The Barr campaign is offering to bus people into Denver for the presidential vote. The chartered bus full of Barr backers will then immediately turn around and leave — “[n]o hotel fees or convention ‘extras’ needed!” Last Free Voice broke this story.
The message encourages supporters to “join the campaign be a delegate for Bob Barr.” Most states have already chosen their delegations, but I was told by an insider with another campaign that his state delegation would admit me — an out-of-stater — as a delegate, if I could not get credentialed by my own state.
Let’s review the facts:
- Bob Barr is the first congressman in history successfully targeted for defeat by the Libertarian Party
- He then joins the party and the LNC; cozying up to many at LPHQ
- Among them, Stephen Gordon
- Gordon leaves his position as LP political director and purchases independent Third-Party Watch
- Later, it is revealed that he has been working with Bob Barr behind the scenes, exploring a presidential run
- As anticipation of a Bob Barr announcement mounts, Richard Viguerie — a Barr supporter — is named keynote speaker at the Denver convention
- Once Bob Barr does announce his exploratory committee, many perceive the coverage at Third Party Watch to be skewed in Barr’s favor
- The Mary Ruwart “scandal” — in which she was misrepresented as being for legalized child porn — breaks at Gordon’s Third Party Watch
- LP executive director Shane Cory unilaterally — with no just authority — issues a press release calling for more government, including a beefed-up federal crackdown on child pornography
- In the ensuing hubbub, LP co-founder David Nolan calls for Shane Cory to be fired — eventually, Cory resigns
- Richard Viguerie buys Third Party Watch from Stephen Gordon, restricts the posting privileges and revokes the press credentials of anti-Barr bloggers, and (allegedly) installs Cory as the new guardian of TPW content
- The Barr campaign offers to bus in “delegates” and immediately turn them around so that they don’t have to be involved with the LP convention beyond ensuring Barr’s place as the nominee
This could all be coincidental.
I can see how you could argue this is just good, solid GOTV on the part of the Barr campaign. But the part where they stress that delegates will not have to be involved in the rest of the convention’s “extra” business would worry me a little bit.