Angela Keaton with the evidence that the Libertarian National Committee really doesn't care about State and Local candidates

If you're a masochist, you can follow Angela's reporting from the current Libertarian National Committee meeting as the LNC melts down.

It's available [with different sets of accompanying commentary] at either Last Free Voice or Independent Political Report. Both are worth visiting.

Angela's writing is so much fun to read that you can almost forget the undercurrent of disturbing facts:

My last quarter of Xanax is kicking in. I’m not going to be a bitch. Just type. You can all draw your own conclusions when you read the minutes....

Kraus and I engage in assorted smart assery and cynicism.

New staff piece of ass, Casey. Dark, young and easy prey for a cougar like myself....

Donny Ferguson is here as well. I felt him up once when I was drunk. Reform Caucus people are so uptight.

The Admiral keeps staying hello. Must be the dress. Tomorrow, BTP tank top and thong…no I’ll will be wearing pants.

But here [sorry, Angela, for the pun] is the meat of the matter:

[Andrew] Davis [Communications Director] on PR. Davis’ girlfriend is adorable. They are planning to marry December 27th. One LNC member suggests marriage is always a bad idea.

–He’s been in Atlanta the past two months assisting Barr campaign. These are roughly his words: LP proper ceased to be of interest to the campaign once the nominee was chosen. He thought he would just go there and work. It’s given him about 800 contacts including Lou Dobbs. He is very hopeful that he can make good use of this. Congressman Barr has been so prolific in media. Membership is higher. (notice graphs in notes.)

Davis is still excited about the very nice article Redpath got in Playboy. Mrs. Hawkridge notes that some prefer Hustler.

He thinks that everyone is sick of two party politics.

Dr. Jim [Lark] wants to know what is up with LP News. Kraus wants to go to a digest size. There have been problems. Audrey Mullins (isn’t she from the Barr campaign or was?) is going to edit this month’s paper. Rachel asks Andrew about what he can do to pr the FEC/BCRA. Andrew thinks he can blast it everywhere and get 15K very quickly. Dr. Mary [Ruwart] asks about the amount of resources going to the Barr camp instead of the state candidates. Andrew says the states should handle their own but he adds that he does send press releases and he blogs about state campaigns like Munger. He can do more if you send him material.

He can’t send press lists to every candidate since it would take forever to filter it for each area but he can send something to the state chairs and the state chairs lists.

Here is the comment posted by Dr George Phillies, which says it about as well as anybody could:

Let us take this from the top. Mr. Davis is or was an LNC employee. He should be out there building publicity for our Party. He reasonably *coordinates* with the Presidential campaign, but Barr 2008 should handle its own publicity. For starters, they have more money than LNC, Inc. does, and LNC, Inc is spending heavily on ballot access for Barr.

I think it is educational to note that the Barr campaign position is that the LP proper ceased to be of interest to the campaign once he got the nomination. Note that the Barr front web page and literature do not even mention the word “Libertarian”. I urge real Libertarians to take careful notes and in the future spurn the people who worked hard to get Barr his nomination. Also, there are many fine real Libertarians running as *Libertarian Party* people, people like Sue Newell in New Hampshire and Dr. Munger in North Carolina, and you might better send your money to them. Or your own state party. Most State Parties could really use your money, and aren’t paying any of their staff $10,000 or $18,000.

So now we know: the LNC really doesn't give a shit about you if you're running under the LP banner.

In other news so far, the LNC has voted to destroy any video or audio recordings of their meetings after the minutes have been approved.

Yep, that's a step toward transparency and accountability OK.

This is the truth of the matter: despite the fact that I think pretty highly of Dr Jim Lark, Dr Mary Ruwart, Mike Jingozian, and Angela Keaton, the simple fact is that the entire LNC could do with a clean sweep.

It's not a question about ideology, it's a question of competence, objectives, and ethics.

There is no evidence of the competence necessary to create a viable national political party.

There is no evidence, quite frankly, that this is even the objective of the LNC any more [if it ever was].

There is no evidence that the ethics of these folks is such that you would trust them with your money.

A final note: we discover from Angela that the mysterious M Carling (who hates povertarians and presumably other poor people) is the official link between the LNC and the Barr campaign, which is really cozy as he is also the apparent mastermind behind the Libertarian National Congressional Committee, which raises money for our candidates but never seems to disperse it.

I can't wait for tomorrow's installment.