Lew Rockwell is one of the most unpleasant people I ever met. Don't hold him up as representative of the LP. He has an farcical reputation as an intellectual and consistently gave bad advice when I knew of him. He ranks with "Typhoid Murray" Rothbard, IMO.
He holds himself up as a philosophical leader of the LP and a lot of youth think of him as such. I agree he shouldn’t be representative of anything to do with the LP (I know the LP won’t have him after the 88 scandal).
I agree, he is a nasty piece of work and shouldn’t be associated with anything right of Cindy Sheehan (their relationship is a whole other story)- but perception is reality and for a lot of people who think of themselves as Libertarians now, they think of him as some sort of leader.