Badnarik: I will debate or be arrested
I’m guessing he’ll be arrested:
Michael Badnarik, the Libertarian Party’s 2004 presidential nominee, will debate John Kerry and George W. Bush in St. Louis on Friday. Or he’ll go to jail instead.
“A majority of Americans say that I should be included in the events sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates,” says Badnarik, 50, of Austin, Texas. “And the CPD, as a non-profit, has received special treatment from government on the requirement that they be non-partisan in their activities. Bi-partisan is not non-partisan.
“Unless I am allowed to participate, the debates become a massive campaign contribution to two of the candidates, illegal under the very campaign finance laws those two candidates have passed and signed as Senator and President.”
At 8 p.m. on Friday evening, Badnarik, along with the demonstrators expected to assemble in protest against his exclusion, will proceed to the police line erected to keep himself and the other legitimate candidates out during broadcast of the “bi-partisan campaign commercial.”
And then he will cross it.
“We’d have preferred to see John Kerry and George Bush stand up like men to debate the issues facing America,” says Badnarik’s communications director, Stephen Gordon. “However, they have interposed the machinery of government between the American people and the honest debate which must precede any honest election. Now it’s up to patriots like Michael Badnarik to force the issue.” In Arizona, the Libertarian Party is taking the state university to court to prevent the expenditure of state money on a similar event.
October 12th, 2004 at 6:58 pm
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Badnarik Update
|By SayUncle|
The Libertarian candidate for President, who stated he’d debate or be arrested, was (no surprise) arres […]
October 8th, 2004 at 4:35 pm
Kudos to them!
October 8th, 2004 at 10:39 pm
Libertarians could only dream that Badnarik would get arrested. It would be more publicity than they’ve had in years.
October 9th, 2004 at 12:35 pm
So, what happened? I missed the debate, but I haven’t heard that Badnarik was there, so I assume he wasn’t. Did he get arrested?
October 9th, 2004 at 2:22 pm
His website claims that he was arrested.
October 14th, 2004 at 5:55 pm
Thank God I’m not a Big L libertarian anymore. They are getting even more embarassing than when I was involved in the party.
October 15th, 2004 at 9:56 am
Amen to that.