(Continued...)

Is it true that the balance of power in Washington today is the result of a Libertarian candidate?
It is very interesting to note that if not for the Libertarian Party the Republicans would still be controlling the Senate. There were two different races in Missouri and Montana in which the Libertarian candidate's votes far exceeded the difference between the winning Democrat and the losing Republican. There's no way to prove this 100 percent, but there's reason to believe that if most Libertarian voters were going to vote and they didn't have the Libertarian option, they would probably have gone Republican because of the rhetoric that attaches itself to Republicans.

"Even the complete weirdos of third parties can have very important effects on history. The Republicans would still control the Senate if not for [a Libertarian candidate]"The Montana case is my favorite. The only mainstream press that paid attention to it at all was the Washington Post. A man named Stan Jones had run as a Libertarian many times before and was pretty much the poster child for why everyone makes fun of the Libertarian Party. He was really afraid of Y2K. He was afraid there would be complete civilization collapse and there would be no more antibiotics so he got heavily into this weirdo quack therapy called colloidal silver, and he ate a lot of it. Colloidal silver has this occasional side effect called argyria, which basically turns your skin blue. So this guy was literally blue.

And he wasn't even a Democrat.
Yeah, but a complete weirdo, which is very inspiring. Even the complete weirdos of third parties can have very important effects on history. The Republicans would still control the Senate if not for him.

You've made appearances on O'Reilly, yet despite not being a Democrat, you weren't exactly granted admission into the old boys' club.
I've been on The Factor three times. The wisdom I received from Bill in my ear before we went on the air once, which I have found applies in so many situations, is: "You know you're in the hot seat tonight, Doherty. We don't want any pie in the sky stuff. Stick to the facts." I imagine he probably says something like that in people's ears every night. There should be a book on this, a collection of Bill's wisdom.

So were you sweating in the hot seat then?

TV does make you nervous. Not so much because of him. The funniest part of being on that show, I didn't learn until I saw the TiVo version of it afterward. We were talking about whether local police should enforce federal immigration law, which L.A. mostly does not. I was defending the principle that they shouldn't, mostly because it disrupts the policeman's relationship with the community in a way that's unnecessary. And while I'm saying these things they're showing the worst video you could find of shirtless tattooed cholos waving guns in the street. Like, "These are Mr. Doherty's friends."

What about the celebrity factor? Libertarians historically haven't really had support from high profile individuals or Hollywood.
I'm not sure how to react to that other than to grant that it's true. Libertarian ideas have a million problems in American culture, and that would be one of them. I will now do a quick plug for that small handful of popular and beloved characters who are in my mind pretty solidly Libertarians, my favorite being Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park. True American heroes. They're my favorites because I love their work so much. There's also Drew Carey, and Penn and Teller...

Matt Drudge.
Drudge seems more like a Democrat/liberal basher in a typical right-wing radio way. I have listened to his radio show and have never heard a Libertarian word come out of his mouth.

So there are wannabe Libertarians?
I think saying they're Libertarians makes celebrities sound a little edgy and outside the norm. I've seen no evidence, for the most part, that they genuinely believe that the government should hardly do anything at all.

So, have the Libertarians decided who they're putting up for president?
The nominating convention is going to be in the summer of 2008. No ideas yet. The great thing about the Libertarian Party is that really anything goes. Michael Badnarik, the guy who got it in 2004 was basically this unemployed computer programmer who had nothing to do for a year so he just drove around in a Kia Sephia with this college student friend of his, hit all the state conventions, shook a lot of hands, got to know people, talked the Libertarian game. All you have to do to win the Libertarian nomination is convince a bare majority of the delegates in the national convention. So you can be this unemployed guy one day and the next day you're on the ballot for president in almost every state.

Do you think Badnarik will take a stab at it again?
He will not be running this time. He's selling bumper stickers in Austin, Texas.

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