I've defended Barr's libertarian credentials in the past but this cannot be defended. Karl Dickey of the Examiner reports that Barr is listed as an official endorsement of the Newt Gingrich campaign. Newt Gingrich another aging conservative attempting to remain relevant and going for would might be his last political ambition. How can any principled libertarian support Newt Gingrich or any conservative (other than Jack Hunter) is beyond me and makes no sense what so ever. There is nothing on Gingrich's record that supports libertarian ideals.
When Barr announced his candidacy for the Libertarian nomination for President in 2008 I was very skeptical and rightfully so. Eventually through the campaign the man grew on me and I believed him to be actually genuine (even for someone who is as cynical as me) to the point that I did some volunteer work for the campaign. Even when he made the "hail marry" attempt at offering the vice president slot to Ron Paul I stuck by the guy the rest of the way. It seems that Barr is another example of "you can't teach a old dog new tricks" or in the political context; "you can't get a conservative to embrace libertarian ideals". He joins Wayne Allen Root and Eric Dondero type libertarians who are nothing but statist conservatives in libertarian clothing.
