Readers were asked to name their choices for secretaries of State, Defense, Homeland Security, and Treasury and for attorney general. Results for the top 10 finishers for each post were displayed in the top level of a menu, with subsequent finishers visible by scrolling down the list.
{modulepos inner_text_ad}
Under the list of top winners for secretary of the Treasury, the name of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) was in fifth place. Dr. Paul finished behind former Federal Reserve Chairman and Obama economic adviser Paul A. Volcker, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Timothy F. Geithner, and Princeton economics professor Paul Krugman — but ahead of current Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, financier Warren E. Buffett, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, New Jersey Governor Jon S. Corzine, international financial speculator George Soros, former Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin, presidential candidate Ralph Nader, and Microsoft head Bill Gates.
Rep. Paul also finished in the top 10 for Secretary of Defense, taking ninth place, just behind Hillary Clinton. For the post of Secretary of State, Rep. Paul finished 11th, just behind Bill Clinton. Rep. Paul also finished in 11th place for both secretary of Homeland Security and attorney general.
The name in seventh place for secretary of Homeland Security long forgotten by most people, but significant to readers of The New American, was Anthony Lake. Lake was nominated by President Bill Clinton in 1996 to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency. When the nomination was announced, the editors of The New American already knew about Lake’s subversive background, including his longtime association with the Soviet-linked Institute for Policy Studies. Our magazine exposed Lake’s subversive past in a major article entitled "Security Risk for CIA" in the January 20, 1997 issue, and members of the John Birch Society (the magazine’s owner) spearheaded a campaign to circulate that information widely.
An op-ed by Douglas Brinkley in the February 10, 1997 New York Times attempted to salvage the Lake nomination by smearing those exposing his record, writing: "After Mr. Lake was nominated for Director of Central Intelligence, the John Birch Society and other anti-government fringe groups launched a smear campaign…. In an error-ridden article in The New American, a John Birch publication, William F. Jasper dissected Mr. Lake’s résumé and found a pattern of anti-Americanism."
As a result of The New American’s exposure of Lake, the Clinton administration was forced to scuttle his nomination.
Though Congressman Paul ranked high on all lists, his highest score, for Secretary of the Treasury, is undoubtedly a result of his reputation as a steadfast supporter of installing sound economic policies for America. In a commentary entitled "GOP should ask why U.S. is on the wrong track" posted online by CNN on November 11, Paul observed: "What the Republican leadership didn’t realize was that ALL spending is a tax on middle-class Americans through price inflation and that eventually the inevitable consequence is paying for the extravagance with a financial crisis."
During the 110th Congress, Rep. Paul introduced four bills to help restore a sound economy to our nation, including legislation to restore "competing currencies" (sound money to compete with inflation-prone fiat currency), and to abolish the Federal Reserve System.
AP Images
