An Open Letter to Ron Paul: It is time to discuss a few sacred cows … in public … one is named Lew Rockwell
I am a Ron Paul supporter.
Ron Paul is not a perfect person nor does he have all the answers. I disagree with him on many issues — easy to do when you (myself) are a Keynesian and a believer that America is essentially an empire and the person that you support for the presidency is a libertarian Austian Economics fan and a believer in that we should contract our empire.
Being a Ron Paul supporter doesn’t mean that I am happy with his explanation about his previously published newsletters. They have become a campaign issue and they should be. They represent legitimate questions that need a good answer.
Best regards,
Bill Golden
Bill4DogCatcher.com
Dear Ron Paul,
It is time to out a few sacred cows … in public … one is named Lew Rockwell.
This should have been done some time ago. Perhaps pride or unwillingness got in the way — certainly it would upset a core element of your support base if you caused a fellow Austrian economist to fall from grace.
You need to do this. Now.
You need to do more than take responsibility for allowing things to happen on your watch. You need to identify the actual writers of this controversial matter from your newsletters.
It is not like your and Lew Rockwell’s former association was a secret, or that you both have long since taken different paths.
Bottomline: Walking away from a live CNN interview doesn’t look good. It makes it look like you have something to hide. In a way you do. You thought that you took care of it in your own way and that history became ancient history. That is not the case.
You are being accused of being a racist. I don’t believe it to be true, and neither do many others.
However, various hateful and seemingly hateful things were written with your name at the head of a political newsletter. You need to put this issue to rest immediately and with your characteristic bottom line honestly. Hedging your bets that you survive as a presidential candidate without doing this is not a very safe bet.
The public will get the chance to read those newsletters. Your fellow Republican candidates will make sure of that, as will the Obama campaign.
Your public statement and honesty on this issue is essential.
It is also essential that you be willing to out a few sacred cows within your support base.
It is an open secret within the libertarian and conservative community that your newsletter editor was probably responsible for what got written and published. You did not do due diligence in being the ‘publisher’ of record, although once it came to your attention what was happening the newsletter was deepsixed.
You need to discuss Lew Rockwell and his role with your newsletter.
Your former chief of staff, John Robbins, has been urging Lew Rockwell to step forward since the mid-1990s and to take due credit for what was published under your name. Lew Rockwell, who was also your congressional chief of staff from 1978-1982 and preceded Robbins, has denied any and all responsibility. This is either so or it is not.
Here is the problem: Your newsletter only had two editors officially — you and Rockwell. Someone is responsible. Someone needs to be held responsible.
Lew Rockwell — I realize that for you to out Lew Rockwell, if he is indeed responsible, is the equivalent of taking on one of the largest icons in the libertarian and Austrian economic movements. And there are possibly 4-5 other icons in those movements as well.
Dr. Paul — it is your move.
You are ultimately responsible for what was written in your name. You cannot however just walk away from interviews on the subject. You can’t without killing your presidential bid.
For now I will let your former chief of staff, John Robbins, speak for you but this is something that you need to do yourself.
Robbin’s letter itself has generated much debate in the past with Lew Rockwell having his own army of supporters.
Best regards,
Bill Golden
Bill4DogCatcher.com
Open Letter To Lew Rockwell – From John Robbins
Dear Lew,
You have now had three opportunities – 1996, 2001, and 2008 — to prove that you are a friend of Ron Paul and freedom, and you have failed to do so each time.
This week, for the third time, the puerile, racist, and completely un-Pauline comments that all informed people say you have caused to appear in Ron’s newsletters over the course of several years have become an issue in his campaign. This time the stakes are even higher than before. He is seeking nationwide office, the Republican nomination for President, and his campaign is attracting millions of supporters, not tens of thousands.
Three times you have failed to come forward and admit responsibility for and complicity in the scandals. You have allowed Ron to twist slowly in the wind. Because of your silence, Ron has been forced to issue repeated statements of denial, to answer repeated questions in multiple interviews, and to be embarrassed on national television. Your callous disregard for both Ron and his millions of supporters is unconscionable.
If you were Dr. Paul’s friend, or a friend of freedom, as you pretend to be, by now you would have stepped forward, assumed responsibility for those asinine and harmful comments, resigned from any connection to Ron or his campaign, and relieved Ron of the burden of having to repeatedly deny the charges of racism. But you have not done so, and so the scandal continues to detract from Ron’s message.
You know as well as I do that Ron does not have a racist bone in his body, yet those racist remarks went out under his name, not yours. Pretty clever. But now it’s time to man up, Lew. Admit your role, and exonerate Ron. You should have done it years ago.
John Robbins, Ph.D.
Chief of Staff
Dr. Ron Paul, 1981-1985
