Suddenly the Media is Interested in Ron Paul—At Least in His Congressional Seat Defeat

This week NPR radio had the forthrightness to read two letters from listeners critical of their coverage of Ron Paul. In essence both said, "You didn't give Ron Paul the time of day during his active campaign for President and now you do a major story on him because he has a primary challenge to his Congressional race. It seems like you are only interested in his defeat!"

Yes, the establishment has put up a neo-con "conservative" to challenge Rep. Paul for his Congressional seat: turn-coat Chris Peden who used to speak highly of Ron Paul. Thomas Woods provides some interesting background on how this challenge came to be.

"On January 12, 2007, a Texas city councilman named Chris Peden told the Galveston Daily News, 'I have an immense amount of respect for Ron Paul. Politics has a way of forcing people to go against their core principles for political gain. That has never been the case for Ron Paul.' In case you don't know, Chris Peden is now Ron Paul's congressional challenger in the Republican primary in Texas' 14th District."

Here's Peden giving his best neocon spiel: "I think Islamo-Fascist terrorists were responsible for the 9/11 attacks; the incumbent thinks America's Middle East policies were responsible for the attacks. The terrorists 'wish to destroy our way of life because they abhor freedom, democracy, and liberty.' We should continue to encourage democracy around the world 'even if it takes the remainder of the century.'" Of course, Peden fails to point out where America is going to get all the money and manpower to tilt at these windmills for the next century. As the Comptroller General of the US David Walker recently told Glenn Beck, "this nation is bankrupt." Sadly, Walker is now being forced out for being so forthright with the truth.

But the real story behind the story of Chris Peden is the influence of a high level Republican shill in Texas: Kathy Haigler. Again, the research comes from Thomas Woods of LewRockwell.com

"There's also an interesting story behind Kathy Haigler, the lady that Peden quotes all over his website. Peden has gone out of his way to make it appear like she's some sort of a constituent or representative of the 14th District. She isn't. Kathy actually lives in neighboring Congressional District 22, an entire county removed from Ron Paul's district. Her representative is Democrat Nick Lampson, and she is currently the campaign manager for a Republican opponent of Lampson in the CD 22 primary named Robert Talton.

"Kathy has also had a personal agenda against the libertarian wing of the Republican Party for years, which explains her strong animosity to Paul. You probably read about the Tom DeLay fiasco in 2006, when the courts prevented the Republican Party from naming a successor. The court ruling basically barred the Republican Party from putting a new nominee on the ballot after DeLay resigned, leaving them with the option of either backing Libertarian Party nominee Bob Smither or launching a certain-to-fail write-in campaign.

"In the days that followed the court ruling there was a serious discussion among Republican Party insiders about endorsing Smither if he would agree to caucus with the GOP and vote for a Republican speaker… Smither was open to the plan and immediately agreed to caucus with the GOP if elected, and to cast his votes under the
guidance of our very own Ron Paul.

"Then enter Kathy Haigler. She caught wind of the effort to recruit Smither, and for whatever reason - her hatred of libertarianism, her wish to be a 'player,' her own overstated sense of self-importance - she began personally working the entire State Republican Executive Committee membership list to trash Smither. She accused him of being an anti-family values social liberal (ironic because Smither is a Christian homeschooler who heads up a missing children recovery charity), she implied that he was pro-abortion (he wasn't), she accused his Republican backers (including Patterson) of deviating from the 'party platform' that she herself has apparently never read.

"Needless to say, Haigler's smear campaign against Smither worked. Smither attempted to go to the meeting of the State Republican Party [but] was barred at the door largely at Haigler's instigation. Haigler rallied the group behind a dingbat Houston City Councilwoman named Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, whose brief congressional career as the placeholder for the last month in Tom DeLay's term was a spectacular embarrassment to the entire state of Texas."

The end result of Haigler's machinations was the loss of the District in the next election to a Democrat. Woods asks, "What happened to make Peden go from an admirer to an opponent — and not just an opponent, but one who is running a vicious and dishonest smear campaign against the very man he so recently praised? I have no idea."

I do. Haigler appears to me to be a party hack directed by the national party bosses to sabotage any political threat from the constitutional conservatives in that area of Texas. They went looking for someone to oppose Paul and promised lots of support. Hopefully the conservative Democrats and Republicans of the 14th District which have supported Paul in the past will be repulsed by this neocon propaganda and support Paul again. In any case, Ron needs your support since he cannot use his Presidential campaign funds for his Congressional primary contest. Go to http://www.ronpaulforcongress.com to contribute.

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