The Long, Dark Teatime of Mike Gravel's Soul
Let's pause to remember an extraordinary political career, one that was full of surprises and rich, meaty blog-fodder.
That's right: with Bob Barr taking the Libertarian nomination over the weekend, Mike Gravel has declared an end to his life in politics.
As those of you who are capable of finding Wikipedia know, Gravel has been in this game for decades, serving multiple terms in the Alaska House of Representatives and in the United States Senate. He waged a one-man filibuster against the Vietnam draft, read the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record and helped get them published by a commercial press. Later, he supported the controversial Trans-Alaska pipeline and stared a lot.
And now it's all over. Clearly, this is a momentous moment for Gravel…
"I just ended my political career," Mr. Gravel said at the [Libertarian] party's convention. "From 15 years old to now, my political career is over, and it's no big deal."
Oh.
Well, I guess this does mean he has more free time to throw stuff in lakes.
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Barr is an excellent choice for the LP Presidential nod. He is a convert who has worked tirelessly since he joined to spread the word and scope of libertarianism.
I still say the Libertarians are jackasses for choosing Bob Barr. You will find very few politicians who are bigger proponents of controlling your life via a Morality Police and forcing fundamentalist Christianity upon the entire nation. That makes Bob Barr just about as Libertarian as the worst pinko-commie liberal Democrat you can dream of.
With that said, I couldn’t be happier about the Libertarians choosing Barr. Now I can rest assured that it doesn’t matter who the Democratic Party’s candidate is or how much the Party rips itself apart during the primary and convention. Bob Barr is going to siphon a considerable number of disgruntled Neo-Conservative votes away from McCain and prevent him from winning.