WendyMcElroy.com

An announcement from the LP: "On Tuesday evening, former Congressman Bob Barr, a Life Member of the Libertarian Party, was offered the position of Regional 4 Representative of the Libertarian National Committee."

Barr is a loud and leading advocate of the drug war. Even I didn't think that badly of the LP. Perhaps Barr has changed his mind about arresting everyone in sight for drug use...but I don't think so. Apparently sometime Monday the Reason site will be running a recent interview with Barr conducted by Dave Weigel regarding his new alliance with the LP. The advance word is that Barr hasn't changed his tune at all of the drug war.

UPDATE: i've been brooding about the LPNC invitation to Barr, who has been pretty damned extreme re: drugs in the past. For example, an article from 1999 opens, At a House hearing titled "The Pros and Cons of Drug Legalization, Decriminalization and Harm Reduction," Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA) suggested that federal racketeering (RICO) laws should be used to prosecute persons who advocate reform of drug policies. Barr wanted to RICO against advocacy organizations like NORML. And, as The Agitator (Radley Balko) notes, "When a medicinal marijuana referendum came up for a vote in D.C., Barr attempted to use Congress' oversight of the District to prevent the votes from even being counted."

Rumor has it that Barr is going to come out soon with some sort of statement about a shift on the drug war. It could be just a rumor. If true, the shift seems to have occurred since the Reason interview. If true, I suspect it will some sort of concession shift...like states should decide for themselves on medical marijuana. The latter would be similar to Harry Browne's attempt to wriggle out of his pro-life position (the LP was clearly pro-choice at that point) by saying the legality of the procedure was a state's rights matter and, so, he refused comment on his own personal beliefs.