Bob Barr quits GOP, joins LP

[error]

http://www.reason.com/news/show/28960.html

I guess error didn't like when I posted it. 

No, not a bit. Yours was too easy to miss. In fact, I actually did miss it.

[Dreepa]

http://www.reason.com/news/show/28960.html

I guess error didn't like when I posted it. 

No, not a bit. Yours was too easy to miss. In fact, I actually did miss it.

[JonM]

He seems to answer questions like a politician or something . . .

Maybe ticked off Libertarians down in the south could move to NH in response.

[Michael Fisher]

I would be generous but cautious if he declared he was wrong before. But he doesn't have a clean enough reputation for any position of authority. He should go to the bottom of the heap and earn his way out of the rubble.

Cathleen

Exactly.

I cannot even imagine myself ever trusting this man. The LP's weakness, however, gives this man the potential of vast influence over it.

Thankfully, libertarians are usually not stupid enough to fall for people like Barr, so either he'll fail to gain libertarian support or the LP will die supporting him.

Or he'll change. I doubt it, though.

[KBCraig]

Or he'll change. I doubt it, though.

I'm glad that people don't treat your conversion to Christianity the same way.

Kevin

[Rocketman]

Or he'll change. I doubt it, though.

I'm glad that people don't treat your conversion to Christianity the same way.

Kevin

Is there any evidence that Bob Barr has repudiated anything he once believed?  Has he even claimed to be reformed?  Seriously, I'd love to see any quote from Barr that suggests he has changed his thinking, rather than simply changing teams. 

Mike changed his religious beliefs; Barr changed political parties.  I see no correlation.

[error]

Bob Barr kind of came around a bit on the Patriot Act.

[Rocketman]

Bob Barr kind of came around a bit on the Patriot Act.

Did he?

Lots of people who voted for it oppose it now, like the war.  I'm not sure if Barr ever supported the Patriot Act, or if he just voted for it without reading it like everybody else...

Has he ever said his thinking actually changed? 

[Tom Sawyer]

I was a strong enemy of Barr the Drug Warrior and I'd like to see him be one to renounce this atrocity.

However, he has been one of the few Conservatives to publically denounce Bush and Co.

Bob Barr, Bane of the Right?
http://tinyurl.com/d8pct

...He says President Bush is breaking the law by eavesdropping on U.S. citizens without warrants. And fellow conservatives, for the most part, don't want to hear it.

"You've heard of bear baiting? We're going to have, today, Barr baiting," R. Emmet Tyrell, a conservative publisher, announced as he introduced a debate Thursday between Barr and Viet Dinh, one of the authors of the USA Patriot Act.

"Are we losing our lodestar, which is the Bill of Rights?" Barr beseeched the several hundred conservatives at the Omni Shoreham in Woodley Park. "Are we in danger of putting allegiance to party ahead of allegiance to principle?"

Barr answered in the affirmative. "Do we truly remain a society that believes that . . . every president must abide by the law of this country?" he posed. "I, as a conservative, say yes. I hope you as conservatives say yes."

But nobody said anything in the deathly quiet audience. Barr merited only polite applause when he finished, and one man, Richard Sorcinelli, booed him loudly. "I can't believe I'm in a conservative hall listening to him say [Bush] is off course trying to defend the United States," Sorcinelli fumed.

[Tom Sawyer]

Bob Barr, Civil Libertarian
The right wing of the ACLU
http://www.reason.com/news/show/28960.html


Reason: Do you regret voting for the USA PATRIOT Act?

Barr: I do. I was hoping at the time that it would not be used as a floor but as a ceiling. But it's been a taking-off point for expanded authority in a number of areas. Perhaps most important is the fact that the administration seems to be pushing its application as broadly as it can in nonterrorism cases. And despite the assurances by the administration that Section 215, which relates to obtaining records from libraries and other repositories, is not being used, the fact is it is being used.

It has become much more problematic because it's part of a growing list of privacy-invasive government programs, such as TIA [Terrorism Information Awareness]. They changed the name [from Total Information Awareness] and John Poindexter has left the Defense Department, but I've seen nothing that indicates to me proof that TIA is absolutely dead with a stake driven through its heart and burned and its head cut off, which is how Steve Forbes used to describe what we needed to do with the IRS. So my presumption is that it in some form or fashion is continuing.

We have now the emergence of the CAPPS II system -- the airline passenger profiling system. We have, apparently, a number of state efforts that are being funded by the federal government, such as the one that just came to light called the Matrix system, down in Florida, where the feds are providing grant monies to state agencies to set up programs similar to TIA.

[Michael Fisher]

Or he'll change. I doubt it, though.

I'm glad that people don't treat your conversion to Christianity the same way.

Kevin

I started with no reputation as a Christian activist upon my conversion and I still have no such reputation.

I'll need to work very hard before anyone will point to me as a source of any viable Christian activism, ministry, or opinion. Hence my plans for Bible college.

Perhaps Barr should go to the Mises Institute and unlearn some pro-government things.

[Rocketman]

Thanks for the quotes, Roger.  I'm always glad to hear statist politicians say things I agree with, like last year when Al Gore was speaking out against unchecked executive powers.  But Gore isn't joining the LP...

Perhaps Barr should go to the Mises Institute and unlearn some pro-government things.

Amen, Mike.   

[KBCraig]

Or he'll change. I doubt it, though.

I'm glad that people don't treat your conversion to Christianity the same way.

Kevin

I started with no reputation as a Christian activist upon my conversion and I still have no such reputation.

I'm not talking about activism... but you publicly stated that you were not a Christian (weren't you atheist?), and then you publicly stated that you had accepted Christ and were following Him.

I believe you. I don't need to see activism to accept the change.

Barr has said he regrets voting for the Patriot Act. He's attacked the civil rights abuses by Bush. Many of those abuses have roots in the drug war, so I hope Barr will see that he was also wrong on that front.

I'm not a champion of his. I'm just trying to apply the same standards to him that I do to everyone else: accept the help where we agree, and strongly oppose where we don't, while trying to persuade him around to our side.

Kevin

[error]

Some related commentary from Shane Cory:

http://www.lp.org/yourturn/archives/000509.shtml

[Caleb]

I'm glad that people don't treat your conversion to Christianity the same way.

- 1 ... for the ad hominem on poor Michael. People who are looking for real answers and being honest with themselves often change their minds many times on topics of great importance.  No one should ever be criticized for saying, "I was wrong before, now I'm going to change my viewpoint."