Hostettler outperforms Coats in poll again

[erowe1]

http://hotlineoncall.nationaljournal...ttler_runs.php

[South Park Fan]

How come there have been no primary polls?

[TCE]

Every big Republican leader/talking head is calling it for Coats. I have no idea why they have such confidence, but it is clear he is the establishment candidate in the race. Hostettler, unfortunately, is a notoriously horrible fund raiser, but if he wins the Primary, he will be the next Senator from Indiana. When's the moneybomb date?

[Cowlesy]

I just read W. James Antle IV's article in The American Conservative magazine, and I have to say, I really want Hostettler to win.

http://amconmag.com/article/2010/apr/01/00014/

Some forum members had pointed out his votes for the Patriot Act as dealbreakers (and personally I'm big on civil liberty, so this hurt his support with me), but Antle's article made me re-think my position on him given his strong views on foreign policy. Also in Antle's article, Hostettler was a very independent voter in the House of Representatives. To quote from the article:

Then there is the matter of Hostettler's independence. "I'm sure the NRSC called somebody up in the House leadership and asked about John," says a Hostettler-friendly conservative activist. "The answer they probably got was, "When I needed his vote, that son of a bitch wouldn't give it to me'."

Also from the article that is changing my opinion in the direction of supporting Hostettler. To quote at length from the article (which I would hope you will read in its entirety at the link):

Hostettler voted against the Medicare prescription-drug benefit and No Child Left Behind. He voted against the federal marriage amendment, preferring instead to preserve traditional marriage by stripping federal courts of jurisdiction over the issue. He was one of 11 Republicans to vote against the $51.8 billion Hurricane Katrina relief package. In 1996, he was one of 17 Republicans who voted against a budget compromise backed by then House Speaker Newt Gingrich that would have ended the federal government shutdown. Gingrich canceled a fundraiser for Hostettler as a result.

Hostettler’s biggest dissent, however, was on Iraq. He had opposed making regime change the official U.S. policy by voting against the Iraq Liberation Act in 1998. Then Hostettler was one of just six House Republicans to vote against authorizing the invasion of Iraq, while Democrats like Bayh were still on board. At the time, Hostettler questioned the need for pre-emptive strikes and said he was not persuaded by the evidence the Bush administration offered for Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. In the floor speech explaining his vote, he cited St. Augustine and Just War theory, as well as the Founding Fathers.

After leaving Congress, Hostettler stepped up his criticism of the war. He even wrote an antiwar book, Nothing for the Nation: Who Got What Out of Iraq. Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, a Republican who recanted his support for the war, praised the book: “Had we listened to Hostettler at the time, we would not have done it. … For years I have known I was wrong. Now I know why I was wrong.” Others, such as Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League, have criticized the book’s references to Israeli security concerns and neoconservatives: “Hostettler’s reasoning is nothing new, following the line of attack in The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy by academics John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt.”

Hostettler rejects this as a mischaracterization of his views, but is unapologetic about his disagreements with neoconservatives. “The neocons know what a Senator Hostettler would mean,” he says. “They would rather have Evan Bayh as the lead sponsor of sanctions against Iran, bringing us to the brink of war or a Republican who would do the same thing.” Hostettler argues, “They want to mold the Republican Party’s image on foreign policy, and I am not of that mold.”

It's pretty clear John Hostettler is an enemy of the neoconservatives, and especially anathema to Bill Kristol.

To me, that is a glowing reason why I would hope many skeptical forum members would reconsider their support.

The U.S. Senate would be thrown for a loop if we elected a bunch of Traditional Conservative Senators.

[Brian4Liberty]

Hostettler, unfortunately, is a notoriously horrible fund raiser, but if he wins the Primary, he will be the next Senator from Indiana. When's the moneybomb date?

We couldn't even get 350 people to vote for him in an internet poll! Fund raising will be an issue...

[Billay]

Is he a Liberty candidate?

[erowe1]

Is he a Liberty candidate?

I think it would be fair to call him a paleo-con and a committed constitutionalist, but not a libertarian. In my opinion, his overall voting record was better over his 12 years in the House than any other single legislator besides Ron Paul, and he's much closer to us on more of the big issues than anyone currently in the Senate.

See this thread for some of the specifics:
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=222752