Paul Haunted by His Newsletter’s Disparaging Remarks About Martin Luther King
Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, at a presidential debate in May 2007.
With popularity comes notoriety. That’s the lesson Ron Paul is learning as the nation observes Martin Luther King Day and the GOP presidential contender bears the burden of disparaging comments, made in a newsletter bearing his name, about the slain civil rights leader and the national holiday that honors him.
In a 1990 newsletter called the Ron Paul Political Report, which resurfaced earlier this month in The New Republic, Ron Paul — or his ghostwriters — called King an adulterer and seducer of young children, and questioned why the nation should celebrate the Civil Rights leader with the same glory as that given to its first president.
Click here to read the article.
“We are supposed to honor this ‘Christian minister’ and lying socialist satyr with a holiday that puts him on a par with George Washington?” the newsletter asked under an entry titled “‘Dr.’ King.”
Click here to read the PDF of the newsletter.
“What an infamy Ronald Reagan approved it!” another newsletter comment read. “We can thank him for our annual Hate Whitey Day.”
Paul, a 10-term congressman from Texas, has denied writing the comments, which appeared in various newsletters produced since 1978, according to the New Republic.
“When I was out of Congress and practicing medicine full-time, a newsletter was published under my name that I did not edit,” Paul said in a statement issued by his campaign on Jan. 8. “Several writers contributed to the product.
“For over a decade, I have publicly taken moral responsibility for not paying closer attention to what went out under my name,” he continued.
Paul did not respond to calls for comment from FOXNews.com.
Among the comments that were included in the newsletters:
“So now even the establishment press admits that Martin Luther King plagiarized his PhD dissertation, his academic articles, his speeches, and his sermons,” the December 1990 newsletter said. “He was also a comsymp [Communist sympathizer], if not an actual party member, and the man who replaced the evil of forced segregation with the evil of forced integration.
“King, the FBI files show, was not only a world-class adulterer, he also seduced underage girls and boys,” the entry continues. “The Rev. Ralph David Abernathy revealed before his death that King had made a pass at him many years before.”
Paul, who is a strong proponent of limited government and was the Libertarian Party nominee for president in 1988, left Congress in 1984 to return to his OB-GYN practice, but he continued producing newsletters. He was re-elected to the House of Representatives in 1997.
Click here to read another Paul newsletter.
In his Jan. 8 statement, Paul denounced his comments about King as “small-minded thoughts” and said he “never uttered such words.”
“In fact, I have always agreed with Martin Luther King, Jr. that we should only be concerned with the content of a person’s character, not the color of their skin,” he said in the Jan. 8 statement. “As I stated on the floor of the U.S. House on April 20, 1999: ‘I rise in great respect for the courage and high ideals of Rosa Parks who stood steadfastly for the rights of individuals against unjust laws and oppressive governmental policies.’”
On Monday, Paul invoked King’s name to aid his fundraising campaign.
“The whole world is watching how we do tomorrow in fundraising, on a day dedicated to the memory of Martin Luther King, the great champion of non-violence at home, peace abroad and civil disobedience against tyrannical government,” Paul wrote in a message on his Web site dated Jan. 21.
Last week, the New Republic reported that Paul was ready to out former congressional chief of staff Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr. as the author of the incendiary statements about King in his newsletters.
Click here to read the New Republic’s story on the authorship of the Paul newsletter.
Rockwell, the founder of the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Ala., called The New Republic’s style “hysterical smears aimed at political enemies” on his blog at LewRockwell.com.
You forgot to mention that Austin, Texas NAACP President Nelson Linder, who has known Ron Paul for 20 years, unequivocally dismissed charges that the Congressman was a racist in light of recent smear attempts, and said the reason for him being attacked was that he was a threat to the establishment.
Opps! Gotta love your Fair and Balanced approached. LOL
This is garbage, I used to watch Fox and have quit since I started paying attention on how they treat Dr. Paul. Who is the editor? Who runs your agenda? Don’t think that this will go unnoticed. You are angering a lot of people and destroying our free press and by extension our democracy. Take notice.
The Truth.
Dr. King’s message was a crucial message for that time. He did the right thing making sure blacks received equal rights.
However Dr. King was an adulterer, he had a whore in every town, and being a Minister made him a hypocrite. But it doesn’t mean his message was wrong. It was a good message from a good man, however Dr. King should not be seen as a saint. Should we celebrate him or his message? Obliviously the message is more important then the man. Should we have a government holiday in Honor? Well sure, so I don’t have to work and get a free days pay, I just wish he was born in August or July, at least April.
I do like Paul’s position on being a constitutionalist. However its a shame paul is a complete fool.
Your credibility will fall. You will not win. Your lies are transparent to the world and you will pay for your crimes.
Doctor King said ““we should only be concerned with the content of a person’s character, not the color of their skin,” I agree but does that mean that all the alleged moral misbehavior on Dr. King’s part should therefore be overlooked. We instead should examine its authenticity and the implications thereto.
It appears there is quite a bt of evidence that Dr. King had severe moral shortcomings. Applying his own words to the facts is important. There is a reasonable possibility that Dr. King had the same issues manifested and authenticated with regard to ” Rev.” Jessie Jackson.
What is most heinous to me is the creation of ikons like Dr. King and Jack Kennedy by the Democratics that brook no criticism. The documented behavior of the ikons does not become the issue, but rather that anyone would dare to bring up facts that dent the dream machine.
The real intolerance at work is the suppression of vald criticism.
I am really offended by people who claim my idol - George Washington had not only wooden teeth but a possible letter romance with Sally Randolph.
CorpDoc.
Faux News is the only Network that puts stories like these on its front page for everyone to see. Its always negative comments about Ron Paul, never positive ones, that make the headlines. I guess it might have something to do with the fact that the boycott of Fox is making the stocks fall huge. Way to go Ron Paul, he is in it for the Long Haul. Faux news will fall.
Alright Americans, let’s apply some common sense, reason and simple logic to this one Forget all of the “Political Correctness’ and “Social Engineering” that you have been conditioned to believe; no such terms should even exist…there is only “RIIGHT & WRONG”.
Of all of the great men in our country’s history as a “sovereign” Nation, only one man has a National Holiday in his remembrance; it is not George Washington (the “Father” of our Nation), not Abraham Lincoln (who for right or wrong took states’ rights away and changed our Nation from a “plural” text to “singular” creating a unified Federal Government), not Teddy Roosevelt (who created more National Park acreage than all other Presidents combined), and not Ronald Reagan (who was responsible for destroying the Soviet Union and bringing about an end to the Cold War)…it is Martin Luther King.
This man who claimed to be a Minister was known publicly to have cheated on his wife many times (that makes him an “Adulterer”), and accepted money from the Communist Party. The fact that he is the only man in our country’s history that has a National Holiday in his remembrance (all of the Presidents’ Birthdays were consolidated) is a TRAVESTY.
Was he the only man that fought for civil rights? The only one who died in the struggle? Ridiculous…there were many! In all fairness it should be called “Civil Rights Day”. But then it’s not about being fair at all…it’s about being “Politically Correct” and giving the squeaky wheel the grease to stop it from squeaking.
Get your head out of the sand America! Forget the “Social Indoctrination” you have went through over the last few decades; do not allow “Them” to convince you there is anything other than “RIGHT & WRONG”!
Lord,
Please shut the mouths of those who look to tear down a good man. Lord, I believe you have given America one last chance to keep the blessings you’ve given us, by sending Dr. Paul. Your word says that you will exalt the humble, and bring down the proud. Please exalt Ron Paul to the White House. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Fox News, it is amazing that you find a way to make yourselves look worse than the rest of an already corrupted media. I laugh at all of you, you corporate racist pigs. You and your interest groups will all burn in hell. Thanks for ruining America.
I am boycotting fox news.