'DR. NO' MAY SAY YES TO RUN FOR WHITE HOUSE

Affable and unassuming, Republican Rep. Ron Paul of Texas steps into
a crowded Holiday Inn lobby packed with libertarian activists. They
all know him by name. "I haven't seen you in two years," bellows Dick
Marple, a former Republican state representative who leans over a
vending table and plants a New Hampshire pin on the congressman's tie.

Minutes later Paul receives a standing ovation following an anti-war
speech that blisters President Bush, the Republican Party and Democrats.

"It's another no-win war where Americans are dying needlessly," the
Lake Jackson congressman told the New Hampshire Liberty Forum.

Paul, 71, is weighing his second run at the presidency.

He was the Libertarian Party candidate in 1988. This time he's
running as a Republican, although he concedes he's a long-shot.

He tells audiences some candidates will raise $100 million for the
campaign. Still, he said, he's running to win, on a platform to limit
government and maximize personal freedom.

"It's worth the fight, as far as I'm concerned," Paul said.

Libertarian support

So far he has been embraced enthusiastically by Freedom Movement
libertarians. "He has represented libertarian values throughout his
political career," said Irena Goddard, director of the New Hampshire
Liberty Forum.

Michael Badnarik of Austin, the 2004 Libertarian presidential
nominee, went so far as to endorse a Paul candidacy for the
Republican nomination, and is urging his party to nominate the Texas
congressman as its nominee, too.

Paul, who announced formation of a presidential exploratory committee
in January, is targeting four states -- Iowa, New Hampshire, Arizona
and South Carolina -- to determine whether enough support exists to
run for the GOP nomination. He said a final decision still is several
weeks away.

But his doomsday message of impending U.S. economic collapse, federal
government encroachment on civil liberties and opposition to the war
in Iraq sets him apart from traditional GOP candidates.

Last weekend, in his first trip to New Hampshire, he spoke to
gatherings large and small, repeating his mantra of limited
government and personal freedom in the post-9-11 era.

"I don't feel that much safer in the airport," Paul told a taxpayer's
group. "I feel harassed."

But even in libertarian circles, Paul has detractors.

"Ron Paul is a Republican. Ron Paul is lending credence to a party
that is anti-libertarian," said George Phillies of Massachusetts, who
is seeking the Libertarian Party's presidential nomination.

What's worse, Phillies said, Paul is siphoning off campaign funds
that are critical to the Libertarian Party's nominee.

Paul raised $1.5 million for his 2006 congressional re-election race,
and 97 percent of the contributions came from individuals, the
majority of whom live outside his Coastal Bend district in Texas,
according to Federal Election Commission reports.

Much more will be needed to launch a credible national campaign, says
Paul, who is little known outside Texas.

In a CNN/WMUR presidential poll conducted in January, Paul had the
support of 1 percent of Republicans in New Hampshire.

Nationally, he's a minor candidate, said Larry Sabato at the
University of Virginia Center for Politics, albeit one with a
measurable constituency like Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., who's
running on a border security platform.

The reality is that neither is "bloody likely to be the Republican
nominee for president," Sabato said, but the few percentage points
each might receive could "make a difference in a very close race
among the top contenders."

Paul's decision to run as a Republican, rather than Libertarian, was
pragmatic. A third-party candidacy would limit his exposure in the
media, debates and other candidate events, he said.

Elected as a Republican to Congress in the late 1970s, Paul served
until 1984, when he launched a Senate bid in the Texas GOP primary
against then-Rep. Phil Gramm.

In 1988, Paul ran for president as a Libertarian and received .05
percent of the vote.

He was elected to Congress again in 1996, defeating Rep. Greg
Laughlin, a Democrat who switched parties, in the Republican primary.

Maverick Republican

This time, Paul brought his libertarian agenda with him to the House
of Representatives. Derided by his GOP colleagues as "Dr. No," Paul
has consistently voted against spending bills and routinely breaks
with Republican leaders on social issues.

He's harshly critical of Bush and Republican leaders for straying
from the party's values, and allowing Democrats to regain control of
the House and Senate for the first time in 12 years.

"We became the party of big government," Paul said. "We became like
Democrats, the party of entitlements, deficits."

Paul has never relented on his principles, voting religiously against
farm subsidies despite the agricultural leanings of his congressional
district, which stretches from Port Aransas to Galveston and is home
to Texas' $120 million rice industry.

He was re-elected in 2006 with 60 percent of the vote.

"Deep down in their hearts they know subsidies are not good," Paul
said of his constituents. "I emphasize things we agree on. I think
they should sell rice to Cuba. A lot of conservatives don't."

Paul, who had $221,225 left over from his 2006 congressional campaign
at the end of the year, has begun raising funds through his
exploratory committee, aided by Internet Web sites and libertarian bloggers.

His anti-war stance is fueling support.

Paul voted against congressional authorization for Bush to invade
Iraq, and remains a vocal critic of the president's handling of the war.

He is one of 17 Republicans who backed a Democratic resolution last
month opposing Bush's proposed troop surge.

In his stump speech, Paul calls for an end to the drug war; rails
against the Patriot Act; seeks elimination of the Education
Department; and proposes a return to the gold standard.

He also supports medical marijuana.

An Air Force veteran and medical doctor, Paul trained at Kelly AFB in
1964 and moonlighted as an emergency room doctor at what then was
called Santa Rosa Hospital.

He delivered 4,000 babies in his career and is staunchly
anti-abortion -- the one issue where he differs from most
rank-and-file libertarians.

Paul extols personal responsibility and disdains dependency on
government programs, like Social Security and Medicare.

It's not the feel-good message employed by other campaigns, but more
of a spoonful of castor oil for an ailing child.

"If you don't like the government spying on you, telling you what you
can read and what you can do on the Internet, and this invasion of
your privacy and looking at your library cards and arresting you
without search warrants and going into your houses and holding you
without habeas corpus," Paul asks. "How is that gloomy?"