Since we have given extensive coverage to the original story, we should also publish Ron Paul’s response to an article in the New Republic documenting racist newsletters published in his name during the 1990s.

The official response from his campaign is also provided here.

It is worth noting that even if one is inclined to accept Paul and his supporters’ rather lame claims that articles published using his name in multiple newsletters over a period of years can ALL be dismissed as merely the irresponsible misappropriation of Paul’s name by an overly zealous staffer, two facts remain inescapable:

1) Even if Paul himself is not or was not a racist, he was and is obviously very appealing to racists for some reason. Candidate Paul remains as willing to accept their money and support in 2008 as he was in the 1990s.

2) Even if Paul has an excuse to evade his association with the racist rhetoric in the newsletters, his campaign web site and his speeches display a continuing endorsement of the newsletters’ bizarre conspiracy theories about international conspiracies from the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderbergs, the Council on Foreign Relations, Israel, and, well, pretty much anything associated with “Da Jews”.

It is also noteworthy that Ron Paul has not taken any legal action to address the allegedly unauthorized theft and misuse of his name for the publication of racist material and conspiracy theories.

UPDATE: LGF agrees that Ron Paul’s claim to not have known about how his name was being used for racist and conspiratorial literature “doesn’t pass the sniff test”. The pure volume of the material and long period of time during which the newsletters were published make Paul’s disavowal simply not credible.

Commenter ChrisWWW notes that people are allowed to change their minds and overcome a prior history of racist associations. I agree, but doing so requires accepting responsibility for the original racist beliefs in the first place. By choosing to prefer the typical political route of spin, evasion, and denial, however, Paul and his enthusiastic supporters don’t even try. Also, they completely belie their claim to be a fundamentally different type of political candidate when they embrace slipperiness and obfuscation over frankness and accountability.

(Admin note: Because Paul supporters have been responding to posts on this subject with large amounts of spam, personal attacks, and even some threats, comments threads on this topic have been closed.)