For anyone who isn't aware of it, Roger Stone, the former GOP dirty-trickster, has an incendiary blog post on his website, claiming that the Koch brothers actually bought the Paul Ryan VP nomination from Mitt Romney for the price of $100 million in campaign advertising expenditures via their opaque "non-profit" advocacy group (Americans for Prosperity) and via SuperPAC donations. Now if that's not incendiary, I don't know what is, but at this point it's just an allegation, backed up by nothing more than second or third hand accounts allegedly given to a guy who is widely known as a black-bag political operative - someone who, although (or, perhaps, because) he has worked directly for the highest level of the GOP hierarchy, has always done so using the most devious and underhanded methods.
So why is this allegation, other than being extremely entertaining to watch unfold, of any interest to us liberals? Step lightly over the mating sea cucumbers and I'll tell you why.
Now, it should be noted first off that in the diary I linked to at the top of the intro, there were quite a few comments to the effect that this is really nothing more than a rumor being promulgated by someone whose ethics are, shall we say, non-existent. To be absolutely fair, that's absolutely true. So why give his little bomblet a second glance? Two words:
Ron Paul.
Here's the thing: the Paulist faction, which comprises perhaps the most fiercely dedicated portion of the Tea Party movement, is both significant (about 12% of the GOP Primary vote), steadfast, libertarian, and rabidly conspiracy-theory-susceptible. It's those four attributes of the Paulist contingent,
which has never let go of Ron Paul's candidacy (let alone resigned itself to Paul's having lost to the demonstrably impure Romney), that make this Stone allegation (let's call it Kochgate, shall we?) so virulent to the Romney campaign, and to the GOP in general.
You see, Roger Stone has turned a new leaf, if you can believe that. He's now a Libertarian, with a capital L. He supports the Libertarian candidate for President, Gary Johnson, and in his blogpost laying down this very serious allegation, he derides Ryan's flawed credentials as a true believer:
Meanwhile the idea of Ryan as a radical is laughable. Ryan put forth a budget proposal which did nothing to curtail Social Security and military spending. His famous budget allows the deficit to continue to grow. Ryan has worked almost his entire adult life (the last twenty years) cashing a government check in D.C. Ryan supported the auto and bank bailouts, voted for the Troubled Asset Relief Program in 2008 and for increasing the debt ceiling in 2011. Ryan voted for the Iraq War resolution in 2002, keeping troops in Iraq indefinitely, against withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Balkans in 1999 and for the authorization for use of military force against Afghanistan in 2001. He also voted for the re-authorization of the Patriot Act in 2006 and 2011 and for the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 which allows the federal government to arrest and incarcerate a US citizen without bail, charges or a trial.
Now those of you who are familiar with Ron Paul's philosophy will get immediately, after reading that bill of particulars against Ryan, why Stone's allegation is so toxic to the Romney/Ryan ticket. To wit: the infractions listed in that paragraph (without Ryan's name attached to them, of course) could have been lifted from any number of Ron Paul speeches over the years. Therefore we can be fully confident that this story and Stone's blogpost will have gone viral within the Paulist camp, and that it will resonate as deeply as any John Bircher- or 9/11-conspiracy theory does in that group. Not only that, the reverberations of this story's resonance within the Paulist faction will spread beyond that very influential sector to the entire Tea Party, as the above indictment of Ryan's Conservative credentials hits the send lists and blogs of a very
tenuous portion of the Republican Party. Millions of those who thought that Ryan was a sign from heaven
will be corrected by one of their own, and it will cut them to the quick. Blood on the Soapbox, or something like that, is what I'm sayin.
In other words, Romney has just lost, through a simple internet posting by Roger Stone (whose believability is totally irrelevant), not only the race for President, but probably both Houses of Congress as well. And it makes not difference whatsoever whether the very serious charges that Stone lays down are true.
And the really beautiful part this is all happening from within the ranks of the Right. We're just the popcorn-consumers in this one.
I think this is very big. So...whatch'all thinkin?