Mark Skousen joins the rest of the pack in lauding regime mouthpiece Tim Russert as a hero of tough and independent journalism. (I feel as if it’s 1968, and the editor of Pravda has just died. All the expected encomiums arrive on schedule.) Mark, an advocate of the revenue-neutral flat tax, can’t resist a slam at Ron Paul for wanting to end the income tax. Ron’s son, Rand–also a physician–sends me this response to Skousen:

“Mark, Regarding Ron Paul’s proposal to eliminate the income tax. Ron Paul stated throughout the campaign that ending the income tax would eliminate about a third of revenue, which could be done if we did the ‘unthinkable’ and adopt the same budget we had in 1997!

“With tax receipts down because of the recession, our deficit this year will exceed $600 billion and may approach $750 billion. The world financial markets are fleeing the dollar because we show no signs of changing our ways. Ron Paul is the first candidate to seriously talk about reducing the size and scope of government in our lifetime and deserves more credit from Human Events.

“With regard to Russert’s interview, Russert was so consumed by gotcha journalism that he wasted time arguing the Civil War with Ron Paul, a subject he has never made a speech on, and never asked one question about the Iraq War. Ron Paul’s fame came largely because he was one of a handful of Republicans to oppose the war. Failing to ask about the Iraq War showed that Russert’s agenda was more important than the issues of the day.

“Was Russert a great interviewer? Sometimes. But in the case of Ron Paul he missed out on covering the current war to play ‘gotcha’ games about the civil war.”