Oh, dear. It appears that Crazy Uncle Liberty (!) -- and, maybe, his son, rising GOP star Senator Aqua Buddha -- have been running with the wrong crowd again.

More importantly, the private emails of American TP webmaster Jamie Kelso were also exposed and published by the hackers detailing his attempts to cross-pollinate larger support for GOP presidential candidate Ron Paulwith the marginalized American TP.

OK, so we all knew there were some dingy types trying to attach themselves to the Ron Paul Revolution (!) They popped up at the rallies all the time. But, wait, these weren't just goose-stepping hangers-on?

"In addition to finding the usual racist rants and interactions with other white power groups, we also found a disturbingly high amount of members who are also involved in campaigning for Ron Paul," the statement from Anonymous reads. "According to these messages, Ron Paul has regularly met with many A3P members, even engaging in conference calls with their board of directors."

Ruh-roh, Crazy Uncle.

The amorphous Internet group's actions are currently capturing international headlines, but meetings with Paul was something the American TP webmaster bragged about on his January 11th, 2012internet podcastshow. "On August 11th, 2007, the current Chairman of the American Third Position William Johnson and I met Ron Paul for the first time in Ames, Iowa at the Iowa straw poll," he said. After mentioning his initial encounter, Kelso goes on to gab about the number of cities he's seen his political idol at since then, including the November 5th, 2011 Fargo, North Dakota date alluded to in the exposed email and noted by the host on his show as the "most recent."

Maybe this Kelso character's just a fan.

Maybe not.

The exposed emails bring that public display of distancing between the two into question as Kelso speaks of a private continuation of the relationship. "I didn't buy a return ticket yet, because I'm going to go to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) with Bill Johnson the following weekend. So I'll be scouting out a ride from Charlotte to Wash. DC on one of the intervening days," he writes in a dated January 2011 exchange. "CPAC is Feb. 10-12 (T/F/Sat). Bill and I will be meeting with Ron and Rand Paul. I'm in a teleconference call with Bill (and Ron Paul) tonight. Much more later. Things are starting to happen (thanks to folks like you)." A follow-up email by Kelso the very next day mentions that he was, indeed, able to speak by phone with the Congressman.

The Pauls are figures of the American radical fringe. The old man played footsie with people like this for years, and his old newsletters showed that plainly for all the world to see. The kid is just gussied up a little better and even more talented at playing hysterical liberals like $10 violins. This is their real constituency, right here. This is the audience to which they play.

UPDATE -- It has been pointed out that the above link is a bit old. That's my bad. But I didn't know about it, and it's still a bit creepy.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io