Three things

Thing One.

Thing Two.

Thing Three.

Hey, that puts me one up on Doctor Seuss, doesn't it?

But seriously, folks: This whole thing has some complexities that bear further discussion.

I don't know if Chief Wana Dubie is the best possible candidate the Missouri Libertarian Party could hope to nominate. However, I've talked with him a few times and he seems like a decent, freedom-loving guy. He also performed better than any other Missouri LP candidate in a three-way race for public office last year, and got some good publicity (including a mention on Jay Leno). Seems like the obvious way through this would be to let Missouri's LP primary voters decide.

Unfortunately, we're in a bad situation of our own making. It all started with the Glenn Miller affair. I've come to regret my vote on the Missouri LP's executive committee to reject Miller's filing fee -- not because I like the idea of a neo-Nazi on the LP's ballot line, but because that rejection set a precedent which is now being abused by a couple of individuals in the MOLP's leadership for their own ends.

There are fundamental differences between Glenn Miller and Chief Wana Dubie in any case. As I previously wrote:

Glenn Miller is obviously not a partisan Libertarian -- he's apparently tried to file for office twice in the last week on other parties' tickets, and he maintains a web site for yet another party of his own. He's just making up his partisan affiliation as he goes along ...

Chief Wana Dubie, on the other hand, has run for office as a Libertarian before, and I happen to know that he is a member of both the Missouri and national Libertarian Parties (the former because he meets the definition under the MOLP's bylaws, the latter because I'm the one he called for help when he had problems getting the national LP's credit card server to take his dues). His platform is also not only far more libertarian than Miller's, but arguably more libertarian than the platforms of some other candidates who have run for office in Missouri on the LP ticket with nary a complaint from the MOLP as an organization.

BUT ... this isn't about how libertarian Chief Wana Dubie is, or about how un-libertarian Glenn Miller is, or about whether either of them have a legitimate connection to the party. It's about legality, it's about propriety and, sadly, it's about a petty internal power struggle in the Missouri LP.