Bob Barr's Curious Flip-Flop

Some pundits have observed that former Georgia Republican Congressman Bob Barr, now running for the presidency as the Libertarian Party candidate, could siphon off votes from John McCain. But could he turn out to actually take some votes that might have gone to the Democratic nominee?

And just how did Barr go -- in a time span of roughly 48 hours -- from defending the Defense Marriage Act, which he wrote in 1996, to vowing to push for its repeal?

On the Friday afternoon before last (May 23), Barr came on my radio program to talk about his run for the presidency. The Libertarian Party was convening that weekend in Denver, and he was hopeful that he would get the nomination.

We spent some time discussing DOMA, which he authored and sponsored in 1996 and which Bill Clinton signed into law. He'd come out a few years ago against an amendment to the U.S. Constitution barring gays from marrying, largely because he felt DOMA took care of the problem: states would not have to recognize gay marriages from other states if they didn't want to do so. On the show, he supported the California Supreme Court decision of two weeks ago based on the fact that California exercised its sovereign right and that other states would not have to recognize the marriages because of DOMA. We went back and forth about DOMA, the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution, and how, in my view, his position just didn't gel with libertarian principles. Nonetheless, he staunchly defended DOMA.

Then, two days later, in his acceptance speech after snagging the Libertarian Party nomination, Barr vowed that he would work to repeal DOMA!

What the hell happened? According to Brian Miller, a Libertarian Party member and a member of Outright Libertarians, an LGBT group, Barr was told he wouldn't get the nomination unless he changed his position on DOMA. Outright Libertarians led the charge with the leadership to pressure Barr; Miller is a listener to my show and heard me comparing audio clips showing Barr's turnaround, and called in last week to explain what happened behind the scenes at the convention.

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Click the link below for the audio clips.

http://signorile2003.blogspot.com/2008/06/bob-barrs-curious-flip-flop-some.html

sort of personality disorder.

This is not the same person I loathed during Monicagate.

a rabid antichoicer.

Barr started to see a little light after he sat down and actually read the Patriot(sic) Act, something members of Congress felt it political suicide to vote against. He joined the ACLU and is still a member.

His core values are still there, not the least of which is a jihadist mentality toward choice.

You bet he'll take Democratic protest votes. He'll get a lot of GOP votes because the GOP rank and file do not like their candidate.

He's going to be a bigger spoiler than either party realizes.

Many rabid anti gay people change when they find out that someone in their family is gay.

Maybe something like that happened?

And yes, he wanted the nomination, so he went along...political expediency.

he increases his exposure running for an office he can't win -- increases his fees for speaking engagements and advances on books.

and that sums it all up.

Not only is he rabidly anti-choice, he's simply a fucking bigot on every level. I will never forget that stink he raised back in '99 trying to get Wiccans thrown out of the military.