Libertarian Think Tank

Chris Peden is a longshot candiate who is running for the Republican nomination against Congressman Ron Paul in the 14th Conrgessional District of Texas. His slogan promises “Conservative Results…for a change”. You see, in Pedenland the Iraq War with its attending budget deficits, loss of American lives, and rampant, destructive corporatism…is conservative. And of course, his website calls Ron Paul a “liberal in disguise“. You know…because strict constitutionalists are liberals now.

Peden hails from the new school of conservatism, which doesn’t bother to define itself so long as it cites Jesus. It’s hard to say what the logical extremes of a term without definition are, so let’s just assume it’s somewhere within the nexus of kissing Bush’s ass, killing more soldiers, and forcing people into churches at gunpoint (evangelical churches, of course). Barry Goldwater is rolling in his grave. Oh, I guess Buckley is now, too.

Never missing an opportunity to spazz, the website Wonkette.com has endorsed Chris Peden for no other reason than to irk Paul supporters. No, Wonkette doesn’t have a problem with Paul’s politics. The worst they have accused him of is failing to represent his district. His district apparently disagrees, as they have sent him back to Congress ten times. Yet, Wonkette’s Sara K. Smith cannot help herself:

 To most American political fanatics, Ron Paul is just a goofy hobbit whose hilariously doomed online presidential campaign provided standout entertainment in a year that offered a wealth of hilariously doomed campaigns.

But to many of his constituents in Texas Congressional District 14, Ron Paul is just a blame-America-first attention whore who completely ignores the people who put him in office. There are no Democrats running in the 14th District primary next Tuesday — so if Ron Paul loses, he will have the honor of being a double loser in the eyes of his beloved constituents. With this in mind, Wonkette enthusiastically endorses Chris Peden for Congress.

<Yawn> How Clever. Of course, Wonkette doesn’t care about Peden’s politics either. They don’t seem to care about politics at all. They’re the kids in high school with Doc Martins and dark lipstick (yes, the males too) who compensated for their lack of substance with cynicism. No, not your high school: the rich kids’ high school. And while they have found quite a following among the rest of the jaded-by-self-imposition, they didn’t impose this on themselves before they tried out for the cheer sqaud.

Yet Megan McArdle finds them interesting enough to post the above blurb and I find McArdle interesting enough to add her comment:

 To be sure, I’d probably be happier if more congressmen busied themselves proposing no-hope bills to make a point. But when your congressman is the only one doing it, while all the other representatives focus on piling up the pork, you probably begin to wonder if you aren’t missing the main chance.

Well, with Paul absolutely routing Peden in the primaries, I don’t know if they’re wondering it that much. But I concede that is the sad motivation behind the Galveston Daily News’ endorsement of Peden:

In the next two years, leaders in Galveston County will join those from other counties in District 14 in asking for a lot of federal funding. They’ll ask for help on projects such as research at the Galveston National Laboratory and on NASA’s mission to Mars…Peden is the better choice.

In other words, why vote for someone whose politics make sense when you can be a whore for federal funding? Just kidding. Whores have better taste.

Good advice to readers, GDN. That oughta fix the country.

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later:

Thanks to Diebold’s trickery, Ralph Nader won’t win in 2008, either. Of course, this will be more humorous if you know the Diebold controversy.