An open apology to Chairman Jim Rash and the Libertarian Party of Delaware

Some insider baseball: last year, during the controversies dogging the national Libertarian Party following the nomination of Bob Barr for President and the continuing party infighting (that in part I reported here), I advocated that the Libertarian movement could only benefit from having State parties contemplate disaffiliation. I even argued that some State parties might choose instead to affiliate with the Boston Tea Party.

I don't disagree with my assessment of the national Libertarian Party, which I view more than ever as something of a lost cause, but I have come to realize that the BTP is not going to do anything either.

However, at that time I wrote a post on a BTP blog in which I said I had discussed with leaders of the Libertarian Party of Delaware the possibility of disaffiliating with national and going over to the BTP.

Here's the problem: I should have said that I met with some Libertarian leaders in Delaware or that I met with some leading Delaware libertarians, because I did not discuss this issue with State Party Chair Jim Rash or other elected officers.

It was wrong to write a sentence which could only be read as a semi-endorsement of my position by the elected party leaders, and I apologize for doing so. I suspect that having the State's most visible Libertarian blogger write something like that has made it more difficult for Jim and his team to organize within Delaware, and if that happened it was my fault.

You may be wondering why this comes up now.

If you blog, you'll get this next sentence: you write thousands and thousands of words and never try to look back. Last week is the distant past; last year could be your previous incarnation. Jim Rash had too much class and too much common sense to bring up the issue publicly, and only recently brought my attention to my actions when I wrote him unsolicited on a different topic, seeking his input. Which was earlier today.

I believe in trying to clean up my own messes, and less than a week before the LPD's annual convention, it's incumbent on me to acknowledge the fact that I did something wrong, so that the party and the movement can keep pushing forward.