Ron Paul, the latest Republican front-runner (Jeff Haynes/Reuters)
"You can run but you can't hide" has to be taking on a whole new meaning for Ron Paul, as the latest Republican flavor-of-the-week learns that
the racist newsletters published under his name in the 1990's aren't going away.
Last week, Paul walked out during an interview with CNN's Gloria Borger after being asked about the newsletters, saying "I didn’t write them, I disavow them, That’s it." Uh huh.
From an archive search by the Huffington Post, a few excerpts from newspapers articles, circa 1996:
Dr. Paul denied suggestions that he was a racist and said he was not evoking stereotypes when he wrote the columns. He said they should be read and quoted in their entirety to avoid misrepresentation. [...]
In the interview, he did not deny he made the statement about the swiftness of black men.
"If you try to catch someone that has stolen a purse from you, there is no chance to catch them," Dr. Paul said.
From his spokesman, back in the day:
"Dr. Paul is being quoted out of context," [Paul's spokesman, Michael] Sullivan said. "It's like picking up 'War and Peace' and reading the fourth paragraph on page 481 and thinking you can understand what's going on."
"You have to understand what he is writing."
And when a local lawyer called on Paul to release back copies of the newsletter:
Paul, a Surfside obstetrician, has refused.
He said he has written ''thousands of items'' during the past 20 years and that releasing these materials would be impractical. Paul said releasing all those writings would be like asking Morris to ''provide documents for every lawsuit he has been involved in during his lengthy legal career.''
Last week Paul dismissed the newsletters, saying that he never even "read that stuff." And today? Busted.
Which will probably only help him with Republican voters.
