Kevin Barrett: Someone Else's Billy Goat

My old friend, AFSCME union leader, Dode Lowe, used to have an appropriate saying for the occasional loose cannon among his members.  When confronted with a questionable individual that the union was forced to defend, Dode used to say, "He may be a billy goat, but he is our billy goat."

Those of us who defended the University of Wisconsin from narrow minded assaults this past year, often had Kevin Barrett held up to us as an example of a misguided teacher who was a waste of taxpayers' money. This is the Barrett who doubts that the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center was the work of foreign terrorists, but offers suggestions that perhaps domestic operatives were responsible for the attack.

Barrett is now running for Congress, as a Libertarian in Wisconsin's Third Congressional District.  As John Nichols notes in The Capital Times column on Friday:

Barrett will shake up District 3 race

...Barrett, a convert to Islam who has argued for a number of years that the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon "had nothing to do with Islam" and that "the war on terror is as phony as the latest Osama bin Laden tape."

...A Republican legislator, Whitewater state Rep. Steve Nass, condemned the university for a man critics describe as "a conspiracy nut."

...A 10-day review by UW Provost Patrick Farrell of Barrett's teaching record and his plans for the introductory class determined that Barrett would fairly represent a variety of viewpoints in his course -- and was thus fit to teach.

Those of us who believe that professors should be left alone to teach as long as they are open and fair, will continue to defend his right to espouse his bizarre world view.

On the other hand, now that Barrett has solidly aligned himself with the Libertarian Party, it gives me great comfort that everyone knows he is someone else's billy goat. It was last year that I repudiated Barrett and Ward Churchill as not being part of the political left.

The Libertarians and the conservatives can have him.

So there.

Comments

[Henry Hyde]

Kevin Barret does not make national or international policy, so why should you have to defend him? He is just teaching a particular point of view. If you disagree with him or Churchill, don't purchase their books or attend their lectures, but they are entitled to their point of view, as you are to yours, and because they do not agree with your liberal perspective you condemned them. I am sure that people said the same things about you when you ran for mayor - a radical member of the bomb throwing SDS like your colleague Ayers in Chicago who is now being condemned by the right.

[henry dubb]

Exactly, I have never understood this fetish among liberals. Like when Gen. Petrayus was called Betray us by move on. Congress had to make some proclamation that they did not agree with the comment. As if Moveon had any legitimacy, there last and only victory was ten years ago with Clinton's impeachment trial.

While I disagree with his theory - Bush couldn't of pulled it off if he tried - I would support him. A vote for any third party is better than the duopoly.

[jim guilfoil]

I prefer Scapegoat to poor Billy...Some of what Barrett published made sense, some didn't!
But he proved a useful tool for those who used him to further their ideologies.
The game of scapegoating will bring the chickens home to roost, and give the pols an excuse to witchhunt for votes and popularity.
Ward Churchill, Jeremiah Wright, Kevin Barrett...pretty good bunch of goats.

[Brian]

Your repudiation of Churchill wasn't much of a repudiation. In fact, you based on it nothing.
But that's okay because there is no basis for repudiating him.

Just to note for the commenters, Barrett hasn't taught at UW since his one-semester contract expired a year and a half ago--funny, no one wants to hire him anymore! He probably decided to run for Congress because his occasional zany, anti-Semitic, One World Government letters to Isthmus weren't getting him any more street cred.

It seems to have worked, too, now that John Nichols is fawning all over him again.

[James Wigderson]

"I am sure that people said the same things about you when you ran for mayor - a radical member of the bomb throwing SDS like your colleague Ayers in Chicago who is now being condemned by the right."

Actually, we still say those things about Paul.

[Rolf Lindgren]

No wonder the anti-war can't gain much traction, they always fight among themselves and attack those doing the most good work.

Fact is, as long as half the country still believes Bush's BS about 9/11, the war on terror will continue.

There might even be another "event" in time for McCain to get elected.