Comments on: Why Romney Was Wrong to Sneer at Ron Paul’s Idea to Dismantle the FBI and CIA

By: brian@comment

brian@comment — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:53:27 +0000

When Romney laughs at Ron Paul about his views on dismantling the CIA and FBI, he is wrong because he’s not making the connection between the war, 4000 troop deaths, and the failing economy.

By: simon@pret hypothécaire

simon@pret hypothécaire — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 23:09:56 +0000

Dismantling cia might not be the best bet though. You have a valid point about the costs of current military spending due “obligations” in iraq etc , Doing away with an intelligence service does not seem to me to be in the national interest.

By: Fitz

Fitz — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 03:57:08 +0000

Hey Mark, I didn’t realize your first comment was awaiting moderation, sorry about that, it was not intentional. I have WordPress set to hold comments with 2 or more links for moderation and I had the email notification turned off. Thanks for letting me know.

I don’t really see as much disconnect between my view of the Romney/Larsen exchange and you seem to. Maybe I’m reading into it more. My opinion is that Romney knows Ron’s stance on reigning in the intelligence agencies and he did what all the other candidates do and laugh him off and try to paint him as a kook with too broad a broad brush.

I admit I have not done any research on Ron Paul’s voting record in regards to intelligence reform, I’m mainly going on what he’s saying now. Your notes do have me curious as to Paul’s reasoning behind those past votes though. Thanks for taking the time to point out those sources, I’ll be looking into this further.

Overall I’d say that no one running can come close to competing with Ron Paul’s voting record, he’s been the most consistent by far. Unlike Romney. But it looks like this argument has been rendered irrelevant since he suspended his campaign today.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 02:41:12 +0000

Out of curiosity, why did you keep my last comment in moderation? I think the voting records of any candidate should be matched against their campaign promises. Conservatives are doing it with McCain at the moment, so why not Paul?

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Tue, 05 Feb 2008 17:44:08 +0000

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By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 19:08:12 +0000

Your response is thoughtful and intelligent. You did what Larsen should have done.

I’m not a Romney supporter or a Paul supporter, so I don’t have a dog in this particular fight. However:

Romney laughed at what Ron Paul supporters say is a caricature of Ron Paul, “a guy who wants to dismantle the FBI and CIA.” Romney did not laugh, as you say, at “the idea of revamping and improving the agencies.”

Doing a bit of research, I see that Romney participated in a Governor’s conference on intelligence reform. The report of the agenda is here: http://snipurl.com/1yu6l

Granted, that isn’t a voting record, since Governors don’t vote on national intelligence matters.

Ron Paul, however, does have a voting record.
http://www.vote-smart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=296

It would seem that he voted against 6 Intel funding, reform, or authorization bills. And he didn’t vote at all on 11 others. I have a hard time matching his reformist promises and his non-participation on 11 intelligence-related bills.

As far as I can tell, he also hasn’t introduced any intelligence bills of his own.

Ron Paul talks a lot about intelligence reform, but I don’t see a lot of evidence in his career as an effective reformer. If I’m missing it, I’d like to see it.