WHAT I THINK....ERIC MARGOLIS

Republican Congressman Ron Paul invited me to speak to his Liberty caucus luncheon in Washington last week on the intensifying wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Eight libertarian and independent-minded Republican congressmen attended in Paul's office on Capitol Hill. Paul sits on the powerful house foreign affairs committee.

Readers will recall that last year I called Paul, "the only candidate who is telling Americans the truth about foreign affairs." Like the cynic Diogenes seeking an honest man, I came to respect and admire Paul's courage, honesty and refusal to accept special interest money.

Paul had no need to wear an American flag on his lapel to prove his real patriotism and dedication to the U.S. constitution. Speaking of today's U.S. Congress, Paul observes: "Special interests have replaced the concern the founders had for the general welfare."

In fact, Paul has been a model of the legislators envisaged by America's founding fathers: Men of high moral standards and intellect dedicated to the nation's well being. He reminds me in many ways of the fiercely upright senators of the early Roman Republic, the model for the United States Congress.

Paul, a physician, used to deliver babies on Mondays and Saturdays while serving in office.

Paul became a hero to many Americans last year when he ran for president against the political establishment. The 11-term Texas congressman became the most respected and admired American politician around the world after Barack Obama.

The 74-year-old doctor from Texas electrified young Americans with his grassroots campaign, providing voters a real alternative to the Republican and Democratic establishment, which often appears to be one party with two factions. Paul's clear, cool voice challenged all the propaganda about Afghanistan and Iraq. He also is waging a lonely battle against the dangerous economic nostrums now coming from the Obama White House and congressional Democrats.

FOREIGN WARS

Paul and fellow libertarian Republicans advocate individual rights, strict constitutionalism, limited government, free enterprise and an end to American global domination, nation building and foreign wars.

Paul opposes U.S. involvement in other nation's internal affairs. As anti-Iranian hysteria gripped the nation last month, Paul was the only house member who voted against a bill condemning Iran for its recent election. That's courage.

"There is no area in which Republicans have further strayed from our traditions than in foreign affairs," writes Paul. He dismisses neocon claims that "we have to either fight them over there or over here" as a "false choice. "America has no business policing the world. U.S. foreign policy is undermining national security," says Paul.

Only Congress, he insists, has the right to declare war, not the president. Congress cravenly abandoned this right during the build up to the Iraq War that was fuelled by shameless lies and the crassest jingoism.

Paul's amiable manner and lack of the bloated self-importance that so typifies Washington bigwigs conceals a very keen intellect and depth of knowledge. He also has one of the capital's sharpest foreign affairs staff chiefs, Daniel McAdams.

POTENT REMEDY

As I talked with Paul, it occurred to me that he and his fellow libertarians are the potent remedy that the dreadfully sick Republican Party so desperately needs. Paul's Liberty caucus hopefully will form the core around which a vigorous, new party grows that addresses America's real needs.

President George W. Bush and the neocons pretty much destroyed the Republican Party, as this column predicted back in 2003. What's left of the Grand Old Party, of which I have been a lifelong and, recently, most unhappy member, has become a rump dominated by religious fundamentalists, regional interests, war-lusting neoconservatives and bumbling, rural Romeos. Mountebanks and demagogues are vying to become the party's voice.

Paul and his fellow libertarians offer Republicans and Americans a badly needed alternative to the dumbed-down Republicans and the wildly spending Democrats, whose expanded Afghanistan war and increasingly neosocialist policies are leading the nation into dangerous waters.