Ron Paul In 1995: Hey, I've Got These Awesome Newsletters That Explain My Philosophy!

Video and transcript at Hot Air.

Paul's story has changed on the letters, of course. First he defended them and offered the standard "taken out of context" defense, but did not hint that anyone apart from the signed author calling himself "I" ("I," as in "I, Ron Paul") wrote them.

In 1996, Paul told TheDallas Morning News that his comment about black men in Washington came while writing about a 1992 study by the National Center on Incarceration and Alternatives, a criminal justice think tank in Virginia. Paul cited the study and wrote: "Given the inefficiencies of what DC laughingly calls the criminal justice system, I think we can safely assume that 95 percent of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal."

"These aren't my figures," Paul told the Morning News. "That is the assumption you can gather from the report."

Nor did Paul dispute in 1996 his 1992 newsletter statement that said,"If you have ever been robbed by a black teenaged male, you know how unbelievably fleet of foot they can be."

Now, Paul says he had nothing to do with the contents of the newsletters published in his name.

"Why don't you go back and look at what I said yesterday on CNN and what I've said for 20-something years, 22 years ago?" Paul said on CNN Wednesday. "I didn't write them. I disavow them. That's it." Paul then removed his microphone and abruptly ended the interview.

Later more of this stuff (which had not been extensively archived; these were 8-page conspiratorial newsletters) emerged, and the new claim was that he hadn't written them at all -- he hadn't even read them! -- and he said some nonsense like "Of course I couldn't admit I didn't write them last time, that was during a campaign."

Oh. So, if I have this right, Ron Paul admits he lies about the newsletters in the midst of a campaign in which he cannot tell the truth for political reasons.

So I guess I'll just take this new claim to the bank and use it as solid gold collateral for a ten million dollar loan which I will use to invest in silver and gold mines.

Here are 50 scans of Ron Paul's newsletters. Scan down a bit and a 1990 Ron Paul Political Report will inform you that this handsome, dashing young upstart, name of David Duke, lately of the Klan and the Neo-Nazi movement, has some good political chops and is worth keeping an eye on. Kid's got a future in the Republican Party!

via @slublog and @alexrinkus

posted by Ace at 03:30 PM

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