Ron "Mr. Small Government" Paul seems to have been double-billing travel at your expense #tlot

But, like his racist newsletters, I'm sure he knew nothing -- NOTHING -- about any of this.

Roll Call identified eight flights for which the Texas Republican, a GOP presidential candidate and leading champion of smaller government, was reimbursed twice for the same trip. Roll Call also found dozens more instances of duplicate payments for travel from 1999 to 2009, totaling thousands of dollars' worth of excess payments, but the evidence in those cases is not as complete.

...Roll Call obtained copies of credit card statements for a corporate American Express card assigned to Ron Paul & Associates Inc. on which many flights were purchased. The flight details on those statements matched payment records filed to the Federal Election Commission and office expenses itemized in quarterly Congressional disbursement statements published by the Chief Administrative Officer of the House... Public records show hundreds of flight payments between 1999 and 2009 in which both the House and Paul's campaign paid for plane tickets of the same price and about the same date.

Ron Paul is a fraud. And it's a shame that most of his believers are too deluded to recognize that he's a complete sellout.

Did you know, for instance, that Paul's campaign is collaborating directly with Mitt Romney's campaign to ensure -- no, not some grand position in an ostensible Romney administration -- a speaking part at the GOP convention?

The remaining candidates in the winnowed Republican presidential field are attacking one another with abandon, each day bringing fresh headlines of accusations and outrage.

But Mitt Romney and Ron Paul haven’t laid a hand on each other... they never do.

...Romney’s aides are “quietly in touch with Ron Paul,” according to a Republican adviser who is in contact with the Romney campaign... The two campaigns have coordinated on minor things [because] Paul’s presence in the race helps keep the GOP electorate fractured...

...“Ron Paul wants a presence at the convention,” the adviser said — and Romney, if he is the nominee, would grant it.

In other words, Paul-bots, your mystical hero has been taking your money, your time, your support and blowing it all trying to get the most liberal candidate in the field nominated.

So he can get himself a speaking gig at the RNC.

You just got pwnt.


Related: 10 fun facts you may not have known about Ron Paul.