Founded in 1991, the Republican Liberty Caucus works to advance the principles of limited government, free markets and individual liberty within the Republican Party.

I see both of these actions as consistent with Dr. Paul’s history.

On point 1, he does not despise Don Young for the same reason that many of us do…pork requests. Dr. Paul has regularly requested pork projects. As you rightly pointed out in a post a few days ago, the Club for Growth’s Repork Card rates Dr. Paul as one of the worst Republicans on this issue (http://www.clubforgrowth.org/2007/08/the_2007_club_for_growth_repor.php)

On point 2, as far as I know Dr. Paul has not endorsed anyone who has challenged a sitting Republican member of the House or Senate. If you know of an example I would like to hear it.

As a Ron Paul-endorsed candidate (http://www.libertypac.net/html/state.html), I am having a moneybomb for my campaign today, August 22. I encourage you to donate either $22.22, $122.22, or $222.22 via my http://voterob.alexanderfamily.org Web site today. Here are some historical events that have taken place on August 22:

* 1642 – Charles I calls the English Parliament traitors. Beginning of the English Civil War.
* 1775 – King George III declares the American colonies to be in open rebellion.
* 1786 – The Hatfield Convention sets forth 17 grievances to the Massachusetts state legislature regarding economic problems such as the rising number of foreclosures, the high cost of lawsuits, heavy land and poll taxes, and high salaries for state officials. A week later, after the legislature ignores the petition, Shays’ Rebellion starts.
* 1791 – Beginning of the Haitian Slave Revolution in Saint-Domingue.
* 1831 – Nat Turner’s slave rebellion revolt commences just after midnight in Southampton, Virginia.
* 1864 – Twelve nations sign the First Geneva Convention.
* 1952 – The penal colony on Devil’s Island permanently closes.

My goal for fundraising today is $2,222. That can be reached by 100 people donating $22.22, 19 people donating $122.22, 10 people donating $222.22, or any combination of the three. If each of you reading this message will please just take a few minutes today and donate on my http://voterob.alexanderfamily.org Web site, we should be able to reach the goal of raising $2,222 today, August 22. Thank you for your support of liberty.

Don Young is a pork king, definitely. Ron Paul at least rationalizes his votes for pork earmarks by voting against the final bill. Young doesn’t bother. He voted for more spending than Cynthia McKinney last year, according to the latest NTU VoteTally! Also, Young has a career RLC Liberty Index score (as of 2005) of 61.5%, which makes him a Centrist. What is Ron thinking here?

Here’s Richard Vigueire’s take on Ron’s endorsement of the earmark king. Didn’t Don Young vote FOR the war?

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Mon Aug 25, 6:54 PM ET

MANASSAS, Va., Aug. 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — By endorsing Congressman Don Young (R-Alaska) for reelection over his principled conservative challenger, Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas) has put “pork ahead of principle,” Richard A. Viguerie said.

Viguerie, Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, said the endorsement is “completely inconsistent with everything Congressman Paul has said that he stands for. But, unfortunately, it is consistent with his record of pork-barrel spending for the folks back home in his district.”

Viguerie noted that, according to a recent article in the Houston Chronicle, Paul “is trying to nab public money for 65 projects, such as marketing wild shrimp and renovating the old movie theater in Edna that closed in 1977 neither of which is envisioned in the Constitution as an essential government function.”

(A list of Congressman Paul’s earmark requests for Fiscal 2009 has been posted at http://blogs.chron.com/txpotomac/2008/04/ron_pauls_earmarks_for_fy2009.html .)

Young is extremely influential on congressional pork. He is the 7th most senior member of the House and the 3rd most senior Republican, and chaired the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee from 2001 until the Democratic takeover in 2007. He is currently the top Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee.

Paul is supporting Young against Sean Parnell, whom Viguerie called “a principled conservative reformer who will fight the ‘culture of corruption’ in Washington.”

In contrast, “Young represents the system of earmarking and pork-barrel spending that works hand-in-glove with Big Government against the interests of the people of Alaska and the entire nation.”

Young, who is under federal investigation for illegal gratuities and unreported gifts, is “a world-class porker, infamous for his Bridge to Nowhere and hundreds of millions in other earmarks,” Viguerie said.

“I have been a strong supporter of Ron Paul for many years, including naming him one of the nation’s up-and-coming leaders in a Conservative Digest magazine article I published almost 25 years ago,” Viguerie said. “His overall record on other issues far outweighed his atrocious use of earmarks for his own district.

“However, his endorsement of Don Young is something no conservative or libertarian can excuse. I’m sure I join many fans of Ron Paul who are shocked and disappointed by this decision.”

Vighuerie is pretty atrocious in his own right so I don’t take anything he says all that seriously.

We seem to be seeing a split in the party between two kinds of fiscal conservatives, those who would like to cut earmarks as a way of cutting spending like John McCain, and those who would like to cut entire budget items like Ron Paul and perhaps (if he Paul secret knowledge of it) Don Young.

The position which Paul takes appears to descend from that of the ‘states rights’ movement which came into the GOP from the Dixiecrats and believes that the federal government should hand over a lot of programs and spending to the states. That fits with voting for earmarks which give control to the states while voting against items on the federal budget.

Yes, on the record Young is basically some sort of fascist. But he’s an anti-tax fascist. He’s voted against every increase and for every cut, so he’s not a total loss.

Of course, the real pro-liberty position ought to be to cut federal spending AND cut earmarks and local spending. And spending federal money does not do less harm to the taxpayer if it’s in local hands. It’s still our tax money.

Dave

John Fund’s notes in today’s WSJ Political Diary (below) make me wonder if Ron’s endorsement wasn’t *responsible* for Rep. Don Young’s narrow victory yesterday. Is this why so many libertarians supported Ron for prez, to help a big spending earmarker win his primary? I feel cheated. — pb

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Alaska’s Republican primary showed just how much electoral clout longtime incumbents can pull even when in deep political trouble. Senator Ted Stevens easily won yesterday’s GOP contest against a divided field of weak opponents, while Rep. Don Young this morning is managing to hold a razor-thin lead against a primary challenge from the state’s lieutenant governor.

Mr. Stevens won over 60% of the primary vote, a strong sign of support from the constituents who have returned him to office six times previously. But he faces a series of political rapids that are still likely to doom his career. He was indicted on charges of lying about $250,000 in gifts in July and is scheduled to face trial next month before a Washington, D.C. jury. He trails Mark Begich, the Democratic mayor of Anchorage, by a double-digit margin in a fall matchup. Mr. Stevens campaigned on the theme “Without Ted, we’re toast,” arguing that he was needed to bring home federal dollars from Washington. But support from Alaska’s small GOP primary electorate is not readily translated into broad support at the November polls. More than 60% of Alaska’s voters register as either unaffiliated or with a third party. Congressional Quarterly rates the Stevens-Begich contest as a likely Democratic pickup.

In the fight over the state’s lone House seat, Rep. Young was leading by 145 votes out of some 100,000 cast as we went to press. Most of the remaining 3,000 votes were cast in Alaska’s Bush country, a traditional stronghold for Mr. Young who was once a riverboat captain. But there may be as many as 9,000 late-arriving absentee ballots to be counted, so don’t look for this race to be decided until the last bush pilot flies in with the last sack of ballots from some obscure Artic village.

Mr. Young had trailed Mr. Parnell in published polls over the summer, but managed to battle back into contention after he conceded in a recent radio debate that he had been a bully and arrogant at times. Even so, he argued he was the most effective person to fight for Alaska’s interests in the House, and voters shouldn’t give up that kind of seniority lightly.

Even if the late-arriving ballots confirm his apparent lead, Mr. Young is hardly out of the woods. Like Mr. Stevens, he would still face a stiff challenge from a Democrat in the fall in a battle before a much broader electorate.

Ron Paul isn’t a libertarian. He’s a paelo-conservative. And you can’t get more paelo than Don Young to Ted Stevens.