Richard Viguerie, political direct mail pioneer and gray eminence of the conservative movement, fired a volley today at Roger Ailes and Fox News for barring Ron Paul from the channel’s January 6th presidential debate in New Hampshire. Viguerie has been displeased for some time by the GOP, which he accuses of becoming a party of Big Government (He wrote a book about it: Conservatives Betrayed). Now Viguerie’s furious at Fox for dissing Rep. Paul. Here’s an excerpt from his statement:
Fox News itself apparently wants to limit the GOP discussion to variations on a Neocon theme of perpetual war for perpetual big government.
Now, it’s true that Ron Paul is a small-government, libertarian conservative and sitting U.S. congressman who has raised lots of money in this race and may pull in more votes in the New Hampshire GOP primary than better known and more conventional Republican candidates.
It’s also true that Paul believes we should return to the gold standard and claims he saw a real, live UFO — the kind extra-terrestials fly — hovering over the home of his friend Shirley MacLaine. (NOTE: Clearly, I need some sleep. As many commenters quickly pointed out, I confused the short guy from one party with the short guy from the other party. Dennis Kucinich saw the UFO. To Dr. Paul, and to Swampland readers, I apologize.)
You can find Viguerie’s whole statement here.