Ron Paul Takes Money From Hate Group

Republican candidate Ron Paul has accepted a $500 campaign donation from Don Black, founder and head of Stormfront, a white supremacist organization. A spokesman for Paul said, "If someone with small ideologies happens to contribute money to Ron, thinking he can influence Ron in any way, he's wasted his money. Ron is going to take the money and try to spread the message of freedom."

Black told the Palm Beach Post, "We know that he's not a white nationalist. He says he isn't and we believe him, but on the issues, there's only one choice."

So, do you take money from idiots because, as Ron Paul's spokesman said, "That's $500 less that this guy has to do whatever it is that he does." I wonder what Paul's rah-rah man thinks about this.

UPDATE: Here's Sullivan's take: "There are plenty of reasons to be perturbed when loons and hate-mongers support a candidacy. But this game of guilt-by-association can be played endlessly. I tend to place greater emphasis on loons and hate-mongers that candidates actively seek out. Pat Robertson is a loon and an anti-Semite and a vicious homophobe who blamed Americans for 9/11. Giuliani didn't receive some unsolicited money from him; he actually stood on a platform and embraced him. Why one standard for Paul and another for Giuliani? If Obama embraced Louis Farrakhan as a supporter, you think Goldfarb and Kirchick would be silent? They'd have a cow because it's unthinkable. But naked bigotry is more than thinkable in today's GOP: it's integral to it. What's the difference between Farrakhan and Robertson? I can't see any."