Tuesday, March 24, 2009

MIAC update -- Root brings back the crazy

The Missouri LP did fine job on the MIAC report (in particular, Mike Ferguson, who ran point on the matter). After rescuing the issue from the Alex Jones fever swamp, we got quite a bit of media -- and reasonably good media at that -- on it. With the help of Bob Barr, Ron Paul and Chuck Baldwin we also got an apology and retraction out of the Department of Public Safety. And a number of Missouri legislators are apparently outraged and preparing for a showdown over, or at least a damn hard look at, MIAC's budget and purview as well.

Naturally, Wayne Allyn Root was nowhere to be seen when the work was being done and the risks were being taken. Now that the sweaty and dangerous part is over, however, he's running like hell for the front of the parade to "lead" it. Even worse, he's waving around exactly the kind of bullshit claims that we worked so hard to get out of the equation in the first place for the perfectly good reason that lying about the MIAC report hurts us, not MIAC.

From the latest Root hyper-ventilation:

As the 2008 Libertarian Vice Presidential nominee, as well as 2012 Libertarian Presidential hopeful Wayne Allyn Root, has been on the record in more than a thousand media interviews as concerned that our government has grown too big, too powerful, too corrupt, too controlling over the people. Now comes the strongest proof yet that Root's concerns are valid: a report prepared by a Department of Homeland Security-related organization that has warned law enforcement that anyone supporting third party candidates such as Wayne Root's Libertarian Party, the Bob Barr/Wayne Root Presidential ticket, or Ron Paul's Republican candidacy could be a terrorist, militia member or involved in criminal activities.


As discussed elsewhere here at KN@PPSTER, the MIAC report gives no such "warning." Nor, despite Root's multiple attempts to insert his name into the discussion at this late date, does that name appear anywhere in the report.

The MIAC report -- the actual report, not the false and hyperbolic characterizations of it -- was a real issue. And it was an issue we made real political hay with. Now Root's trying to hijack it, and doing so in such ham-handed a way that he could conceivably cost us every hard-earned crumb of credibility we won on it.

File under "the LP can -- must -- do better than Root in 2012."

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