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
Thank your lucky stars he didn't veto the PBA ban.
So naturally he signed off on it.
Thank God for that.
And that god-awful drug "benefit" and NCLB.
So you would much rather spend more time pissing away your hard earned dollars keeping the failed school systems with the worst of the worst teachers teaching in them up and running, or seeing your loved one, or yourself suffer because you can't pay the high price of prescription drug medication?
And I will add, that the NCLB was Ted Kennedy's idea. He is now opposed to it because it's been working.
Because there are none.
Granted. I just get an oogie feeling when calling this a 'war', when it seems more like a 'fight'.
In a 'war', you kill the shiite out of everyone- moms, dads, sisters, brothers, etc. In a fight, you just go after the 'bad guys'.
'They' may think they're in a war with us, but refuse to act like it. Perhaps we should give them a real 'war'.
I have no problem calling it a war; I've been to the funerals.
Where do you think I should be?
That's not what America's military is all about. The last thing any member of the armed forces wants to do is inflict death on innocent civilian casualties. That's criminal behavior.
The following is a list of US Senators and Members of the House of Representatives who voted "No" on the resolutions of May 2, 2002 that supported Israel. It is incumbent upon every American supporter of the state of Israel to work to defeat these individuals when they come up for reelection.
One of the names at this JDL page: Ron Paul, Rep., Texas
And just where does the Constitution allow the Federal government to be involved in either education or passing out prescriptions in the first place? Please be specific. And, lest we forget, where is the federal government allowed to be in the business of providing "retirement benefits" to Americans? Or welfare, to either individuals or businesses? Oh, and where does fedgov get its authority to ban or even regulate speech, as McLame/Feingold attempts to do?
And, at the state and local levels, I would prefer to see my property taxes stay in my own pockets and see the "public" schools go the way of the dodo bird. It's a PARENT'S right and responsibility to provide for the education of his kids, not mine. My son and my stepson are grown. I am no longer in the business of providing for their educations. Though I would likely contribute to my granddaughter's education. But I would not compel YOU to do that... it's a FAMILY thing.
There is hardly a tree that hasn't been watered sixty times.
ROFLMAO!
It's not a war unless you fight it to WIN. Then the funerals mean something. You seem to overlook that. You fight and keep on until the enemy is no longer capable of fighting back. You kick him when he's down until he can no longer rise. If you don't, if you merely create the circumstances where al Sadr or these other creeps can rise up, then you've wasted lots of time, money and LIVES. You tell me, which have we done?
You have friends and relatives who voted for Ron Paul and Kinky Friedman because they are tired of squirrels. Why am I not surprised, birds of a feather, and all that. You don't even know what nonsense that is. Kinky is a liberal and Ron Paul is a nut job.
And which military text book of tactics did you take that from? I'd really love to know because we've never fought a war even remotely like this in our history. Indeed, we're writing the text books on this war as we go along.
People have this strange, simplistic idea that this is no different then fighting Germany or Japan. If that we the case we would have declared war on our enemy and it would be over.
The problem is, we're not at war with Iraq or any other nation. We're at war with an ideology...there is no text book for that.
The Israelis have a free enough country, and thus the economic superiority and resulting military supperiority to defeat their enemies with no help from us. In fact, it is probably our meddling and 'sensoring' and 'slow down' and 'stop the war' stuff with them that has prevented Israel from defeating it's enemies long ago.
I think Ron Paul is right to cut the welfare to Israel, as we should all countries, and I think he is a friend of them and us for doing so, regardless of what the IDL might opine. IMHO. :)
Sherrie, I hate to break it to you, but it is NOT the business of the U.S. government to support Israel, period. There is no provision in our Constitution which allows this. Therefore, RP is correct to have voted as he did. Which does NOT NECESSARILY make him an enemy of Israel. I support Israel as an individual; however, I do NOT support giving GOVERNMENTAL assistance to them for any reason. Doing so gives FedGov clout enough to be able to force Israel to do things which are NOT in their proper self interest... like all these "peace" plans which have been shoved down their throats by U.S. Presidents since Israel's inception as an independent nation... and see how much good it's done Israelis.
NCLB doesn't force me to fund your granddaughters education either, it forces schools to better educate your granddaughter, by raising the standard of excellence of her school, so that you get your money's worth.
On the subject of education and intelligence, I spent a month in Denmark, and my credit card wasn't working, and I was on the phone with a customer service rep of my credit card company, told them where I was and what my problem was, they responded with "Oh how nice! I've always wanted to travel to the east coast of the United States!". I knew right then and there I wasn't going to get much further with that call.
Exactly!
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