Wayne Allyn Root's Hypocritical Whine About "Back Room Deals"

On June 23, at See the Independent Political Report, Steve LaBianca wrote (comment # 148):

"I have on good info that W.A.R. is STEAMED about losing the LNC chair election, and blames it on 'deals' cut, and lost as a result, even though W.A.R. believes that he is the favorite of the delegates!"

So apparently, Root blames his losing the Libertarian Party's 2010 Chair race on a "back room deal." This deal supposedly involved John Jay Myers endorsing Mark Hinkle, after Myers came in next to last (after George Phillies).

To this complaint by Root, Carolyn Marbry responded (comment # 186)

"Geez, here we go with more sour grapes and whining about losing… Nah, more like pot kettle black, actually.

"Look, it’s not a back room deal for two like-minded candidates to agree between themselves on a strategy of endorsement to maximize the possibility of one of them or the other being elected. This is how it’s done. That’s a strategy, not a back room deal.

"Does anybody really find it surprising that Myers’ supporters would be drawn to Hinkle over Hancock or Root, even without John Jay endorsing him? So that was mostly pro forma anyway and mostly ended up saving us one more round of voting.

"No one has suggested, at least in my hearing, that Hinkle offered Myers any sort of pay off to endorse him. If there was some kind of pay off, I’d like to know about it because that would drastically change my opinion of both men involved."

So Carolyn accurately destroys Root's whine about a back room deal. Interestingly, she then claims that Root offered a back room deal to Hancock. Carolyn writes:

"if you want an example of a REAL back room deal, though, here’s one. When one candidate goes to his exact political opposite who was dropped right before the final round of voting and makes the offer to give that other candidate’s media website a listing on lp.org and to 'make sure' that other candidate gets elected to the LNC if he makes an endorsement, THAT is a back room deal.

"To Hancock’s credit, he refused this offer.

"The 'back room deal' of which I speak was caught on film, apparently, by Root’s own film crew, so he apparently didn’t think so ill of back room deals at the time."

Root had hired a film crew to shoot a TV "reality show" about his race for Libertarian Party Chair. It has previously been reported on IPR that the show would only be shopped should Root win the Chair race. Root lost, so I guess he won't be hawking his "reality show." As if anyone in America would care to watch his ego on display.

Speaking of back room deals, what about Root (after he lost the 2008 LP presidential nomination), offering to endorse Bob Barr for president, provided that Barr would then endorse Root as his VP running mate.

That's another Root-engineered back room deal, which Root would prefer people forget. I was at the 2008 convention. The Barr and Root people hated each other. Their unity at the 2008 convention's end was pure expediency; whereas I'm not aware of any animosity between the Hinkle and Myers supporters in 2010.

Finally, David F. Nolan said (comment # 187):

"there was no 'backroom deal' made by Myers and Hinkle; Myers simply dropped out because he knew he wasn’t going to win and Hinkle was his preferred choice. The IPR straw poll the night before predicted almost exactly what would happen ... if Wayne is whining about being cheated in the Chair’s race, that’s pathetic. He wasn’t. He lost, fair and square, despite spending (he claims) more than all of the four other candidates combined."

See the full thread here.

BTW, while I've often criticized Root, largely for his pro-war views, I'm only one of many Root critics. Read this latest criticism on Root from Carol Moore.