Did Ron Paul look Sean Hannity in the eye after the Sioux City
debate on Fox News -- and play fast and loose with the facts of his
newsletter?
In this video of
Hannity interviewing Paul, at the 5:00 marker Hannity begins asking
Paul about the newsletters. Paul flatly denies writing them. But
never once mentions that he approved them. Instead, he directs
Hannity to an article in the Texas Monthly
that Paul says deals with the issue.
The Texas Monthly
aricle requires registration for readers. But unfortunately
for Mr. Paul, over at the site of the Capital Free Press (here)
reporter Patrick McEwen registered and reports on what he found.
And what he found directly contradicts what former aide Eric
Dondero has said in The American Spectator. In the
Texas Monthly, Paul steadfastly denies writing the
newsletters. But never once hints that he personally approved them
-- the charge Dondero is making.
Now, Dondero, in recent Comments posted (scroll
down) on The American Spectator, challenges the truth
of the notion that Congressman Paul somehow was unaware of the
content of his controversial newsletters. He does confirm that Paul
associates wrote the newsletters (including Lew Rockwell, the
controversial ex-Paul chief of staff) but insists Paul himself was
fully involved in the approval process. With Hannity sitting
inches away on national television, Paul never admits that in fact
he himself approved the newsletters… as Dondero now asserts… "every
line of them."
The newsletters, which surfaced in the last presidential
campaign, have re-emerged in a year in which other GOP presidential
candidates have had their pasts re-opened for vetting.
Old
allegations about Newt Gingrich's marital infidelities, Mitt
Romney's Bain Capital and Mormonism, and Herman Cain's problem with
sexual misconduct allegations (all still unproven and flatly denied
by Mr. Cain) have dominated the airwaves and the Internet. All have
been grilled by Hannity on each allegation -- at length.
Says Dondero of the newsletter (full text below*), Ron
Paul "did read them, every line of them, off his fax machine at his
Clute office before they were published. He would typically sign
them at the bottom of the last page giving his okay, and refax them
to Jean to go to the printer." There is not a word of this in
the Texas Monthly article that Paul uses to
deflect Hannity.
On another occasion, Paul slips and slides through a 2008
interview
with Wolf Blitzer on the same subject. Paul repudiates what was
written, but very carefully limits himself to saying he never wrote
these things.
Here's the problem.
Ron Paul doesn't seem like a racist. He has
in fact spoken out saying -- correctly -- that racism is in fact
collectivism. He says this is simply not part of his character --
and his supporters insist this is so. Yet the newsletter content,
publicized
several years back by the New Republic, seriously
opened the issue in documented fashion.
But the issue seems to be sliding, in light of former Paul
aide Dondero's assertions that Dondero appears to have witnessed.
The issue is moving slightly but critically from race -- to truth
telling.
Simply put: did Ron Paul "read them, every line of them"
and then sign off on them? Or not?
If Dondero is telling the truth, then Ron Paul looked Sean
Hannity straight in the eye the other night -- and
deliberately evaded the truth.
Four years ago he appears to have done the same thing to
Wolf Blitzer.
For a candidate whose supporters routinely accuse George
W. Bush of having lied about the Iraq War, the idea that Paul
himself is repeatedly less than truthful -- with a specific
accusation from a former aide -- is big trouble.
*Dondero's post to The American Spectator
is reprinted below, verbatim:
Eric Dondero| 12.18.11 @ 8:24AM
Lew Rockwell and Jeff Tucker wrote the Newsletters (with major input from Murray Rothbard and Marc Thornton). Jean McCiver edited them for clarity and grammar out of the Houston office on Nasa Blvd. Ron was merely a figurhead.
But he did read them, every line of them, off his fax machine at his Clute office before they were published. He would typically sign them at the bottom of the last page giving his okay, and re-fax them to Jean to go to the printer.
Eric Dondero, Personal Asst./Travel Aide
Ron Paul, Libertarian for President, 1987/88
Crdtr. Ron Paul for President Exploratory Comm. 1991
Campaign Coordinator, Ron Paul for Congress, 1995/96
Senior Aide, US Cong. Ron Paul, 1997-2003
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2 comments:
As I understand, for ~10 years the newsletters had nothing racist in them? He read every one of these letters and then signed off on them. What's so hard to understand that after that amount of time it was pretty much robo-signing... one of many things on his plate at the time... Another question, was Ron Paul being criticized during the years the letters were published? To me the comments in the newsletters are too sparsely spread out and most likely was completely overlooked due to the track record of the letter. You are really giving Ron Paul WAY too tough a time!
Well, when you are the "editor" and raking in a cool $1 million a year, then you should take care to read what goes out under your name. If he didn't write it, then let him name the person who wrote it. If he can't then, perhaps, his silence tells us all that we need to know
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