RON PAUL, BOB BARR AND JAN SCHNEIDER-- TRUE BELIEVERS TAKING ON THEIR PARTIES' CORRUPT ESTABLISHMENTS

Republican congressman Ron Paul of Texas is certainly not going to endorse John W. McCain, and it isn't likely that he'll endorse Barack Obama... or is it? On CNN yesterday he told Wolf Blinzter that he has no intention of endorsing a warmonger like McCain.

Having a Republican win the upcoming presidential election is “secondary” for Paul who is more interested in defending the Constitution, having the country go in what he considers the right direction, having a sound currency, and achieving balanced budgets. Paul parts ways with McCain over McCain’s support for the Iraq war, his approach to U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and his willingness to spend federal dollars to support military operations in Iraq.

Instead, Paul favors Sen. Barack Obama because of positions on foreign policy. “But that’s doesn’t mean that’s an endorsement,” Paul quickly added.

I mentioned yesterday that I wound up sitting next to a dedicated Paulista on a flight this week. He plans to write in Paul's name on his presidential ballot. I'd save McCain has no chance whatsoever of getting his vote and Obama has, maybe, a 20% chance. But Obama doesn't need it to win. McCain is unlikely to win even with it but without it... forget it.

And just as detrimental to a McCain run is the Libertarian candidate: Georgia ex-Republican congressman Bob Barr.

The possibility of a run by Barr has sent shudders through the mainstream of the Republican party.

Barr, who will probably not declare his intentions for several days, has already been labeled a "spoiler."

In an interview with the [Philadelphia] Inquirer, Barr dismissed those accusations as whining.

"The notion that Republicans see a third-party candidate as spoiling their chances simply illustrates the arrogance of the two-party system," Barr said.

Republicans may have good cause to worry.

A run by Barr could be to John McCain "what Ralph Nader was to Al Gore-- ruinous," wrote George Will in Newsweek. Some party experts believe Barr could siphon off essential conservative votes from Sen. John McCain, about whom many rightward voters have been less than enthusiastic.

Right-talking radio hosts-- Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, and Ann Coulter-- have expressed reservations about McCain or have been downright dismissive.

The American Spectator editorialized last month that "conservatives see the choice of McCain or the Democrats as analogous to picking between being punched in the stomach or kneed in the groin."

Barr points to Ron Paul, as well as GOP Senators Chuck Hagel, John Sununu and Larry Craig-- one who is retiring honorably, one who is about to be defeated by a Democrat, and one who was caught toe-tapping in a men's room while picking up used toilet paper-- as examples of mainstream Republicans who are sick and tired of the Bush Regime's slide into neo-fascism. "What laid the groundwork for my epiphany was the result of six years of the Bush administration," explained Barr. "They claimed to be Republicans and for a smaller government. Instead, with a complicit Republican Congress, they moved to dramatically expand the size, power and scope of the federal government. I concluded that the party I had been associated with for decades was no longer that party I had joined and no longer had an interest in smaller government. They no longer had an interest in increasing individual liberty and showed no signs of changing in my lifetime... Since 9/11, there has been unprecedented growth in government power and the ascendancy of this notion that, because they are fighting terrorism, the government can do whatever it wants regardless of law... We have to be much more zealous in protecting ourselves against government power."

And Barr doesn't recognize McCain as a conservative or someone he could support. "His view of civil liberties is very much in the Bush administration mold. I have major disagreements with him. His position of a lengthy occupation of Iraq is well known. I would disagree with him there also... If my platform polls well, it will be because the voters contrast it with McCain and whatever Democrat senator wins the nomination. If my platform polls well, its because the agenda I espouse is preferable. By offering a choice, it's something the other candidates should embrace rather than whine about."

And speaking about third-party candidates, a lifelong Democrat and heroic progressive, Jan Schneider, has declared her candidacy for a seat in western Florida, just south of Tampa, that looked like it would have been a contest between an extreme right wing Republican incumbent, Vern Buchanan and a former Republican embraced by the Democrats' uber-corrupt Inside the Beltway Rahm Caucus. Jan was screwed out of the nomination in 2006 by shady dealings from Rahm Emanuel and Steny Hoyer who preferred the reactionary Chris Jennings, who-- following Emanuel's diktat of playing down the occupation of Iraq-- went on to lose to Buchanan, a race Schneider would have probably won. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune implies that by running Schneider could be a "spoiler." But she is the only candidate representing core progressive values and if anyone is a spoiler, it is Jennings, who should have run against Buchanan in a Republican primary.

"I've had it with both political parties," said Schneider, 60, who will be making her fourth try for the seat.

Schneider says she will run as an anti-war candidate dedicated to bringing the troops home.

...In 2004, Schneider beat Jennings in Democratic primary election, before losing to Rep. Katherine Harris.. Schneider said after the general election that Jennings cost her the race by forcing her to spend money in the primary that could have been used to beat Harris.

In 2006, Jennings turned the tables, beating Schneider soundly, before losing to Buchanan in the general election. Schneider said Jennings used distorted negative attacks against her to win the seat.

UPDATE: RON PAUL KNOWS WHICH WAY THE WIND IS BLOWING

Congressman Paul is predicting a win for Obama in November over his own party's pathetic and deceptive bag of wind.