Gene Lyons examines the startling antisemitism that seems to follow Ron Paul everywhere he goes in his column, “Ron Paul’s Unique Ability To Attract Anti-Semitic Supporters:”

Hey sailor, just how strange a political bedfellow have you got in mind?

That’s the question raised by the suggestion in certain quarters that the real progressive in the 2012 presidential contest may be Texas Rep. Ron Paul. Democrats who fail to acknowledge this brilliant insight are alleged to be either blinded by partisanship or actively in league with that warmonger and baby-killer President Obama.

The latest rationalization by Salon’s David Sirota involves distinguishing between the powers of the president as Commander-in-Chief and those requiring the cooperation of Congress. That President Paul would move to abolish Social Security and Medicare and repeal the Civil Rights Act of 1964 isn’t supposed to matter because he couldn’t do so unilaterally, while President Obama could presumably ignore the War Powers Act (as some allege he did in Libya) plunging the nation into war “with the stroke of a pen.”
Of course, so can any president. But hold that thought.

Meanwhile, anybody who questions the character and judgment of a politician who until fairly recently peddled “The Original Famous Ron Paul Survival Kit,” in his eponymous newsletter isn’t playing fair.

How it worked was you sent them a check or money order in (doomed) U.S. currency, and they sent you a WWII Army ammo box filled with silver coins for “hand-to-hand” commerce after UN troops have seized control of the United States. Back when I was a lad, you could only get bargains like that from tiny ads in the back pages of DC Comics.

But I digress. Hasn’t the Great Man renounced the race-baiting and conspiracy-mongering in the newsletter he supposedly never read?