Libertarian Bob Barr Says GOP Is Played Out

Libertarian Presidential candidate Bob Barr said that the Republican Party has utterly failed to present a "new program, new leadership or vision." "What's wrong with John McCain is symptomatic of what's wrong with the Republican Party in these first years of the 21st century," Barr said: "They talk one thing but do something different, and that's become very obvious to the American people." Barr said that he tends to agree with Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on issues of civil liberties, while he tends to agree with McCain, a senator from Arizona, on issues of government spending and taxation. "Neither of these candidates is talking about the deep cuts in government spending and returning power to the people that we are," Barr said.Asked whether his presidential bid might cost McCain needed votes in the fall, Barr said that McCain has lost his way, in particular through his support of the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program, which Barr said "would provide the authority for the federal government to surveil American citizens in their own country." "This is a fundamental issue that goes to the very nature and power of our government, but nobody's really talking about it," Barr said. Barr was asked about his own positions as a congressman, when he voted for many of the measures and policies he now seems to oppose. He said he regretted voting for the Patriot Act. He saw his vote in favor of codifying marriage as between man and a woman as a proper exercise in returning the question to states. "That's a very conservative principle reflecting the fundamental notion of states' rights in our country," he said.