Bob Barr “evolves” again
Written by Benaiah on May 30th, 2008Bob Barr is changing yet another policy position in order to run for President.
Bob Barr’s marriage of convenience to the Libertarian Party gained him the group’s nomination for president and prompted the former Republican congressman to declare he will work to repeal one of his biggest legislative victories, the Defense of Marriage Act.
In his speech accepting the little party’s nomination in Denver last weekend, Barr roundly denounced the law he once championed.
Barr was the sponsor of the 1996 act that (1) says no state is required to give effect to or recognize a same-sex union law of another state, and (2) defines marriage as “a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife” and declares “the word ’spouse’ refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.”
Barr’s reversal marks the repudiation of key conservative “family values” positions he once embraced. He also now favors legalizing “medical marijuana,” and his new party’s platform calls for repeal “of all laws creating ‘crimes’ without victims, such as the use of drugs for medicinal or recreational purposes.” He also opposes the 2001 Patriot Act he originally supported to expand intelligence-gathering powers in fighting terrorism.
Before the convention, Barr declared support for the California Supreme Court’s mid-May decision striking down state laws banning same-sex marriages.
The War on Drugs, The Patriot Act, and now The Defense of Marriage Act. Barr is showing he will change his long held beliefs for political gain.
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Actually, I think Barr’s position is simply that these things should be decided at the state level. As for Patriot Act, I never agreed with that anyway, so he’s right to repudiate it. If you research that, you’ll see he was on the right side of that all along.
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Thats factually incorrect. Bob Barr voted for the Patriot Act in 2001 when it passed congress, and didn’t voice opposition on it until later.
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Barr is running for a fringe party so now he has to fit their fringe mold. This is sad because Barr could have probably been more successful if he tried to be more of a conservative instead of a libertarian.
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I cant seem to find the Official Barr Root Web site. They are running on the libertarian ticket right? Could someone out there help me out. Im thinking about voting for the libertarian ticket this year, but I cant fing the Barr/Root site to learn more about the candidates. Ive been to
http://www.BarrRoot.com http://www.BarrRoot08.com and http://www.BarrRoot2008.com
None of these websites are up and running yet? Someone told me that the libertarians Campaign mainly online? But I cant figure out why I cant find a campaign site. If anyone knows Please let me know. Thanks.
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My point exactly John. He was also the original sponsor for The Defense of Marriage Act. This is political expediency at its best.
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Interesting. The one comment I don’t see is that Barr may have had an honest change of heart after learning more about the (perhaps) unintended consequences of measures he previously supported. I seem to recall another man known as Saul who was famous for his persecution of a minority religious group until he (literally) saw the light. Of course, today we all know him as Paul of Tarsis.
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“This is sad because Barr could have probably been more successful if he tried to be more of a conservative instead of a libertarian.”
But then he would have to either run for the GOP ticket, or forget about being on any significant number of ballots.
If ran as more of a conservative that he is at the moment, he would never have won the LP nomination (it wasn’t exactly a cakewalk to begin with).
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Barr is showing he will change his long held beliefs for political gain.
They all do. The “straight-talk express,” for example, derailed months ago. One of the few advantages of Senator Obama’s limited experience is that he has a much shorter record of votes and statements to try to reconcile to his current platform.
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Barr seems to have really changed his mind on some issues- and on others, he has been misrepresented, like the Patriot Act. He railed against it in committee, but voted for it so he could be on the conference committee, to make sure that the sunsets from the House bill were on the final law (as they weren’t on the Senate version).