Joel Gehrke: Ron Paul ca 1987: Reagan has 'no credibility'

Since receiving the link to this article in my email from a good friend, I have been chuckling.  Ron Paul decided to release an ad going after Perry for being Al Gore's campaign chair in Texas in 1988 when Perry was a Democrat and Al Gore was a lot more conservative.  In fact, some thought Gore was too conservative for a Bill Clinton ticket.  Clinton and the Democrats didn't need to worry as Gore went farther and farther left after 1992.

Americans are discovering the Ron Paul so many Texans have known.  Most don't realize that he quit the Republican Party and became a Libertarian.  Couldn't get elected as a Libertarian so he went back to the Republican Party and has been a thorn in the side of Republicans ever since on many issues.  What I didn't know is he wrote a letter attacking President Reagan when he quit the Republican Party giving his reasons as Reagan and Republican spending drove him out.  All these years and that letter was still around to be found.  This quote from the Washington Examiner article is priceless:

You can't accuse Ron Paul of being inconsistent. At least you couldn't, but then he ran an advertisement reminding voters of his support for Reagan. To paraphrase Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., Paul voted for Reagan before he voted against him.  

OUCH!  Summed it up right there and threw Paul's credibility out the window at the same time.  He lied about supporting Reagan -- who would have thought?  Many people will say Reagan being President is what made them become Republican but Ron Paul can say that Reagan made him become a Libertarian.  What do the Paulbots have to say now as they spin this one?

Ron Paul ca 1987: Reagan has 'no credibility'

by Joel Gehrke Commentary Staff Writer

Follow on Twitter:@jsgehrkejr

September 6, 2011 3:35pm

Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas, should give his opposition researchers a raise. In response to an ad from Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, that attacks Perry for supporting a 1988 Al Gore presidential run while reminding voters of Paul's support for Reagan, the Perry campaign dropped this bomb: a year before Perry supported Gore as a conservative Democrat, Paul wrote a letter of resignation from the Republican Party that protested President Reagan's policies.

In fact, Paul went so far as to write that “there is no credibility left for the Republican Party as a force to reduce the size of government. That is the message of the Reagan years.”
In the letter, Paul makes a series of attacks on Reagan's agenda. In Paul's defense, those criticism align with his current policy positions:

"Ronald Reagan and the Republican Party have given us skyrocketing deficits, and astoundingly a doubled national debt."

Of course, Paul is attacking President Obama for the same reasons today. He has been rock solid in his belief that the federal government is too big and spending too much, and that Republicans and Democrats have caused that problem for decades. But now he's in the position of explaining how, despite Republican primary voters opinion to the contrary, he thinks that Reagan and Obama are alike.

Paul will have an especially difficult time explaining why he thought that President Reagan's military policies produced "the inevitable result that we are less secure today." "Today," in the letter, being four years before the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Empire collapsed inward on itself.
As the letter concluded, Paul wrote:

I want to totally disassociate myself from the policies that have given us unprecedented deficits, massive monetary inflation, indiscriminate military spending, an irrational and unconstitutional foreign policy, zooming foreign aid, the exaltation of international banking, and the attack on our personal liberties and privacy.

....

Source:  Washington Examiner

Looks like Rick Perry's opponents forget that the Perry campaign group has been together for a long time and in Texas the races for office are no holds barred with everything thrown at the candidates.  It is not a shake hands and let's be friends -- it is rough and tumble politics at its finest.  Some of the most interesting campaigns I have witnessed were when we first lived in Texas and then following them from here in Oklahoma.

Already thought the Al Gore deal was funny which is one of the talking points the opposition loves to use against Perry, but must admit compared to the anti-southern, cheesy, poorly done Michele Bachmann ad with outright lies, this one is the winner so far.  Waiting for the Romney one next.

Ron Paul being outed for leaving the Republican Party in 1987 because of President Reagan made my day!  He should know better as a Texan about the people Perry surrounds himself with -- they are smart, resourceful, and are very loyal to the Governor.  If there is something they can find that will debunk a negative ad, you can bet they will discover and use that info.  This campaign is going to be fun to watch.  Wonder what Obama is thinking as the Republican opposition is using what they were going to throw against Perry?

Welcome to Texas politics at its finest!