FITSNews - March 31, 2008 - Feeding off of conservative discontent with Republican presidential nominee John McCain, former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr will announce a third party bid for the White House next week, sources tell FITSNews. Barr, who will run as a Libertarian, is also slated to receive the the endorsement of Texas Congressman Ron Paul, the only Republican presidential candidate who has yet to cease campaign operations and jump on the McCain bandwagon.
Just last week, Paul threw more cold water on the notion of his supporters backing McCain, telling Newsweek, “I’m not going to tell them what to do, but I honestly can’t imagine any of them supporting him. That would be a tough sale.”
Barr, who represented Georgia’s 7th Congressional District in the U.S. House from 1995-2003, is perhaps best known for his role as a House Manager during impeachment proceedings against former President Bill Clinton.
From the looks of it, Barr and Paul already seem to have something of a “mutual admiration society” going.
Last week, Barr specifically praised Paul’s campaign in discussing his own flirtation with the Presidency, telling the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that his potential Libertarian bid for the White House would be an extension of the Ron Paul movement.
“Ron Paul tapped into a great deal of that dissatisfaction and that awareness. Unfortunately, working through the Republican party structure, it became impossible for him to really move forward with his movement. But we have to have ….a rallying point out there to harness that energy, that freedom in this election cycle,” Barr told the newspaper.