Merry Christmas: Bob Barr Is A Libertarian!

If the November elections weren’t enough of a kick in the nuts, then there’s one more slam for the Republicans… they just lost one of their loyal pitbulls.

Bob Barr was Georgia’s congressman from 1995 to 2003, elected during the "Gingrich Revolution" when the GOP had originally taken over control of the Congress from the Democrats. He was a strong supporter of the failed "War on Drugs", a supporter of the anti-American USA PATRIOT Act, and he was one of the people in charge of the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in 1998.

His post-Congress career, though, took an interesting turn. While he originally was a supporter of the PATRIOT Act and did vote for it, he later became one of the vocal critics of it. He was the one that actually pushed for the sunset clause in most of the provisions. He actually joined and became a very prominent member of the American Civil Liberties Union (otherwise known by cons and neo-cons and theo-cons as simply "the Antichrist"). He has been a very vocal opponent of the White House’s call for unrestricted wiretapping power, and he is the founder of a group called the "Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances".

Well now we can call him something else too… a member of the Libertarian Party.

It seems that Citizen Barr has been supporting Libertarian candidates for a while now, and at some point he became a Life Member of the LP. The Libertarian Party has just announced that he has accepted a position as the Regional 4 Representative of the Libertarian National Committee. (Didn’t think the LP was that big, did you?)

After the announcement, Barr had this to say:

"I'm pleased to assist the Party of Principle in this capacity and hope to further our political success as we move closer to the 2008 election cycle. Being a member of this body is a serious and long-term commitment that I gladly accept. As importantly, I'm happy to announce that I am now a proud, card-carrying Libertarian who is committed to helping elect leaders who will strive for smaller government, lower taxes and abundant individual freedom. I encourage other Americans from across the political spectrum to join me."

As Bruce Willis once said, "Welcome to the party, pal!"

This brutally honest commentator has been surprised by Citizen Barr’s gradual transformation from being a GOP pitbull into a libertarian, and while he may still have some conservative leanings to deal with (hey, I’m far from a perfect libertarian too), it is good to see that he solidified his departure from the outdated two-dimensional spectrum. I hope that this process continues and that he doesn’t become a pseudo-libertarian like Neal Boortz has become of late.

It’s just a pity that we couldn’t have this version of Barr when he was in Congress. He would have been an excellent voice of reason in a legislative body full of crooks and theocrats.