Posted on 01/11/2007 6:06:07 PM PST by Rodney King
Texas Congressman Ron Paul files for GOP presidential bid
HOUSTON -- Ron Paul, the iconoclastic nine-term congressman from southeast Texas, took the first step Thursday toward launching a second presidential bid in 2008, this time as a Republican.
Paul filed incorporation papers in Texas on Thursday to create a presidential exploratory committee that allows him and his supporters to collect money on behalf of his bid. This will be Paul's second try for the White House; he was the Libertarian nominee for president in 1988.
Kent Snyder, the chairman of Paul's exploratory committee and a former staffer on Paul's Libertarian campaign, said the congressman knows he's a long shot.
"There's no question that it's an uphill battle, and that Dr. Paul is an underdog," Snyder said. "But we think it's well worth doing and we'll let the voters decide."
Paul, of Lake Jackson, acknowledges that the national GOP has never fully embraced him despite his nine terms in office under its banner. He gets little money from the GOP's large traditional donors, but benefits from individual conservative and Libertarian donors outside Texas. He bills himself as "The Taxpayers' Best Friend," and is routinely ranked either first or second in the House of Representatives by the National Taxpayers Union, a national group advocating low taxes and limited government.
He describes himself as a lifelong Libertarian running as a Republican.
Paul was not available for comment Thursday, Snyder said.
But he said the campaign will test its ability to attract financial and political support before deciding whether to launch a full-fledged campaign. Snyder said Paul is not running just to make a point or to try to ensure that his issues are addressed, but to win.
Paul is expected to formally announce his bid in the next week or two, Snyder said.
Snyder said Paul and his supporters are not intimidated by the presence of nationally known and better-financed candidates such as Sen. John McCain of Arizona or former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts.
"This is going to be a grassroots American campaign," he said. "For us, it's either going to happen at the grassroots level or it's not."
Paul limits his view of the role of the federal government to those duties laid out in the U.S. Constitution. As a result, he sometimes casts votes that appear at odds with his constituents and other Republicans. He was the only Republican congressman to vote against Department of Defense appropriations for fiscal year 2007.
The vote against the defense appropriations bill, he said, was because of his opposition to the war in Iraq, which he said was "not necessary for our actual security."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not b
Can I count you in as a Duncan Hunter supporter?
The same way the Constitution's ban on murder in general is enforced.
States will enforce it with their own statutes and courts.
There are a handful of people here on FR who would argue that Bush's No Child Left Behind and Drugs for Geezers program are somehow "conservative".
Hotdamn, I'd pay to see mccain stroke out.
I like Ron Paul on many of the issues, but he gives me reason for pause when he goes on conspiracy theory NUT Alex Jones' radio show.
I have no heartburn at all about fighting a war to WIN... it's a matter of national survival... BUT it also begins at home. With our borders. On that part, RP is on the money. WRT taking the war to the mideast, I am not sure but what Dubya squandered our best chance at actually WINNING. That is where I am conflicted. Because at this point, we are doing little good by being in Iraq. I don't know how to change that part of it. Maybe we could just subjugate the Sunnis and the Shiite-heads (the Al-Quada types and the Iranian puppets) to the Kurds who actually DO seem to be on our side in this fight...
And the result of that is another liberal court comes along and we get Roe v Wade all over again. What do you do then?
Only a constitutional amendment will prevent the courts from forcing abortion on us as a nation. The states will be explicitly required to protect life from conception (as the Constitution was intended to require).
We have a federalist system, not a confederacy. States cannot be allowed to sanction murder of innocents, just as they cannot enslave.
I mean this with all sincerity. This nations leadership has forgotten how to fight and win wars. I'm not talking about the troops or their military commanders I mean the civilian leadership.
War has no innocents and as such can not be fought under those terms. It is an absolute act not to be taken lightly or without due considerations. You absolutely fight to eliminate your enemy at all cost or you absolutely loose the war. I think Ron Paul understands those terms.
Am I wrong? What is written in the Bible about war and how enemies are to be fought? The Book of Joshua is a good place to start. He was one of the most successful leaders in war to ever live. Entire nations and tribes were wiped out by Israel with GOD's blessings.
It angers me no end to hear we must not harm the innocents in Iraq. Where were they in the Civil War? We spared not even our own families in a war against ourself yet we'll spare a nation of which tomorrow with a new leader will attack us? Look at to the depths to which we've fallen.
We won WW2 because it was a war for our very survival and was fought as such. While our parents were fighting WWII a previous generation of Germans namely Marxist who were booted out of Germany were in the U.S. & making plans to take over this nation by promoting Marxism. Their way of doing so was through our colleges and universities.
When the WW2 congressional Leadership began retiring the ones too young to fight or attended college took over and many were by that time already being indoctrinated into the Marxist Doctrine. This is where you get Cold Pink etc or in earlier times the Nam protesters. The professors made the North Vietnamese the victim much like our leaders of today make the people of Iraq out to be they are either our enemy or they aren't they can't be both at the same time. Next they promote their victim status. That has been done in Iraq as well.
The biggest danger we face as a nation is right here at home. First in our leadership and education system and next on our borders. How can a W.O.T. be taken serious when our leaders are refusing to enforce our borders and imigration laws. These issues will take the nation down far faster than any third world nations.
BTW I am pro-military and pro-defense. We need time to get out troops and our equipment rebuilt. We can not kep up these type of deployments with the current manpower without having serious issues from it. BTW for the record I was posting about military readiess issues beofre W even took office.
Not so. As with Lincoln and slavery, we must have a national leader against abortion in the presidency.
And yes, also need to stack the Congress.
I could be totally wrong on this, as it's been a couple of years, but weren't you, CWO involved in some sort of movement to support Paul's GOP opponent in the primaries a few years ago?
Dunham, who grew up in Scio, N.Y., was the leader of a rifle squad with 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, in Iraq. Dunham’s squad was conducting a reconnaissance mission in Karabilah on April 14, 2004, when a nearby convoy returning to base was ambushed. When Dunham’s squad approached to assist the convoy, an Iraqi insurgent jumped out of a vehicle and grabbed Dunham by the throat. As Dunham wrestled the insurgent to the ground, he noticed that the enemy fighter had a grenade in his hand. Dunham ordered his Marines to move back, and when the enemy dropped the live grenade, Dunham took off his Kevlar helmet, covered the grenade with it, and threw himself on top to smother the blast.
Dunham initially survived his wounds, but died eight days later at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., with his mother and father at his bedside.
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While this brave American was being honored Congressman Ron Paul was calling for surrender.
Well, I tell you, we (the collective we) didn't do Bush or ourselves or our borders any favors by turning control of the Congress over to the treasonous rats. That was a monumental error in someone's calculations.
Ehhh...you know his district is in southern Texas, right?
We've got illegals!
Kidding aside, your proposal has merit- ammend the constitution, or, at the very least, throw it back to the states. Bad law sucks.
We have nukes and I'd use 'em, but I do not agree with cut and run. Iraq must be won.
We have one.
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