Benton: Never Prouder of a Boss Than of McConnell Today

Jesse Benton, former Ron Paul campaign chairman and current head of the Mitch McConnell re-election campaign, writes in the wake of the fiscal cliff debacle: “I have never been more proud of a boss than I am of Senator McConnell right now.”

This is the second or third time I have mentioned Benton in a negative light on my site. That would be about 0.00000001% of all my posts. This will still anger some people. Why, Woods is so divisive! It is not divisive, evidently, to say McConnell’s crummy deal is a prouder moment for America than anything Ron Paul ever said or did.

Anonymous

Oh go ahead, Tom. BE divisive! Jesse is a putz!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1457760294 Robert Fellner

Benton is a disgrace and should be outed as such. The Ron Paul 2012 campaign was pretty disgraceful as well. Many of its donors believed in its deceitful stated goal – to try and win the Presidency – and donated money that they simply didn’t have to throw away. The Ron Paul 2012 campaign was never trying to win. I write this as someone who worked for that campaign, and more importantly from what I was told by campaign leadership. One can also come to this conclusion without the same level of inside information by looking at how it was run and being honestly objective. I should have spoken out sooner, but I honestly was blinded by my love of Ron Paul to allow myself to believe he would condone such activity. Or even worse, was ignorant of the type of people he hired to run his campaign.
Ivan

Robert Fellner,

Agree 100%.

here is my take
http://manoflittlefaith.blogspot.ca/2012/12/how-ron-paul-sold-out.html.
http://twitter.com/Gameodactyl Patrick Gann

My sincere hope is that before Ron departs this world for greener pastures, he makes a public statement about his grandson-in-law’s true colors.

(for the record Tom — when Benton told you to “stay away from him and his family” I suspect that had nothing to do with his wife and everything to do with him trying to say he was in the Paul clan. As if marrying into the family made him a sound-money liberty-loving individual.)
Anonymous

Benton wore a bullet-proof vest to a meeting with Ron Paul delegates at the RNC in Tampa. That tells you just about all you need to know about Benton…
Anonymous

There was no way Ron Paul was going to win as long a Benton was running the campaign, that’s for sure.
Anonymous

Benton turned out to be the GOP mole we all worried was there, but couldn’t ferret out. Maybe some did (Tom, for example, or even Doc Paul), but the rest of us soldiers in the trenches, out in the cold and rain waiving signs like maniacs, we never saw it coming till Tampa.
Anonymous

Benton is proud of his guy raising taxes and not cutting spending. That tells you all you need to know about Republicans. There’s no changing that party anymore. Ron Paul tried because we have a system that actively purges other parties from the debates etc, but the time to give up on the GOP is already here. They will go the way of the Whigs.
J Fournier

“I have never been more proud of a boss than I am of Senator McConnell right now.” This is a strange sentence. It seems intentionally aimed at contrasting McConnell with Ron Paul. I wonder what the Paul family Christmas party was like.
Anonymous

If the GOP folds, then we will have a one-party system, and the Democrats will be it. But I don’t think the GOP can fail out of existence with the current legislation in place.
cajuncocoa

Benton takes a crap all over the liberty movement and people say Tom Woods is being divisive? WTF?
Zach Foster

I wonder if Valori Pyeatt is looking to have an extramarital affair. Surely by now she must see how hubby’s selling out faster than Vichy France and she must need a real man.

Ron’s candidacy was doomed by the neocons with or without Benton’s questionable leadership, but June 2012 showed Benton to have worse timing with shady emails than General Petraeus. Call me anytime, Val!
http://twitter.com/Gameodactyl Patrick Gann

That’s … in bad taste.
Anonymous

I donated money that I really shouldn’t have (as in I couldn’t really afford to). But, I had faith, and by the last couple money bombs, I noticed that it was all money being wasted. I hope whatever funds remain from the campaign are used effectively (if legal) through a PAC or for Ron’s campus tours (if legal).
samgrace

I think you make a good point, Fournier. He would not have said, “never” been more proud, unless he was trying to make a point. If it was just an innocuous sentiment, he would have said something like, “Today is a great day for Senator McConnell, I’m extremely proud.” The comment he made was intentional. What a piece of work.
anon

RP was infact ignorant versus supportive of the small group of people that ran his campaign and all decisions like ads, etc… Unfortunately, most rp supporters liked what the campaign did, so all this reflects on rp supporters to say they condone establishment but at the same support its people like benton, tate, etc…

Hence, this also appears in the liberty movement and not gaining much traction, if they can’t separate such tactics.

When you consider yourself a republican, then your staff is given to you. So, infact, rp did not hire any of these people – they were given to him and he went along with it.

Noone on the republican platform can really run credibly or successful unless the repub/dems have chosen you as they did with mccain and romney – hence comments are seen here that it wasn’t a campaign to win. So, 3rd party is only route. And calls to ‘take over gop’ maybe unrealistic or childish or ingenuine.
anon

There is already a one-party system in place – it just has two similar wings, like wings of a bird. The notion that you have a choice among two is infact false – there is no right or left but just two lefties.

It may not fall out of existence, but it will be rendered insignificant.
anon

Anythingelse that was not seen till tampa or beyond? I doubt it took one young idiot named Benton to tank a campaign. If you were worried about benton, what was done about it?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Dave-Carroll/100003342890124 Dave Carroll

I feel the same way and I’m not happy about it. Every time I hear something new about Benton I feel like I’ve been played. I have to say that even though Gary Johnson isn’t as solid philosophically, I feel he was much more genuine and authentic as far as having been an actual candidate for the presidency.

I’ve also decided that I will never again in my life support a candidate in either of the major parties, regardless of whether they’re ‘just using the two party system to get the message out’ or not. What we should take away from this is that affiliating yourself at all with the republican party is a slippery slope. Furthermore in a third party like the LP, which isn’t perfect I know but regardless, only 34% of the vote would be required to win instead of 51%.
http://www.facebook.com/mary.gribble.77 Mary Gribble

cajuncocoa, You seem to be the first to get it right! Ron Paul was flying all over the country and was not a hands-on man. Because Benton was a grandson-in-law, he never believed the kid would stab him in the back. With the Ben Bernankes – foreign bankers controlliing the media, the Bentons – and John Tates of the world, , Ron Paul did not need enemies.
http://www.facebook.com/mary.gribble.77 Mary Gribble

Benton lied to us in emails, but moles do that. I gave the campaign a lot of money that I didn’t have also, but I never believed “Paul is dropping out” emails of Benton! What crashed the campaign was not a kid like Benton regardless of the money and power he was offered from an international trouble-maker, but something much bigger ~ the House of Rothschild Bankers, who figured out they would not make the profit they craved by lending to individuals ~ so decided on lending to governments – and ah, enter, the Frauderal Reserve. They, like the Fed, charge interest on thin air, a con game so large one cannot fathom it and one which Ron Paul exposed to people who had never questioned it before. The Rothschilds figured they could make big bucks through US debt. Thus, they had a stake in seeing that Ron Paul was called a “nut”, keeping him from TV, appearances, (which they owned),and seeing to it that he was marginalized in every way possible. Ron Paul DID want to be elected President!! Not for himself, but he saw the great need for honesty and common sense in leadership. As an ob, bringing 4,000 babies into the world make him love people. This man has worked for a living! Did Obama or Romney attract gatherings of 6,000 and 8,000 people in hot, cold and snow? The NWO crowd snafued Dr. Paul, and little Benton only showed his character.when he slithered under the door.
Laura

Ditto…..Benton is a disgrace, and my ony regret with Dr. Paul was in his lack of wisdom in trusting that man in the first place. What an opportunist, and IMHO he married the doctor’s daughter in a very calculated manner, too.
Laura

Are you serious?
Anonymous

It is already pretty much insignificant. What difference did it make if Romney beat Obama? None, really.

But would a Ron Paul type candidate have a prayer in the Democrat party? Again, no.

So there is at least “some” difference, however miniscule that difference may be.
Anonymous

It is my understanding that Benton’s activities were brought to Dr. Paul’s attention, and Dr. Paul refused to make any changes to campaign staff. That’s about all we could do, blood being thicker than water.

And yes, all it took was one young idiot (who happened to be in charge of the campaign) to tank Dr, Paul.
Anonymous

For Ron Paul to have been elected, everything would have had to be exactly right. All the odds were against him, and for the exact reasons you point out.

But Benton was the one obstacle Ron Paul couldn’t overcome. Ron is a family man, and Benton is family, and that was that.
Anonymous

Yes.