Ron Paul’s campaign has come out swinging against former longtime aide Eric Dondero, who claimed the candidate was “out of touch” with blacks and Latinos, rabidly anti-Israel and “personally uncomfortable” around gay people.
“Eric Dondero is a disgruntled former staffer who was fired for performance issues,” Paul spokesman Jesse Benton said, according to CBSNews’ Political Hotsheet. Calling Dondero “looney-tunes,” Benton said the ex-staffer “had zero credibility and should not be taken seriously.”
For his part, Dondero told CBS he wasn’t fired: “I dispute that vehemently. I’ll take him to court over that if that’s what he’s saying.” He claims he resigned in 2003 because of differences with Paul over his Iraq policy . (Dondero challenged Paul for his Texas congressional seat in 2007.)
It’s worth noting that if Dondero invented his allegations just to do a hatchet job on the candidate his tone was oddly muted: 
In his post, he defends Paul against outright claims of racism, homophobia and anti-Semitism, and paints a picture of someone who’s just a product of his generation. Even his examples of Paul’s discomfort around homosexuals—like his refusal to use a gay man’s bathroom some 25 years ago—aren’t hardly smoking guns.
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Dondero’s general description of his ex-boss—as a man out of touch with the times and unwilling to distance himself from extreme elements—is pretty much in line with what we already know. Paul even said on Monday in a New York Times interview that he wouldn’t disavow support from hate groups: “If they want to endorse me, they’re endorsing what I do or say —it has nothing to do with endorsing what they say.”
Once upon a time we’d laugh and say Paul is a nut who’s just going to tank the Republicans’ chances at the White House. But, given the direction the nation is going, we’re not laughing.
Images via Eric Dondero, Jayel Aheram
Phil
“I will always vote what I have promised, and always vote the Constitution, as well as I will not vote for one single penny that isn’t paid for, because debt is the monster, debt is what’s going to eat us up and that is why our economy is on the brink.” Ron Paul
I think voters will see the slanderous attacks for what they are – last ditch efforts by the political establishment to maintain control.
Kyle
Enough with this a-hole. You crazy queens who support this guy, if he ever won, you’ll see what happens to gay rights. Nothing. Maybe worse. Probably worse.
Kyle
@Phil: Ron Paul spam. Do they have jobs?
Kevin
Don’t worry. Nobody with any brains took this guy seriously. Next!
jeff4justice
If we should not overlook Ron Paul’s possible racist and homophobic tendencies and associations, then should we also not overlook Obama’s acting as GWB’s 3rd term on indefinite detention, bailouts, corporate donation collections, environmental destruction, war expansion, and continuation of the drug war?
So how about those alternative parties?
B
The general rule in corporate America is that you never say why an employee was terminated, with the possible exception of “we had to reduce staff and lost many people we’d have liked to have kept.” Otherwise you are setting yourself up for a lawsuit.
If Eric Dondero was in fact fired (as opposed to having quit) and was really fired due to an internal dispute on how the campaign should be run, the claim that he was “fired for performance issues” would be (a) untrue and (b) an instance of “allegations injurious to another in their trade, business, or profession,” which is actionable as “slander per se”
( http://www.dancingwithlawyers.com/freeinfo/libel-slander-per-se.shtml ). For slander per se, you have a lower hurdle to clear in order to collect damages, although you might be awarded just a token amount.
Conclusion: Ron Paul or his staff are clueless about how to manage a business. Why should anyone believe that Ron Paul would be able to manage a country?
eric
@B:
Dr. Paul was practicing medicine at the time. Hundreds of newsletters go out, he can’t possibly read all of them. He trusted people to write good newsletters and they failed him, it’s that simple. It was a huge error on his part also, but let’s be real here, it’s a newsletter, it’s not so serious.
As President, he will have all the time to dedicate to the country. I’m sure he will appoint the right people and will do the good thing. He hasn’t shown us otherwise.