No Rons Allowed

According to Jennifer Meyer of the Muscatine Journal, Ron Paul has been asked not to show up at an candidate forum in Iowa next week.

[Paul Campaign chairman Kent] Snyder said Paul's campaign manager Lew Moore contacted Iowans for Tax Relief's executive vice president, Ed Failor Jr. of Muscatine, on Tuesday to see whether the campaign had misplaced or overlooked an invitation.

"To our shock, Mr. Failor told us Dr. Paul was not invited; he was not going to be invited; and he would not be allowed to participate. And when asked why, Mr. Failor refused to explain. The call ended," Snyder wrote in a post on Paul's campaign Web site.

Snyder and Failor appeared on Jan Mickelson's WHO News Radio 1040 show to hash out the issue: Failor claims that Paul didn't meet the group's standards for inclusion ("a line based on credibility"), then, explaining how Tom Tancredo and Duncan Hunter did, lashes out at "the behavior of people with fringe-type behavior" who want Paul in the debate. Failor claims he's being harassed at home: "Go look at Congressman Paul's website where they encourage the behavior!" [mp3 link]

I called Failor and haven't heard back yet, but the tape from Mickelson's show doesn't leave much mystery as to his views: He compares Paul to fringe candidates John Cox and Mark Klein, neither of whom has ever been elected to anything.