Pubdate: Sun, 04 Mar 2007
Source: San Antonio Express-News (TX)
Copyright: 2007 San Antonio Express-News
Contact:  http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/384
Author: Gary Martin, Express-News Washington Bureau
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

'DR. NO' MAY SAY YES TO RUN FOR WHITE HOUSE

Affable and unassuming, Republican Rep. Ron Paul of Texas steps into 
a crowded Holiday Inn lobby packed with libertarian activists. They 
all know him by name. "I haven't seen you in two years," bellows Dick 
Marple, a former Republican state representative who leans over a 
vending table and plants a New Hampshire pin on the congressman's tie.

Minutes later Paul receives a standing ovation following an anti-war 
speech that blisters President Bush, the Republican Party and Democrats.

"It's another no-win war where Americans are dying needlessly," the 
Lake Jackson congressman told the New Hampshire Liberty Forum.

Paul, 71, is weighing his second run at the presidency.

He was the Libertarian Party candidate in 1988. This time he's 
running as a Republican, although he concedes he's a long-shot.

He tells audiences some candidates will raise $100 million for the 
campaign. Still, he said, he's running to win, on a platform to limit 
government and maximize personal freedom.

"It's worth the fight, as far as I'm concerned," Paul said.

Libertarian support

So far he has been embraced enthusiastically by Freedom Movement 
libertarians. "He has represented libertarian values throughout his 
political career," said Irena Goddard, director of the New Hampshire 
Liberty Forum.

Michael Badnarik of Austin, the 2004 Libertarian presidential 
nominee, went so far as to endorse a Paul candidacy for the 
Republican nomination, and is urging his party to nominate the Texas 
congressman as its nominee, too.

Paul, who announced formation of a presidential exploratory committee 
in January, is targeting four states -- Iowa, New Hampshire, Arizona 
and South Carolina -- to determine whether enough support exists to 
run for the GOP nomination. He said a final decision still is several 
weeks away.

But his doomsday message of impending U.S. economic collapse, federal 
government encroachment on civil liberties and opposition to the war 
in Iraq sets him apart from traditional GOP candidates.

Last weekend, in his first trip to New Hampshire, he spoke to 
gatherings large and small, repeating his mantra of limited 
government and personal freedom in the post-9-11 era.

"I don't feel that much safer in the airport," Paul told a taxpayer's 
group. "I feel harassed."

But even in libertarian circles, Paul has detractors.

"Ron Paul is a Republican. Ron Paul is lending credence to a party 
that is anti-libertarian," said George Phillies of Massachusetts, who 
is seeking the Libertarian Party's presidential nomination.

What's worse, Phillies said, Paul is siphoning off campaign funds 
that are critical to the Libertarian Party's nominee.

Paul raised $1.5 million for his 2006 congressional re-election race, 
and 97 percent of the contributions came from individuals, the 
majority of whom live outside his Coastal Bend district in Texas, 
according to Federal Election Commission reports.

Much more will be needed to launch a credible national campaign, says 
Paul, who is little known outside Texas.

In a CNN/WMUR presidential poll conducted in January, Paul had the 
support of 1 percent of Republicans in New Hampshire.

Nationally, he's a minor candidate, said Larry Sabato at the 
University of Virginia Center for Politics, albeit one with a 
measurable constituency like Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., who's 
running on a border security platform.

The reality is that neither is "bloody likely to be the Republican 
nominee for president," Sabato said, but the few percentage points 
each might receive could "make a difference in a very close race 
among the top contenders."

Paul's decision to run as a Republican, rather than Libertarian, was 
pragmatic. A third-party candidacy would limit his exposure in the 
media, debates and other candidate events, he said.

Elected as a Republican to Congress in the late 1970s, Paul served 
until 1984, when he launched a Senate bid in the Texas GOP primary 
against then-Rep. Phil Gramm.

In 1988, Paul ran for president as a Libertarian and received .05 
percent of the vote.

He was elected to Congress again in 1996, defeating Rep. Greg 
Laughlin, a Democrat who switched parties, in the Republican primary.

Maverick Republican

This time, Paul brought his libertarian agenda with him to the House 
of Representatives. Derided by his GOP colleagues as "Dr. No," Paul 
has consistently voted against spending bills and routinely breaks 
with Republican leaders on social issues.

He's harshly critical of Bush and Republican leaders for straying 
from the party's values, and allowing Democrats to regain control of 
the House and Senate for the first time in 12 years.

"We became the party of big government," Paul said. "We became like 
Democrats, the party of entitlements, deficits."

Paul has never relented on his principles, voting religiously against 
farm subsidies despite the agricultural leanings of his congressional 
district, which stretches from Port Aransas to Galveston and is home 
to Texas' $120 million rice industry.

He was re-elected in 2006 with 60 percent of the vote.

"Deep down in their hearts they know subsidies are not good," Paul 
said of his constituents. "I emphasize things we agree on. I think 
they should sell rice to Cuba. A lot of conservatives don't."

Paul, who had $221,225 left over from his 2006 congressional campaign 
at the end of the year, has begun raising funds through his 
exploratory committee, aided by Internet Web sites and libertarian bloggers.

His anti-war stance is fueling support.

Paul voted against congressional authorization for Bush to invade 
Iraq, and remains a vocal critic of the president's handling of the war.

He is one of 17 Republicans who backed a Democratic resolution last 
month opposing Bush's proposed troop surge.

In his stump speech, Paul calls for an end to the drug war; rails 
against the Patriot Act; seeks elimination of the Education 
Department; and proposes a return to the gold standard.

He also supports medical marijuana.

An Air Force veteran and medical doctor, Paul trained at Kelly AFB in 
1964 and moonlighted as an emergency room doctor at what then was 
called Santa Rosa Hospital.

He delivered 4,000 babies in his career and is staunchly 
anti-abortion -- the one issue where he differs from most 
rank-and-file libertarians.

Paul extols personal responsibility and disdains dependency on 
government programs, like Social Security and Medicare.

It's not the feel-good message employed by other campaigns, but more 
of a spoonful of castor oil for an ailing child.

"If you don't like the government spying on you, telling you what you 
can read and what you can do on the Internet, and this invasion of 
your privacy and looking at your library cards and arresting you 
without search warrants and going into your houses and holding you 
without habeas corpus," Paul asks. "How is that gloomy?"
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom