Congressman Ron Paul booted from conservative group for anti-war views

The conservative group Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) announced Saturday that Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) would be expelled from the group's National Advisory Board because of his "delusional and disturbing alliance with the fringe Anti-War movement."

"It is a sad day in American history when a one-time conservative-libertarian stalwart has fallen more out of touch with America’s needs for national security than the current feeble and appeasing administration," YAF’s Senior National Director Jordan Marks said in a statement.

"Rep. Paul's refusal to support our nation's military and national security interests border on treason, aside from his failure to uphold his oath to the United States Constitution and defend our country and citizens against all enemies, foreign and domestic," Marks continued.

According to the group's founding statement of principles, the Sharon Statement, "American foreign policy must be judged by this criterion: does it serve the just interests of the United States?"

Supporters of Ron Paul shouted down former Vice President Dick Cheney at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Thursday, in a sign of a growing foreign policy rift on the American right.

Young Americans for Freedom helped to found the CPAC 38 years ago along with other conservative organizations, such as the American Conservative Union.

Cheney had appeared on the first day of the 2011 CPAC to introduce Donald Rumsfeld, the former Bush-era defense secretary who was scheduled to receive this year's "Defender of the Constitution Award."

That didn't sit well with "Team Paul," supporters of Rep. Ron Paul who have long called for an end to the US's foreign wars.

He drew thunderous applause for bashing the Patriot Act, US aid to foreign nations, and US military bases overseas during his speech at CPAC on Friday.

"The United States is the world's leader - a beacon of light for the wretched and the oppressed," YAF National Chairman Michael Jones added. "God has blessed the United States with liberty and the strength and heart to spread that liberty to all of his children. Rep. Paul has abandoned this mission, abandoned the United States' citizens, and abandoned the citizens of the world in their quest for their God-given natural rights."

When asked about being expelled from the YAF Advisory Board, a position Rep. Paul has held for more than two decades, a spokesman for the congressman seemed less than concerned.

"I hadn't heard of YAF doing anything in years, I thought they were defunct," Ron Paul's political director Jesse Benton told Politco. "Young Americans for Liberty is the group of the future."