Just as this thing was becoming no fun, bless my soul, the last of the great ratfkers arrived. You can have your Republican pieties, because Roger Stone is here, and he is being Roger Stone all over the place. Dead-eyed and dapper, so much history in one three-button seersucker suit ("Hard to find the three-button," he says) and a thick head of hair implants the color of straw, the Nixon aide and life-long juvenile delinquent made the rounds in the Republican hall on Tuesday night. There are bullet-headed hoards here this week, walking with their chests out, who think they know something of politics, even of hardball, and I saw many of them breeze right by this man without a glance. Fools. A walking master class in the dark arts of political castration (just ask Eliot Spitzer), Stone is here this week "observing."

He is actually on a mission for former New Mexico governor and Republican presidential candidate Gary Johnson, who is now the Libertarian standard-bearer. He says that Johnson will likely be on the ballot in all fifty states, and is polling in the high single digits in enough of them to actually factor in the outcome of the election.

"Johnson is polling at 9 percent in Arizona [according to PPP], and it's all gonna come out of Romney's hide, and he's at 6 percent in Wisconsin (according to the Reason poll), which is all out of Obama's hide. I am helping Gary figure out where to put his emphasis." He points toward the convention floor. "Snubbing Ron Paul's people today, and not counting their votes, was just magical, wonderful for us," he says beaming, arms spread wide as if to say come to papa. "A bunch of people are gonna leave here very angry. To not announce Ron Paul's total from the chair is an insult. He won those delegates, he's entitled to — shall we say — be defeated gracefully. They are angry, and we are going to pick up those people."

Which is not to say that there isn't friction between the libertarians Johnson and Paul.

"I hired thirty hookers and sent them into Ron Paul's speech at the Sun Dome wearing these really skintight low-cut Gary Johnson T-shirts — they weren't hookers they were dancers, exotic dancers, pardon me. I sent them because they wouldn't let us in."

Why wouldn't Ron Paul let you into his speech?

"Because Ron would like to hand the franchise off to Rand. The Pauls are about money. They raised $47 million, and at least 5 of it was spent on the campaign. And a lot of the rest of it went into the pockets of Rand Paul family members and other hangers-on. It's a great franchise, so we're gonna try to hand the franchise to the idiot son. It's not going to work, because when this is over, I think Johnson will have greater cache.

"I ran into Governor Johnson at the Reason Christmas party in New York last year. I was pretty astounded that he was polling at the same level as Herman Cain and Rick Santorum at that juncture — around 1 to 2 percent — and yet they wouldn't admit him into the debates. It just makes no sense why CNN wouldn't even respond to him. So it was pretty amazing to me. With Ron Paul in the race, I wasn't sure if Johnson's niche was there anyway, but at least let him on the stage! He's certainly more qualified to be president than Herman "Where are the white women at?" Cain, who is a guy with no qualifications to be president.

"Johnson's an eight-year governor of New Mexico, with an extraordinarily strong record. He came in with a billion dollar deficit and he left with a million surplus. He vetoed 750 spending bills, a National Review study showed that his state was number one in job creation, he came out for the legalization of marijuana in his second term, which was very gutsy — so I liked him from afar.

"So at the Christmas party, when he was getting no traction in the Republican campaign, I said, Look, this is fruitless, you need to seek the Libertarian Party nomination. I am a volunteer, but I began working with him then.

"There's going to be dissatisfaction with Mitt Romney at the end of this convention. So there's an opportunity. I really think that in six swing states, Johnson's going to determine who wins this race. In Oregon and Colorado, where they have marijuana on the ballot, in New Mexico, quite obviously, in New Hampshire, in Nevada, in Iowa — it's enough to make all the difference. Plus, that doesn't even speak to the fact that Romney leads Obama by one point in Florida today, and Johnson's getting 2.3 percent of the vote. It's not a lot of votes, but it's enough.

"So the party's going to regret not allowing Johnson into the debates. All the national chairman had to do was pick up the phone to CNN and say, What are you doing, this guy's a reputable candidate, why isn't he being allowed? But they didn't give us the time of day. And in politics, payback's are a bitch."

FOLLOW MORE LIVE COVERAGE FROM TAMPA ALL WEEK LONG RIGHT HERE AND WITH @ESQPOLITICS ON TWITTER >>

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