The Smear Bund is busy, what with the Ron Paul campaign and all. I’ve covered the controversy here, but there’s more to say. The brouhaha is over the fact that the Bund’s crack investigators have been poring over Ron’s FEC filings, which identify each and every contributor to the campaign—they hate the fact that he’s been so successful, you know, it really sticks in their collective craw. One idiot, who works as a researcher for Neocon Central the American Enterprise Institute—one of the neocons’ bought-and-paid-for “thinktanks”—even penned a screed that Ron ought to give the $4.2 million he raised back, because, you see, it was all raised in support of … terrorism (I kid you not!) because of the Guy Fawkes connectionl. Gee, they don’t get out much at AEI, do they? Not even to see a movie ….

At any rate, the Smear Bund’s investigators, in examining the rolls of Ron’s contributors, came upon one entry—$500 from one Don Black, of Florida, who apparently runs a web site called “Stormfront,” the habitue of self-described “white nationalists.” Aha! A Nazi! This must mean—[drum roll!] that Ron Paul is a Nazi. Or a Nazi sympathizer. Or … something. All the Usual Suspects picked up this meme, and ran with it, clearly in hopes that the “mainstream” media picks up on it. Well, no luck so far, although it’s only a matter of time, but, in any case, the Smear Brigade is now howling that Ron has to give the 500 bucks back, or else forever face the charge that he’s … a Nazi.

This, of course, is nonsense. Ron Paul cannot be responsible for the views of every donor: if he gives back the money, he’ll be ceding to the Smear Bund the “right” to vet every donor for political correctness. Will someone vet Giuliani’s donor list, say, for Mafia dons? Will someone pore over FEC filings looking for Commies who contribute to Hillary’s campaign (alongside the big arms manufacturers, ironically enough)?

Give the money back? Hell no! As Ronald Reagan put it when confronted with the same sort of ambush tactics: “I didn’t accept their money because I support them, I accepted their money because they support me.”

And about this Don Black character: this is the same guy who was mobilized by the Republican National Committee when it came down to the wire in the Bush-vs-Gore recount showdown. Black and his bully-boys organized a counter-protest when Jesse Jackson came to Florida, and, in one incident, they drove both Jackson and Gore off the stage at a rally.

As David Neiwert, the leftie component of the anti-Paul Smear Bund—whose de facto alliance with Glenn Beck and the Weekly Standard is a testament to the breadth of the anti-Paul “popular front”—put it at the time:

“Don Black’s Stormfront people were [in Florida] providing bodies for the pro-Bush protests, and his Web site proudly announced their participation. And as the Village Voice reported at the time: ‘On November 13, Black helped an angry crowd drive Reverend Jesse Jackson off a West Palm Beach stage with taunts and jeers. “He wasn’t being physically threatened,’ Black says, in a later interview.”

So, Senor Black was instrumental during that crucial time when the outcome of the 2000 election hung in the balance—and his “contribution” (his time and effort) was not only accepted, but was crucial. By the Smear Bund’s “logic,” then, the Republicans should immediately declare that election null and void, because they won it in a key state with the help of Don Black and his Nazi “boots on the ground.”

Right?

As Neiwert noted, back in 2003: “No one from the Bush camp ever denounced the participation of Black and his crew or even distanced themselves from this bunch, or for that matter any of the thuggery that arose during the post-election drama.”

So, please tell me, Senor Neiwert: why the hell should Paul?

Neiwert and his fellow Smear Bunders of the “left” are gatekeepers for Hillary, herding the liberal sheep into the Democratic party fleece factory for shearing and the lamb-chop barbaecue the campaign will throw after they retake the White House and appoint Neiwert to a Hate Crimes Commission. The neocons, like Beck and the Weekly Standard drones, hate Paul worse than any Democrat, of course, because he represents the authentic tradition of the Right, and he opposes their plans for endless wars. Hillary, at least, can be talked into bombing Tehran, when the time comes. What these two groups have in common is that they will spare no effort in stopping Ron Paul from cutting into their base of support—and, more importantly, raising the issues that need to be raised.