APPALLING Ron (Photo: Getty Images)
The New Republic's website is humbly suggesting on this day of the New Hampshire primary that Ron Paul is probably a hate-filled bigot. Writer James Kirchick provides an exhaustive survey of bizarre and offensive passages gleaned from newsletters put out by Paul throughout his political career, which at times seem more like T. Herman Zweibel broadcasting a spectacular array of fuddy-duddy worldviews on gays, Jews, and blacks.

"Am I the only one sick of hearing about the 'rights' of AIDS carriers?" one excerpt reads. Another laments the aftermath of the Chicago Bulls winning the NBA championship in 1992: "Blacks poured into the streets of Chicago in celebration. How to celebrate? How else? They broke the windows of stores to loot." Yet another notes an encounter with a reporter from a gay magazine "who certainly had an axe to grind, and that's not easy with a limp wrist."

The newsletters are not an entirely new issue for Paul; some racist excerpts surfaced during Paul's effort to re-gain a seat in Congress in 1996. But Kirchick's more sizable cache of newsletter nuggets may weaken the credibility of Paul's claim that the offensive comments were somehow penned by a ghostwriter without his knowledge or review.

Kirchick goes beyond even the clearly damning comments to indict Paul as "a member in good standing of some of the oldest and ugliest traditions in American politics." (Maybe because he's a Giuliani guy?) Previewing his article last night on MSNBC, Kirchick claimed that Paul "speaks in code" to racist elements in our society. "He'll say certain things that, you know, at first might not appear to be overtly racist but to certain audiences, they know what he's talking about."

While this is all bad news for Team Paul, coming as it does in the heat of the New Hampshire primary, Paul supporters can take heart: This could be the beginning of a major South Carolina bounce!