Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Ron Paul on Osama Bin Laden: Wouldn't We Have Liked to Question Him?

A principle delight of the unending Republican debate season has been the audience.  What will they cheer next?  Coma patients getting their collective (gasp) plugs pulled?  Execution without cease in the great state of Texas?  A pregnant mother seeking an abortion forced to bear her fetus and, upon birth, give it to a wealthy Mormon?  And what will they boo?  Last night, Ron Paul.  And his neanderthal respect for international law.

The moderators were hoping to set up the irascible Texas gold-bug, getting him to come down hard against the killing of Osama Bin Laden.  Paul did not disappoint, reiterating that he would not have made the decision to kill Bin Laden, but rather attempt to capture him.  The biggest boos of the night came from the audience as Paul continued to prove he is beyond the pale of the GOP, what with his continued respect for international law -- how last millennium! -- but the quasi-truther continued, making the pertinent point that perhaps Bin Laden had information we might wish to retrieve. 

Well, yes, actually, he probably did have information our intelligence services would have found of interest.  Hard intelligence beyond imagining, actually -- but perhaps the acquisition of real intelligence is also so, so last millennium, when compared to the pleasures of bloodlust, good TV, and tying up a few more loose ends.

Paul continues to amaze with his ability to stand in the middle of a roomful of Republicans and speak his nigh-forbidden words with utter fearlessness.  Such qualities will never win him the nomination, of course, but he is doubtless the last good reason to hold a scintilla of hope that the Grand Old Party might still have a hint of morality lurking somewhere in its elephantine bloat.

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