Ron Paul is having trouble...

...answering some simple questions about the newsletters he published back in the 1990s: Ron Paul Political Report, Ron Paul's Freedom Report, Ron Paul Survival Report and Ron Paul Investment Letter. The newsletters contained some offending passages that have been described as "racist, anti-gay and anti-Israel." (I'll let you read about them yourself here.)

Granted, as Mr. Paul has said over and over, this is not a new story. In fact, I can remember hearing about it myself when the Texas Congressman ran for president last time, in 2008. And, as a True Believer, I dismissed them. Why? Because, I thought, Paul was so right on the issues that I just couldn't accept any contrary information about him.

But now, with a clearer head, I want to know how he could let stuff like this be published in his name. And his answers are just not good enough. From the Times (my emphasis):

Mr. Paul ... repudiated the writings in 2008. Likening himself to a major news publisher, he said he did not vet every article that was featured in his newsletters. “I absolutely, honestly do not know who wrote those things,” Mr. Paul said.

Major news publisher? The article says he had only "7,000 to 8,000 subscribers." The blog you are reading had about that many pageviews last month. And I write it in my spare time!

On Monday, his deputy campaign manager, Dimitri Kesari, reiterated that Mr. Paul “did not write, edit or authorize” the language.

“He totally disavows what was said and disagrees with it totally,” Mr. Kesari said. “The only responsibility he takes is for not paying closer attention.”

Come on! Mr. Paul doesn't know who wrote this stuff in his publications? That just doesn't pass the smell test.

Again, I write a blog with about the same circulation as Mr. Paul's newsletters. And what I don't write myself, I provide a source and a link to the original and print the passage in either italics or the original font. But, in any case, I am 100% responsible for what appears in this blog under the heading, "Boring Old White Guy." No one else writes on this blog, and if someone were to hack into it somehow, I would be in touch with Blogspot.com immediately. I take a small amount of pride in this hobby and would be very upset if something were to appear here that I didn't endorse.

At the very least, ten or twenty years from now, if someone were to bring up a particular post from this blog, I would hope to be able to say, "Yeah, that was my blog and I'm responsible."

And Ron Paul should be able to say the same thing today.