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Paul to Miss 'Tea Party'
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ShareDecember 11, 2007 1:09 PM
ABC's Z. Byron Wolf Reports: The universe of Ron Paul supporters on the Internet and in the flesh will converge this weekend in Boston with a symbolic anti-tax Tea Party; there will be a blimp overhead and a rally at Faneuil Hall, but no Ron Paul.
The candidate himself wants to maintain the legal distinction between his spirited supporters, who are finding new and interesting ways around federal election law, and his official campaign.
The online Paulisphere is electric with talk of the 'Tea Party' ever since the success of their one-day, $4 million fundraiser in November.
Paulians not affiliated with the campaign have been plotting to beat the one-day online fundraising haul. There is little doubt they will put their candidate over $12 million, his stated goal, in fundraising for the final three months of the year.
As supporters pledge money online in a coordinated money bomb this weekend, Paul's fans offline will pour into Boston in the flesh and have an enormous rally at Faneuil Hall, to commemorate the Boston Tea Party, a precursor of the Revolutionary War where colonists dumped tea into Boston Harbor rather than pay taxes to the King of England on it.
Overhead during the tea party, an enormous, helium-filled blimp that supporters independently banded together, circumventing current election law, to buy and float to Boston from North Carolina will implore New Englanders to "Google Ron Paul."
And it is the blimp that may give Paul's campaign pause.
Instead of forming a Political Action Committee that operates much like a campaign with fundraising limits, the people behind the blimp, found a way around election law fundraising limits by incorporating an actual company, a limited liability corporation, instead of a PAC, through which to sell stakes in the blimp lease to supporters.
On their website, they seem to be raring for a legal fight to prove they are within campaign finance law. They have enlisted the help of Bradley Smith, a former Director of the Federal Election Commission, to help them plot their legal strategy.
While Paul flirted with the idea of adding a Boston trip to his schedule -- recent week shave seen him spend most of his time in the early primary states of New Hampshire, Iowa (Tuesday and Wednesday) and Nevada (later this week) -- campaign spokesman Jesse Benton said Paul will skip the Boston rally to keep it distinct from the official campaign.
"We want to do our best to maintain the independence that Ron Paul supporters have from the campaign," Benton said on the phone from snowy Iowa. "Putting him up there in Boston, from an FEC standpoint, could walk right into a gray area."
Paul's supporters see symbolic ties between the taxes colonists faced on tea and what they call the "inflation tax" today.
The thinking behind the inflation tax is that the American dollar is devalued by the inflation caused when government actors like the Department of Treasury and the independent but Residentially appointed board of governors of the Federal Reserve banking system control the amount of money and liquidity in the marketplace and creating more and more inflation, they say.
Click here to read about Ron Paul dressing down Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke at a hearing on Capitol Hill last month.
But Benton said Paul will be keeping track of both the rally and the planned moneybomb online.
"We'll be watching the (fundraising) counter online. Its almost hypnotic to watch that thing shoot up."
December 11, 2007 in McCain, John, Thompson, Fred | Permalink | User Comments (27)
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Hey all you Anti-Ron-Paul commenters: "Methinks thou dost protest too much". Why are you putting so much effort into your attempts to deny and discredit?
Interesting Anagram:
Meet Righteous Ron Paul =
Our Plan: Oust the Regime
:)
Posted by: Dave | Dec 13, 2007 9:17:30 AM
"ITS JUST A DREAM FOLKS"
So was the American Revolution, said the british.
"while blaming America for every hatefilled attack around the world."
Ron Paul did not blame Americat. If you leave your door unlocked and someone steals your television, the blame still falls on the thief. That does not mean that you had no power to minimize the likelihood of the theft. Use some common sense and lock your door.
"as much as I like his domestic policy...his foreign policy will weaken us and eventually kill us in the end"
We spend hundreds of billions send overseas establishing far-reaching military complexes that are overextending our economic resources. This is how many an empire has fallen.
Why is it that many of the same people who believe the Federal beaurocracy is inefficient and ineffective at dealing with social issues, can also believe it's just dandy at resolving international crises and protecting national interests overseas.
"united we stand, thats the main part ron paul and his supporters dont get"
What don't we get? This is a quote from Patrick Henry not an article in the consitution. It represents opposition to a Jeffersonian resolution that ultimately passed. If you disagree with Jeffersonian principles, explain why in a rational manner, rather than assume that they are de facto wrong.
"what happens when the state is too poor to afford competent emergency services and support?"
Louisiana has a wealth of natual resources and one of the largest ports in the union. If they are still poor don't you think that is a rsult of poor policy choices? Louisiana politicians ignored their problems for years and it finally caught up with them.
I am convinced more than ever that Republican = Democrat. Same attitude, different interests.
Posted by: craig | Dec 13, 2007 12:57:01 PM
I hate Ron Paul, or anyone else for that matter, who wants to eliminate the income tax. Even though we could afford to by simply rejecting the pre-emptive war policy, I happen to like war and taxes. I think everything's fine... Anyone who thinks we can and should live in a world where we should fight wars only against countries that attack us, and that citizens get to keep the money they earn is an absolute whack job! Do not vote for this nut!
Posted by: dp | Dec 13, 2007 4:55:06 PM
This is a great article!
Posted by: Andy White | Dec 13, 2007 4:55:18 PM
Hey ABC:
Are you going to air the Ron Paul interview with John Stossel, after he raises $7 million this weekend?
Posted by: Doug | Dec 13, 2007 9:42:48 PM
7 Million? Try 10 Million!
The teaparty07 this weekend is about more than fundraising. It's about sending a MESSAGE. And we will shatter all records to do it.
Let's hope the MSM are smart enough to GET IT! Else we'll just have to do it even BIGGER!!
Posted by: John | Dec 13, 2007 11:45:44 PM
A toast to the supporters of Ron Paul, ya'll inspire me.
Posted by: moshe kerr | Dec 14, 2007 3:33:50 AM
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