A friend writes: "Loved the article on Chris Peden. As a Houston native I've watched this guy for a while. He's as big of an opportunist as they come. That's how he went from praising Paul to attacking him in a few short months. He simply saw an opportunity to advance his own political career.

"Until his recent revamp of the website, Peden's main campaign message (other than promising more federal handouts to NASA and farmers) was to paint Ron Paul as ineffective - basically 'yes, he's a decent guy but he's so far away from the mainstream that his legislation never gets enacted.' At the same time Peden was campaigning on his own 2-year record as a Friendswood, TX City Councilman, where his only newsworthy action from his entire term was to sponsor an ordinance declaring English the official language of Friendswood. Needless to say, Peden's 'English only' ordinance failed.

"You can't invent irony like that - blast the other guy as 'ineffective' since he doesn't get enough of his bills passed in the U.S. House of Representatives, all while touting your own failed proposal that couldn't even make it out of a suburban town council meeting.

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"There's also an interesting story behind Kathy Haigler, the lady that Peden quotes all over his website. Peden has gone out of his way to make it appear like she's some sort of a constituent or representative of the 14th District. She isn't.

"Kathy actually lives in neighboring Congressional District 22, an entire county removed from Ron Paul's district. Her representative is Democrat Nick Lampson, and she is currently the campaign manager for a Republican opponent of Lampson in the CD 22 primary named Robert Talton.

"Several of the local blogs have had a lot to say about Haigler's recent meddling in the CD 14 primary, including her claim that Paul does not follow the Republican Platform. This was thoroughly dissected a few months ago on a Houston-area blog.

"Kathy has also had a personal agenda against the libertarian wing of the Republican Party for years, which explains her strong animosity to Paul (who has never represented her in Congress, be it under the current lines or the old lines before redistricting). You probably read about the Tom DeLay fiasco in 2006, when the courts prevented the Republican Party from naming a successor. The court ruling basically barred the Republican Party from putting a new nominee on the ballot after DeLay resigned, leaving them with the option of either backing Libertarian Party nominee Bob Smither or launching a certain-to-fail write-in campaign.

"In the days that followed the court ruling there was a serious discussion among Republican Party insiders about endorsing Smither if he would agree to caucus with the GOP and vote for a Republican speaker. This plan was openly advocated to party leaders by Jerry Patterson, the incumbent Republican Land Commissioner (basically the 4th highest ranking elected official in the state), as well as several lower level party officials. I went to a couple of off-the-record meetings between Smither and a couple of sympathetic members of the State Republican Executive Committee in hopes of brokering a deal. Smither was open to the plan and immediately agreed to caucus with the GOP if elected, and to cast his votes under the guidance of our very own Ron Paul.

"Then enter Kathy Haigler. She caught wind of the effort to recruit Smither, and for whatever reason - her hatred of libertarianism, her wish to be a 'player,' her own overstated sense of self-importance - she began personally working the entire State Republican Executive Committee membership list to trash Smither. She accused him of being an anti-family values social liberal (ironic because Smither is a Christian homeschooler who heads up a missing children recovery charity), she implied that he was pro-abortion (he wasn't), she accused his Republican backers (including Patterson) of deviating from the 'party platform' that she herself has apparently never read as the link above illustrates.

"But worst of all, she slandered Smither about his motivation to be in the race in a completely vile and disgusting way. She began telling people that Smither was part of a conspiracy organized by Nick Lampson and the Democrats to siphon votes away from Tom DeLay. She claimed that Lampson had an agreement with Smither to jointly attack DeLay, and that the two were secretly personal friends. Her 'evidence' of this was outright gutter politics at its worst. About 10 years ago, Smither's daughter Laura was kidnapped on the street in front of her home and murdered several days later by a psychopathic child molester. The kidnapping shook the entire Houston area and prompted a manhunt that lasted several days and brought out thousands of volunteers who combed through fields, swamps, and forests looking for her. Several local elected officials joined the effort including...Nick Lampson. This was Haigler's 'evidence' that Smither and Lamspon were 'conspiring' against the Republican Party - Lampson participated in the search effort to find his kidnapped and murdered daughter!

"Needless to say, Haigler's smear campaign against Smither worked. Smither attempted to go to the meeting of the State Republican Party where they decided on what to do about the CD 22 race. While three other candidates who offered to be 'write-ins' were permitted to address the meeting and pitch themselves, Smither was barred at the door largely at Haigler's instigation. Haigler rallied the group behind a dingbat Houston City Councilwoman named Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, whose brief congressional career as the placeholder for the last month in Tom DeLay's term was a spectacular embarrassment to the entire state of Texas (she basically showed up, got into a very public fight with DeLay's old staff, threw another public fit when Bush and Cheney didn't come to personally watch her being sworn in, and spent the month attempting to tack absurd amendments onto routine lame-duck session bills so she could claim that she 'sponsored' them).

"Anyway, that's the 'product' of Kathy Haigler's involvement in Houston politics for the last decade, and Chris Peden is her newest project. Knowing what we do about both of them, they are in good company with each other."