A good article

By Walter Rubel/Sun-News managing editor
Posted: 09/06/2009 01:00:00 AM MDT

Gary Johnson If a group of Libertarian-leaning political advocates get their way, New Mexico will once again have a horse in the race when America selects its president in 2012.

At the Web site www.johnsonforamerica.com, you can read about former Gov. Gary Johnson's accomplishments; buy "Johnson 2012" hats, T-shirts, coffee mugs and buttons; and learn ways you can help support his potential run for the presidency. Johnson, for his part, has not said if he intends to throw his hat in the ring.

It shouldn't surprise anyone who remembers the iconoclastic governor's two terms in Santa Fe to learn that the platform being extolled on the Web site isn't exactly a copy of the mainstream party's. One of the accomplishments highlighted is that while governor of New Mexico, Johnson vetoed more bills than all 49 other governors in the country combined.

The Web site is linked to a group called the Republican Liberty Caucus, which bills itself as "the conscience of the Republican Party" (think Ron Paul Republican, as opposed to, say, a George W. Bush Republican or a Mitch McConnell Republican).

"Republicans had the presidency and the Congress and ran up record deficits, and that's going to pale in comparison to the new deficits and spending," Johnson said.

Among the stances Johnson touts on a YouTube video posted on the site are: "opposed the Iraq War from the start," "supports abolishing the Federal Reserve," "supports commodity-backed currency" and "was the only GOP governor not to endorse Bush."

"I believe in a woman's right to choose," Johnson said on the same video.

Of course, many of Johnson's other policies are solidly in line with his GOP brethren. He calls for lower taxes, limited government and unfettered gun rights.

Johnson is best remembered here and nationally for his effort to legalize drugs. Still today, he calls our nation's war on drugs "a miserable failure."

I regret that I didn't have the chance to cover New Mexico politics when Johnson was governor. I came to Las Cruces in the final months of his term and went to Santa Fe at the tail end of Gov. Bill Richardson's first year. So I missed the annual all-night budget brawls between Johnson and the Democratically controlled Legislature. I'm told by Roundhouse veterans that the spats I witnessed between Richardson and the Senate pale in comparison.

I was always amused by how flummoxed Republican legislators were when discussing Johnson, who I sensed most generally liked and agreed with on a majority issues. Invariably, they would begin their comments with the disclaimer, "I didn't agree with Gov. Johnson on the drug stuff, but ... "

Should he decide to run, Johnson would have no chance to win the Republican primary. That tent seems to be shrinking these days and never was big enough to embrace a candidate as honestly committed to less government as Johnson. But he could spice up the debate, in the same way Paul did last year.

It's always refreshing to have at least one person in the campaign not beholden to the party machine.

http://www.scsun-news.com/ci_13280013