Bill Kristol’s Agent Attacks Ron Paul

Bill Kristol's Agent Attacks Ron Paul
Posted by Lew Rockwell on December 7, 2010 06:02 PM

Make that, one of Bill Kristol's agents, in this case, the religio-warmonger Gary Bauer. Bauer, former aide to neocon James Dobson, writes to his congregants at the Temple of Ares. My comments are in brackets.

Rep. Paul did enough bizarre things to earn him the RINO of the week (month? decade?) award. [Actually, we only worry about LINOs, Libertarians in Name Only.] His first flight from reality was his vote in favor of Nancy Pelosi's effort not to extend tax cuts for all Americans. [He voted for the Democrat and Republican bills, since both cut at least some taxes. Ron will never vote against any tax cut.] Then he tried to water-down the censure of Congressman Rangel to merely a reprimand. Every conservative I know thought Rangel should have been expelled from Congress! [Poor Rangel. It was a case of the big crooks stepping on a small one. Ron, quite rightly, was queasy about the whole project.]

But Paul's week wasn't over. His next step was to be one of only two congressmen who refused to support a resolution condemning North Korea's unprovoked attack on South Korea. [In fact, the US had had South Korea run a mock invasion of North Korea, which resulted in the firing. North Korea should not have responded, but "unprovoked"? Of course not. Nor is what happens in Korea, where US troops remain as the residue of an illegal, undeclared war, any business of the Americans. We don't need another war.] Paul wrapped up his busy week of stupidity by defending American-hater Julian Assange, the owner of Wikileaks, whose disclosure of classified documents has put the lives of dozens, if not hundreds, of U.S. friends at risk. [Free speech is inconvenient to chickenhawks and other enemies of liberty. Nor is Assange the owner of a charity. As to "U.S. friends," you mean collaborators in illegal, undeclared wars of aggression? People you'd call traitors under other circumstances?]

This week of "Paul Gone Wild" doesn't even include his hostility to Israel and his penchant for "playing footsie" with conspiracy nuts who believe that 9/11 was a government plot instead of an Islamist plot. I don't know what to call Ron Paul's philosophy, but it sure isn't conservatism. Ronald Reagan would be appalled. [Right. Ron Paul is not a Reaganite conservative. He opposes budget deficits, the drug war, and bigger government, for example. And by "hostility to Israel," Bauer means opposition to unconstitutional foreign aid and to invading and bombing Muslim lands. About 9/11/01­Pentagon-CIA-FBI Failure Day­Ron would indeed like to see a real investigation. Who can doubt that much government incompetence was covered up?]

(Thanks to Robert Frasconi)


The Deadliest Sin Strikes Again
Posted by Christopher Manion on December 8, 2010 08:21 AM

Lew, Mr. Bauer undoubtedly considers the recent GOP gains to have been his own accomplishment, an affirmation of his bellicose (and quite un-Christian) Kriegeslust­when in fact he was at the head of the parade that destroyed the GOP, betrayed the conservative cause, and left his beloved pro-life movement twisting slowly in the wind as Obama marched in and trampled what was left of individual rights and liberties, having been handed the opportunity on a silver platter by the Christian Bush.

So let's take inventory: Bauer lashes out at Dr. Paul, the man who was (and is) in fact responsible for building the intellectual and political foundation for the recent respite from Obamanism and Bushism, an historic event for which Bauer can take zero credit ­ in fact,  Bauer and his ilk are indeed responsible for the disastrous damage which he contrives to oppose, which even sober Republican congressmen now admit.

Bauer's contemptible bitterness has a name. While Schadenfreude represents the delight one takes in the woes of one's enemy, der Neid ­ sheer envy ­ best describes the sullen outrage that one feels in his enemy's success. Envy describes the seething and destructive hatred on the part of the puny who wish they possessed the goods and accomplishments ­ physical or moral ­ of the superior man, even as they realize that they are too lazy and squalid to achieve such virtues themselves. Envy is to be distinguished from jealousy in this: the jealous man sees someone who is in some way superior to himself and allows it to motivate him ­ to channel and to focus his efforts to excel in like fashion. The envious man, on the other hand, knows that he is too indolent, irresolute, or simply bored ever to work hard enough to excel, but in sheer spite he doesn't want the better man to excel either. He is full of resentment, pride, and contempt. Alas, the state is his most dependable ally. Of course, these observations do not judge the soul of the envious man; they only analyze objectively that vice's potentially poisonous ingredients.

Memo to the Christian Bauer: Envy is one of the Seven Deadly Sins.