Ron Paul said Tuesday he doesn’t want any Secret Service protection because it’s “a form a welfare.”
“It’s a form of welfare,” the presidential candidate told comedian Jay Leno Tuesday. “You know, you’re having the taxpayers pay to take care of somebody and I’m an ordinary citizen and I would think I should pay for my own protection and it costs, I think, more than $50,000 a day to protect those individuals. It’s a lot of money.”
But while he might be opposed to having some extra protection, that doesn’t mean Paul doesn’t have a Secret Service code name picked out for himself.
“Bulldog,” the Texas congressman promptly answered when Leno asked what top-secret moniker he would want.
“I go after the Fed and all that big spending,” a smiling Paul explained, doing his best to look tough by waving a clenched fist.
Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum have chosen the code names “Javelin” and “Petrus” for themselves, respectively, according to a report this week.
(Source: Politico)
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5 Responses
Just you wait until the secret service is running around trying to protect POPA!
This guy should be running for president of Warner Bros because he’s clearly a Looney Toon!!!
Up until Robert Kennedy got shot, no one ever provided Secret Service protection for candidates. If they wanted a body guard, they had to pay for it themselves. To the extent that it is unlikely for anyone to assasinate a candidate (it’s only been attempted three times in 200+ years), it’s arguably a waste of Federal money (though it arugably save the state and local police some money since they might have to provide security at events at their expense).
@akuperma:
The number of attempted assassinations is not the best metric. If it’s 3 over 200 yrs, the average is 1 every 66 years. That’s not a good reflection of the true vulnerability which is the impact on the election and the electorate in any give campaign year. The Secret Service is not simply protecting an individual but, to a certain extent, the integrity of our electoral process.
Akuperma
Thank you again for another valid and useful comment.