INDIANA US SENATE CANDIDATE OFFERS TWO COURAGEOUS PROPOSALS

I was not familiar with former Indiana Rep. John N. Hostettler before a few days ago (he is a candidate for the Senate seat to be vacated by Evan Bayh) but I found an intriguing article when he takes two key positions:

Senator John McCain should have opposed the TARP bailout:
What was McCain’s bold step? He lined up behind President George W. Bush and was perceived as part of the problem on Capitol Hill while he joined his Democratic opponent in the massive spending spree. Is there any wonder why independents and many conservatives concluded that a vote for John McCain was the same as a vote for Barack Obama? If the GOP wishes to regain the majority, it must offer voters more than a distinction without a difference.
and
The GOP must renounce the Bush Doctrine of “…preemptive war and an interventionist foreign policy…”
Nothing has shaken voters’ trust in the GOP like the lack of justification for the war. While I make the case in my book, “Nothing for the Nation,” that the Senate Democratic leadership in 2002 was just as culpable in authorizing the invasion of Iraq as the House Republican leadership, most Americans see the Iraq war as a Republican creation. If Republicans would renounce the Bush Doctrine by rejecting pre-emptive war and an interventionist foreign policy, they could put the issue of Iraq in the proper current context.
I quote from his column in Politico of March 24, 2009. (Hostettler joined Ron Paul and four other GOP representatives in voting against the war in Iraq.)
I think Hostettler is absolutely right. If McCain had at least offered some opposition to the TARP bailout and stood with the House Republicans (The House voted initially against the TARP bailout) he’d at least given himself a fighting chance. How many conservatives stayed home (I did not by the way, I proudly voted for the war hero McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin) or voted for a third party due to the TARP bailout.
I also think that the war in Iraq was at the very least mishandled. it was turned into an invasion for democracy rather than a coup to overthrow Hussein (if that was necessary) and secure any weapons. We are still in Iraq several years later and the American people rightly turned against the GOP.
There were other reasons: Arrogance (read Terri Schiavo – unconstitutional federal legislation to benefit one case), corruption and personal moral failure, and a failure to adequately control spending.
But Hostettler is right.
Should libertarians support Hostettler? I like what I am reading: A social conservative who is a RP libertarian, too. I would note that some Campaign for Liberty/Ron Paul supporters are helping him and there is even some evidence Paul himself is supporting him. The American Spectator reported Hostettler being only three points behind Bayh. Put me down as leaning toward him.
Tags: American-Spectator, Bush-Doctrine, Campaign for Liberty, Iraq, John-Hostettler, McCain, politico, Ron Paul, Sarah-Palin, TARP, TARP-bailout