The Libertarian Party — which nominated former CIA employee, federal prosecutor, Republican congressman, and lobbyist Bob Barr as its presidential candidate — has sent out an email criticizing Barack Obama’s newly announced runningmate Joe Biden as a “Congress critter” who has only worked four years in the private sector.
The LP, speaking on behalf of its dues-paying membership, heaps scorn about Biden for a litany of supposed indiscretions, including his opposition to making English the national language, his unwillingness to engage in energy socialism via drilling in ANWR, and his support for McCain-Fiengold, which Barr/Root recently tried to use to muscle their way into a privately organized church debate.
The entirety of the LP email is reproduced below:
Dear friend of liberty,
A text message arrived at my phone this morning announced that Democratic Senator Barack Obama had selected Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his running mate. I looked at it, said, “No surprise there,” and went back to sleep.
After all, there isn’t much to Biden that the public doesn’t already know. He’s a career Senator with more than 30-year history of being a “Congress critter.” Biden is not only a part of the political establishment, he’s a senior member of it!
In fact, Biden has only spent four years working in the private sector after graduating from college.
As our acting Executive Director said, Biden’s pick was “predictable and typical.”
Biden is a bit of a loose cannon that should make this election season a little more interesting. He’s notorious for being a narcissistic windbag, making testy, off-the-cuff comments such as, “You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent,” or, when he said in response to a question about what type of grades he received in law school, “I think I have a much higher IQ than you do.”
Obama, who has constantly been under the microscope for elitist-sounding comments, has picked for his V.P. a man that also can be criticized for the same.
But what about his voting record? Though being mostly middle-of-the-road, Biden’s record in Congress displays a track record of big spending and big government.
The following are just a few of the things I found:
- Voted against an amendment that would prohibit the use taxpayer money for abortion.
- Voted for the economic stimulus plan that costs taxpayers billions.
- Voted to prevent drilling in ANWR.
- Voted against eliminating the “Death Tax.”
- Voted to increase the minimum wage.
- Voted for McCain-Feingold.
- Voted against a moratorium on earmarks.
- Voted for hate crime legislation.
- Voted for No Child Left Behind.
- Voted to spend $48 billion overseas to fight diseases in foreign countries.
- Voted against protecting firearm manufacturers from lawsuits.
- Voted for using federal funds for anti-gun activities.
- Voted against making English the official language of the United States.
- Voted against limiting taxpayer subsidies to AMTRAK.
- Voted for punishing states that did not comply with motorcycle helmet laws.
We just wanted to let you know our take on Obama’s pick, and thank you for your continued support of the Libertarian Party!
If you’re looking to get more involved, please email us to find out how to volunteer for liberty!
Also, please take a few minutes to watch our presidential nominee with Neil Cavuto on Fox News talking about the recent conflict in Georgia.
Live Free,
Andrew Davis
National Media Coordinator
Libertarian Party
Ron Paul also came out for SELLING federal lands and letting the market sort things out, RE: ANWR.
Why is the LP so goddamn Socialist?
got back from vacation and found this letter in my mailbox… how appalling! “English the official language” is a hot-button issue for me. . . infuriatingly unlibertarian
My mistake on previou slink. I threw a script at the DOCID that was for the 2008 Congressional Records DB. Here’s the correct link.
No shit
On September 10, 1996, in Rollcall Vote No. 280 Leg., Biden voted for DOMA.
GPO DOCID:cr10se96-97
Biden vote for the Authorization of Force. Here’s a rundown on his public statements in The Senate during debate on commentary on it in Oct. 2002:
One – Two – Three – Four – Five
Hmm… That wouldn’t be very “cosmopolitan” or good for the Koch Empire’s business. As evidenced by Bill Redpath’s campaign site, the LP Chair is a Stato Droid.
Grow a pair! Call the man out on being a self-proclaimed Zionist!
darolew – Juries should award damages to the defendants if suits are truly frivolous.
“The only thing that “had to be done†was for juries to throw out the frivolous suits.”
It’s not quite that simple. Just going to court at all is extremely expensive. Almost none of those lawsuits had any chance of winning; they simply drained the firearms manufacturers via legal fees. Sure, they can counter-sue, but that doesn’t always work and the system is largely unsympathetic.
Something had to change — perhaps reforming the court system would have been more appropriate.
What an embarrassment of a press release. Austin Cassidy is exactly right in pointing out the irony of attacking Biden for being a longtime member of Congress while running a former CIA employee, federal prosecutor, Republican congressman, and lobbyist as its presidential candidate. Pot. Kettle. Black.
I think this was GE, not Austin.
Starchild says –
“Suffice it to say, there is no mention of any of that drug war / civil liberties stuff from our conservative-in-residence. I understand that sometimes it’s important to get a press release out quickly and it’s easy to overlook things when rushing. But Andrew’s already demonstrated rightward leanings makes me wonder if that’s really the explanation.”
Excellent observation my friend! However, letting the LP leadership and paid staff off the hook so easily as they were “rushing” to get the release out is definitely NOT called for. I know Starchild hasn’t done that, but many others might be lenient in such matters.
So thanks again Starchild for calling out the LP national press release corp for screwing it up yet again.
P.S. If my memory serves me, didn’t the newly reformed APRC (Advertising and Publications Review Committee) become reinstated to combat this sort of stuff?
He’s not, but the leadership (1) gave him a position of authority and (2) allowed him to send out that crap.
P.S. – When I saw the IPR entry “LP criticizes Biden’s opposition to making English ‘national language’” my first thought was, “Oh man, please let that be a headline screwup and not a press release screwup.” Alas, it was not to be.
What an embarrassment of a press release. Austin Cassidy is exactly right in pointing out the irony of attacking Biden for being a longtime member of Congress while running a former CIA employee, federal prosecutor, Republican congressman, and lobbyist as its presidential candidate. Pot. Kettle. Black.
I’m also with Peter Orvetti on the tone. It reads like something the Republicans would put out about a Democrat candidate. Nothing particularly deep or insightful about it, no sense of a larger libertarian worldview being communicated, just cheap “gotcha” points.
Much of the content, complete with faulting Biden for opposing drilling in ANWR and making English the national language, matches the tone. Adopting an official national language is most definitely *not* a libertarian position. And allowing oil companies to drill on government land in the Arctic, while not to my mind a bad thing and certainly not the environmental catastrophe that some hysterical elements on the left make it out to be, is one of the most overplayed and least consequential issues of the day. It offers no clearly obvious way in which to apply libertarian principles, and I see no reason why an LP spokesperson should be focusing on it.
By contrast, I seemed to recall Biden sponsoring some pretty awful anti-rave legislation that expanded the War on Drugs to allow the use of RICO laws to go after rave promoters for people taking drugs at their parties. A quick web search revealed that the “RAVE Act” was the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Biden’s awful record on drugs and civil liberties. According to blogger Jacob Grier:
“Biden has sponsored more damaging drug war legislation than any Democrat in Congress. Hate the way federal prosecutors use RICO laws to take aim at drug offenders? Thank Biden. How about the abomination that is federal asset forfeiture laws? Thank Biden. Think federal prosecutors have too much power in drug cases? Thank Biden. Think the title of a “Drug Czar†is sanctimonious and silly? Thank Biden, who helped create the position (and still considers it an accomplishment worth boasting about). Tired of the ridiculous steroids hearings in Congress? thank Biden, who led the effort to make steroids a Schedule 3 drug, and has been among the blowhardiest of the blowhards when it comes to sports and performance enhancing drugs. Biden voted in favor of using international development aid for drug control (think plan Columbia, plan Afghanistan, and other meddling anti-drug efforts that have only fostered loathing of America, backlash, and unintended consequences).”
There’s more on Biden from Grier that’s worth reading which I won’t recopy here — see http://www.jacobgrier.com/blog/archives/1311.html.
Suffice it to say, there is no mention of any of that drug war / civil liberties stuff from our conservative-in-residence. I understand that sometimes it’s important to get a press release out quickly and it’s easy to overlook things when rushing. But Andrew’s already demonstrated rightward leanings makes me wonder if that’s really the explanation.
In any case, if this is the best we can do, well, sometimes never *is* better than late. If I’d been told ten years ago that the 2008 LP leadership would make me nostalgic for that of the Harry Browne era, I’m not sure I would’ve had the stomach to stick around this long. So far have we fallen as a party.
The main thing that keeps me here is reminding myself how relatively few people it would still take to completely turn the LP around and have it once again be a radical, uncompromising, insightful voice for freedom. But the list of things we’re going to need to apologize for and dissociate ourselves from, if and when that day comes, keeps getting longer.
“Ah yes, the global warming debate….Everyone is an expert, everyone knows everything about it.”
I’m certainly not an expert, and I don’t claim to know everything about global warming. But there are a few things that I do know:
1) I know that there were many extreme changes in the global climate long before humans ever walked the earth. That, by itself, doesn’t prove anything about today’s climate change, but it does show that warming (or cooling) is not necessarily connected to human activity.
2) I know that politicians are always eager to find the next big crisis that justifies state action. The bigger the crisis is, the better for them. And it’s hard to think of a crisis bigger than global warming, which allows politicians a chance to “save the planet”, as Nancy Pelosi famously put it.
3) I know that if you’re a climate scientist, you’re likely to get more grant money for your research if you discover a dire threat to the planet that requires immediate action than you are if you discover that everything is fine, or if you discover problems that can’t be fixed by more government regulations.
Of course, none of these things conclusively prove anything. But they do indicate that both politicians and scientists have lots of incentives to tell us that manmade global warming is a dire threat to the planet, and we must take immediate action to stop it. Whether you choose to believe their claims is up to you.
Ah yes, the global warming debate. It reminds me of people arguing about World of Warcraft. Everyone is an expert, everyone knows everything about it. And everyone is absolutely SURE they are right.
And none of them agree.
As far as national language not being important — well, there’s certainly no constitutional authority for Congress to pass such legislation for one. For two, it is mostly pointless, and is really just xenophobic race-baiting / right-wing populist-mongering, and NOT libertarian.
The only thing that “had to be done” was for juries to throw out the frivolous suits.
If we can’t count on people to be smart enough on juries and we have to turn to the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT for salvation, then we’re living under dictatorship and should consider ourselves lucky.
“Voted against making English the official language of the United States.”
As soon as I saw that in the email I thought to myself “G.E.’s not going to like that”.
Personally, all the “official language” nonsense is high on my list of issues that don’t actually matter much; nonetheless if I were in a position to vote against it, I would. Either way, it hardly seems important enough to be included in the press release, especially when the PATRIOT Act and the Iraq War vote were both omitted.
“No Libertarian should ever support giving corporations protection from lawsuits, obviously.”
The particular lawsuits in question were extremely frivolous and were pushing the firearms companies towards bankruptcy. While a national law is an unfortunate way to solve a problem (especially with the trigger-lock provision attached), something had to be done at some level; else we would have soon had de facto gun control.
Green in Brooklyn: “Have you guys heard of a little thing called Global warming, maybe?”
Man made global warming is indeed “a little thing.” So little, it does not even exist.
Earth has gone through climate change throughout its history. Humans have nothing to do with it. Solar flares and sunspot activity and such have more to do with it.
But if it’ll make you happy, let’s pass a law outlawing harmful sunspot activity. But you must figure out a way to arrest Mr. Sun if he violates the law.
g.i.b. – But you are right about the press release — it puts libertarians in bad company and further hurts our ability to appeal to leftists such as yourself. Why attack Biden in an appeal to rightists? It doesn’t make sense.
g.i.b. – Real libertarians want to sell ANWR and AMTRAK to the highest bidders. Global warming is a fraud, but let the environmentalists buy ANWR and preserve it.
P.S. and English as the official language put the LP in with the isolationist Buchananistas. Nice racist, xenophobic company ya got there.
Two things – one, the LP wants to drill in ANWR but not fund Amtrak? Have you guys heard of a little thing called Global warming, maybe?
Two, Re Biden: He was head of the foreign relations committee during the run-up to the war in Iraq. When we needed someone to ask tough questions and challenge Dubya, Biden backed Bush all the way – I blame him just as much as Gephardt, who stood beside Bush int eh Rose Garden, for the disastrous, illegal war in Iraq.
George, how is Andrew Davis “the LP leadership”? He just makes this stuff up on his own. He’s a younger man with the idea that the commerce clause authorises the national government to do anything. He believes in plenary power for government. Just ask him. I did.
Um… GOOD!
WTF is wrong with the LP leadership?!
You just answered your own question.
Why is the LP advocating making English the official language? That seems anti-libertarian to me.
Just think of the stupidity of this: Who the hell is the LP trying to win over by criticizing Biden on these grounds? People who want Anglo Nationalism are already voting GOP or CP; people who want energy socialism in ANWR are already GOP (or sadly, Barr-barian LP); people who don’t like McCain-Feingold wouldn’t consider Obama/Biden in the first place.
Anyone who continues paying dues to the LP is a moron.
By implication, yes.
Funny… Washington, Jefferson, Adams and the like never needed a “national language,” and a “national” anything was anathema to all but the Hamiltonian centralists the Redpath junta seeks to emulate with their “national greatness” libertarianism.
“including his opposition to making English the national language”
Wait…did the LP just say they supported making English the official national language?
When we have a guy like Redpath at the helm of the party, what can be expected, Jared?
It just gives everyone who think they are Greens or Far Left Democrats, but really are libertarians at heart more reasons not to join the Libertarian Party. “Gee, libertarians support giving corporations special advantages under the law? I’m totally against that, I must not be a libertarian”
“Voted against limiting taxpayer subsidies to AMTRAK.”
Biden’s son sits on the board of AMTRAK.
Jared – Well, Gungrabber Bill Redpath, who thinks the recent Heller decision “established” the right to gun ownership, is at the head of the LP, so anything said in regards to guns is completely worthless.
But yes, I did consider highlighting that as another ridiculous thing for which to criticize Biden.
The very worst things about Biden are also true of Barr and/or Root.
I also like how “Voted against protecting firearm manufacturers from lawsuits” was supposedly a bad thing. No Libertarian should ever support giving corporations protection from lawsuits, obviously.
Hugh and Mike – Yeah, I know. Interesting the LP doesn’t bring that up along with his other list of crimes, real and imagined.
I wonder why….
G.E., Biden was for a while one of the biggest proponents of the War in Iraq in the Senate.
Biden voted for the war, the PATRIOT Act (twice), DOMA… all around suck, this guy.
Does Biden think we should have a “surge” in Afghanistan, like the LP’s VP candidate?
Being a welfare bum like Biden (and Barr) is bad… But is it really any less honorable than being a scamdicapper and Boiler Room-esque bilker of investors?
Where did Biden vote on the Patriot Act? How about DOMA? How about the invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq?