in his name and Paul is thus a racist, an anti-Semite and a conspiracy theorist. The fact that he gladly accepts contributions from neo-Nazis and Truthers supports this interpretation. The fact that he never sued anyone over this misuse of his name and never repudiated the alleged authors of the articles publicly by name also supports this interpretation.
(2) Paul is telling the truth about not knowing what was printed in his name and Paul is thus neglectful and incompetent.
There are two ways out for Paul:
(1) To admit that he once sympathized with the views that were expressed in his own newsletter, but that he has since had a change of heart and that as far as he is concerned those writings no longer represent him or his views.
(2) Pass the buck and blame unnamed, mysterious people for submarining him.
The fact that he claims he had no idea what was being published in his name and the fact that he is blaming anonymous people for the material published in his name speaks devastatingly about his personal character.
Few people would write pretending to be someone else in a published newsletter on such controversial topics - they would be opening themselves up to a legal nightmare.
I don't think there's any way "out" for him. He either has to ignore it and let the chips fall, or address it knowing that addressing one accusation will only produce more.
So your argument is that Ron Paul’s personal newsletter doesn’t really exist because it has been archived in Wisconsin, where it snows.
I didn't hear it, but if you go by what Paul says, he has no policy toward Israel, any more than he has a policy toware Korea, Taiwan, Japan or Europe. Our troops will be withdrawn from around the world and essentially we'll have no foreign policy, only trade.
If you go by his newsletters and supporters, obviously he has an anti-Israel position.
Most people would. Most people would also take action as soon as it was known to them. And if you take all the racist comments out, you're still left with a businessman who sold a newsletter touting his opinions in first person commentary who didn't write it. Not nice.
It's a liberal city, but his is a library at the Historical Society. They aren't saying anything, just providing a resource. Which I was surprised to find was there.
Obviously he was OK with the content. He was selling it, and he garnered support from a subculture not usually approached by the political parties. It clearly answers the question of why he's accepted support and contributions from the fringe, he's been comfortable with them all along.
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