While the nation's two major political parties bicker over name-calling, a collection of smaller third-parties came together Wednesday in a so-called unity event that, in the end, only produced yet more bickering.

Supporters of Texas Rep. Ron Paul, a conservative who made a run for the Republican presidential nomination, were fuming Wednesday over what they said was a last-minute decision by Libertarian Party candidate Bob Barr to skip a press briefing with three other long-shot candidates designed to challenge the election dominance of Democrats and Republicans.

Mr. Barr, at his own solo news conference an hour later, said he passed on the group effort for fear it would "dilute" his candidacy and reduce his party's influence after the November election.

The four candidates — including independent consumer activist Ralph Nader, Green Party nominee; Cynthia McKinney, a former Democrats congresswoman from Georgia, and Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party — were supposed to endorse a quartet of principles drafted by Mr. Paul on issues ranging from ending the war in Iraq and cutting the national debt to reforming the Federal Reserve System.

"By coming together, we represent a majority of the American people. We deserve to be heard. We deserve to be in the [presidential] debates," Mr. Paul said.

Mr. Barr said he did not oppose the Paul statement of principles, but said he was trying to maximize his party's vote count in November and its clout with the new administration. He noted that the platform of Reform Party nominee H. Ross Perot helped shape the debates on welfare reform and federal spending after he won nearly a fifth of the vote in the 1992 presidential election.

"We can endorse these principles, but we also think it is important not to dilute our message. The goal is to amass as large a percentage of votes as possible to affect policy. You can't do that by a collection of amorphous groups," Mr. Barr said.

Despite the blackout by third-party media outlets sympathetic to and/or controlled by the Barr campaign, there is a serious effort under way to remove Bob Barr as the Libertarian Party’s presidential nominee. In order for the issue to be taken to a vote among LNC members, only one rep need make the motion and another second it. The motion has been written, and at least one LNC rep has expressed a willingness to make it. Below is the text of the motion.

REMOVAL MOTION

WHEREAS, Article 12, Section 5 of the Libertarian Party’s bylaws provide for the suspension of the party’s presidential candidate by the Libertarian National Committee; and

WHEREAS, said bylaws provision requires a 3/4 vote of this body;
BE IT KNOWN that Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party’s 2008 presidential nominee, is hereby suspended on the basis of the following causes:

- Failure to appear, with little or no notice, at a major media event to which he had been invited and to which he had committed to appear;

- Vicious public attacks by his campaign staff on the character and reputation of the event’s host (1988 Libertarian Party presidential nominee Ron Paul) and sponsor (Campaign For Liberty);

- The disrepute and discredit which the aforementioned misbehaviors have brought upon the Libertarian Party.

The committee advises Barr that he has seven (7) days to appeal this action to the party’s Judicial Committee. Absent a successful appeal, his nomination will be deemed null and void and he will be replaced as the party’s presidential nominee.

“The Election Code of the state of Texas imposes requirements on a political party, which must be met if its candidates for president and vice presidents are to appear on the general-election ballot,” Verney said in a letter to the Texas Secretary of State’s office. “The Democratic party and Mr. Obama, and the Republican party and Mr. McCain, blatantly ignored the Texas statutory deadline.”

Exceptions should not be made for major-party candidates, Verney said.

“The Texas Supreme Court was emphatic when it stated that the law ‘does not allow political parties or candidates to ignore statutory deadlines,’” Verney said. “Sens. Obama and McCain did not file by the deadline, therefore, Texas should abide by the laws it created. No political party or candidate is above the law.”

Obama and VP candidate Joe Biden filed Aug. 27, Verney said. McCain filed on Aug. 26 but did not name his vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, until another filing on Aug. 29, he said.

Verney supplied letters to the secretary of state’s office from Boyd Richie, Texas Democratic Party chairman and Tina Benkiser, Texas Republican Party chairwoman about the filings.

Neither political party seems overly worried about the matter.

“Attorneys for the Texas Democratic Party have talked to the secretary of state’s office, and they’ve informed us that we did everything in a timely manner,” said Hector Nieto spokesman for the Texas Democratic Party.

The state Republican Pparty agreed.

“With all due respect to them, that’s flat-out wrong,” said Hans Klingler, director of communication and political operations for the Texas Republican Party. “According to the secretary of state we were in good stead when we filed.”

Unfortunately for Barr, the secretary of state’s office agrees with Nieto and Klingler.

“Both parties did file before the deadline and then submitted amended filings afterwards,” said Ashley Burton, spokeswoman with the secretary of state’s office. “Our office believes case law supports them and that between [the original] and amended filings they are OK.”

Serious legal consequences will occur if Texas allows McCain and Obama to remain on the ballot, Verney said. With that occurrence all but certain, Barr’s campaign is investigating what their next step will be, said Andrew Davis, Barr campaign deputy press secretary.