Andrew Sullivan Defends Ron Paul

I started commenting on this at the bottom the previous post but think it deserves a post all its own.

To recap, Andrew Sullivan was at one time a supporter of George W. Bush and when things started to go south in Iraq, he bailed as libs are wont to do. He has been on a crusade against the President under the guise of Bush's opposition to gay marriage.

Last month he came out (so to speak) for Ron Paul and said this:

But the deeper reason to support Ron Paul is a simple one. The great forgotten principles of the current Republican party are freedom and toleration. Paul's federalism, his deep suspicion of Washington power, his resistance to government spending, debt and inflation, his ability to grasp that not all human problems are soluble, least of all by government: these are principles that made me a conservative in the first place. No one in the current field articulates them as clearly and understands them as deeply as Paul. He is a man of faith who nonetheless sees a clear line between religion and politics. More than all this, he has somehow ignited a new movement of those who love freedom and want to rescue it from the do-gooding bromides of the left and the Christianist meddling of the right. The Paulites' enthusiasm for liberty, their unapologetic defense of core conservative principles, their awareness that in the new millennium, these principles of small government, self-reliance, cultural pluralism, and a humble foreign policy are more necessary than ever - no lover of liberty can stand by and not join them.

In light of the words attributed to Paul's newsletter reported in the New Republic, one would think that Sullivan would retract his support. Instead, he wavers and gives Paul the benefit of the doubt:

I don't know enough about the arrangements behind these pamphlets to tell if this is a plausible defense or not. But there is a simple way to address this: Paul needs to say not only that he did not pen these excrescences, he needs to explain how his name was on them and disown them completely. I've supported Paul for what I believe are honorable reasons: his brave resistance to the enforced uniformity of opinion on the Iraq war, his defense of limited constitutional government, his libertarianism, his sincerity. If there is some other agenda lurking beneath all this, we deserve to know. It's up to Ron Paul now to clearly explain and disown these ugly, vile, despicable tracts from the past.

Well I'll be damned, Sullivan hates a President who has done more than any other leader in history for those suffering with HIV and we are now making serious headway in Iraq. But when faced with the words that at the very least were sanctioned and condoned by his candidate and in many cases may have written the vile, racist and anti-gay words that Sullivan quotes, he wavers.

Now I don't know if these are Paul's words but they were put out under his authority. If one of my employee's issues something that is detrimental to my business, I am responsible as the CEO. I would of course fire the employee, I wonder if Paul was so appalled by the words that he gave the author the ax.

Now imagine that a reporter found these words written by Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney or Giuliani, would Saint Andrew give them the benefit of the doubt? That's a rhetorical question of course.

There was once a time that Sullivan was a trend setter in the blogosphere and in many cases his opinions were lucid and well thought out. Those days are long past and as made crystal clear by this latest post, his opinions are not worth the pixels they are written with.

We knew Sullivan had lost his heart, now we have confirmation he has lost his soul.

As for the Paulite's, they make LaRouchians look like they have all their brain cells.

Update: Thanks to the link from Bryan and Allah at Hot Air, among the best sites on the web.

Update: Paul plays the "I wasn't paying attention" card. Yeah, that's what I want in a President, a man not paying attention. Perhaps that's why he is against the Iraq War, he's not been paying attention to the real and present danger presented by Jihadi's.

Note: Thanks, dude. High praise indeed.