WaPo)
— Ron Paul, well known as a physician, congressman and libertarian ,
has also been a businessman who pursued a marketing strategy that
included publishing provocative, racially charged newsletters to make
money and spread his ideas, according to three people with direct
knowledge of Paul’s businesses.

The Republican presidential candidate has denied writing inflammatory
passages in the pamphlets from the 1990s and said recently that he did
not read them at the time or for years afterward. Numerous colleagues
said he does not hold racist views.

But people close to Paul’s operations said he was deeply involved in
the company that produced the newsletters, Ron Paul & Associates,
and closely monitored its operations, signing off on articles and
speaking to staff members virtually every day.

“It was his newsletter, and it was under his name, so he always got
to see the final product. . . . He would proof it,’’ said Renae Hathway,
a former secretary in Paul’s company and a supporter of the Texas
congressman.

The newsletters point to a rarely seen and somewhat opaque side of
Paul, who has surprised the political community by becoming an important
factor in the Republican race. The candidate, who has presented himself
as a kindly doctor and political truth-teller, declined in a recent
debate to release his tax returns, joking that he would be “embarrassed”
about his income compared with that of his richer GOP rivals.

Yet a review of his enterprises reveals a sharp-eyed businessman who
for nearly two decades oversaw the company and a nonprofit foundation,
intertwining them with his political career. The newsletters, which were
launched in the mid-1980s and bore such names as the Ron Paul Survival
Report, were produced by a company Paul dissolved in 2001.

The company shared offices with his campaigns and foundation at
various points, according to those familiar with the operation. Public
records show Paul’s wife and daughter were officers of the newsletter
company and foundation; his daughter also served as his campaign
treasurer.Jesse Benton, a presidential campaign spokesman, said
that the accounts of Paul’s involvement were untrue and that Paul was
practicing medicine full time when “the offensive material appeared
under his name.” Paul “abhors it, rejects it and has taken
responsibility for it as he should have better policed the work being
done under his masthead,” Benton said. He did not comment on Paul’s
business strategy. Mark Elam, a longtime Paul associate whose
company printed the newsletters, said Paul “was a busy man” at the time.
“He was in demand as a speaker; he was traveling around the country,’’
Elam said in an interview coordinated by Paul’s campaign. “I just do not
believe he was either writing or regularly editing this stuff.’’In
the past, Paul has taken responsibility for the passages because they
were published under his name. But last month, he told CNN that he was
unaware at the time of the controversial passages. “I’ve never read that
stuff. I’ve never read — I came — was probably aware of it 10 years
after it was written.’’ Paul said.







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http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ron-paul-signed-off-on-racist-newsletters-sources-say/2012/01/20/gIQAvblFVQ_story.html