TNR: A brief fisk

It's just barely possible that Michael Idov makes it to the third sentence of his article on last month's Libertarian Party national convention before things fall apart. I don't know if he got the first two sentences right or not because I wasn't in the Capitol Bar with Christine Smith when he was. But based on the subsequent bits, I wouldn't bet the ranch on his accuracy.

Back in the hall, a few purists stage a desperate drive for Kubby as the v.p.

It took two ballots for Root to prevail for the veep nomination, and then he did so with 289 votes to Kubby's 255. Counting Dan Williams's 14 votes, that got Root to 51.7%, only 1.7% over the required majority and a slimmer margin than Barr managed. I'm not sure how Kubby's 45.7% can reasonably be described as "a desperate drive" by "a few purists." In fact, the most "desperate" of the "purists" were probably the ones who schlepped off to cry in their beer, plot revolution, whatever ... and that almost certainly cost Kubby the VP nomination.

The idea -- to stick Barr with the least compatible Number Two

Other parties "balance their tickets" by nominating a moderate and a radical, an easterner and a southerner, whatever. Apparently Libertarians aren't supposed to do that.

"Compatibility" isn't much of a criterion; Appeal to diverse constituencies is much better. Pairing a former drug POW with a former drug warrior would have made for great media. It would have highlighted the fact that Barr has changed, and given him opportunities to explain why and how. Pairing a long-time party activist with a relative newcomer would have addressed a real concern in the party itself. A Californian and a Georgian make for nice geographical and cultural diversity on the ticket.

None of this is intended to come out of Wayne Root's hide, btw. He won the nomination in an honest head-to-head contest ... but it wasn't Root versus a few "desperate purists," and it wasn't about "compatibility."

After more than a few people loudly declare their intention to defect on the spot, Steve Kubby goes onstage and pleads with them to stay.

Actually, Kubby's appeal to the exiting radicals was made outside the hall. Jesus, Idov, were you even in Denver?

Boston Tea Party, a fast-swelling offshoot composed of frustrated anarchists

... with a more moderate platform than the LP's ...

Today's "Sore Winner" prize goes to Brian Holtz for his critique of Idov's article, which wanders for a bit before dragging the aging, smelly, rotten red "Mary Ruwart, child pornography buff" herring around the block yet again. I'm not sure why. It was dishonest and shameful the first 50 times. Now it's just boring and irrelevant.