The American Nazi Party has registered its first-ever Capitol Hill lobbyist, a 55-year-old South Carolina paralegal named John Taylor Bowles. Bowles chatted with us by phone from his Greenville-area home (he will commute to D.C.) about his legislative goals, the time he ran for president, and his desire to work with Joe Lieberman.

An easygoing conversationalist with a lilting drawl, Bowles came to life when discussing Nazi ideology (small government and constitutionalism, he says) and avoided discussing specifics about Congress, despite my most ardent attempts to get him to compile a list of America's most Nazi-friendly politicians. Already sidestepping the press like a pro.

Why did you register to be America's first-ever Nazi lobbyist, representing the American Nazi Party (ANP)?

We have to practice what we preach. We tell people in this country that they need to get out there and practice their constitutional rights, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. But there's one we seldom use: the freedom to petition the government. So this is the tactic we're trying now, to start petitioning government. This is the first time anybody ever did in America it as a National Socialist. We're going to see if we can have a little bit of influence in Congress, and help them make decisions.

I've never been a lobbyist before, but I have experience in politics going back 35 years. I've run candidates for office, including Wolfgang Schrodt, who was in 1975 was the first National Socialist ever to win a primary election and enter the general election to be on the City Council of Baltimore.

And you ran for president in 2008.

And I'll tell you what, that was a tactic, too. I did that as a sincere effort to show the rest of the National Socialists and white racialists that this is something we can do, and we should have been doing this a long time ago, and it can be done.

I campaigned in uniform, and let me tell you, they were honking and shaking my hand up in South Dakota. I went down to Texas and the border, and they liked me there, too. Ron Paul took a lot of my gusto, though, and then I ran into a problem because the National Socialist Movement—that's the party I belonged to before the ANP—gave me the boot. I might be the first presidential candidate booted out of his party in the middle of an election. NSM's commander was not a very good leader. You know, he's having a scandal now, because he married a race-mixed wife of Arab descent who had a mulatto child. [Ed: Jeff Schoep, who is in the midst of a messy divorce.] His whole party's just falling apart. They guy they replaced me with, he was an FBI informant. [Ed: Brian Holland, rumored to have turned snitch due to gambling debt.]

What are your goals as a lobbyist?

It depends on the issue. Whatever is hot at the time, I'll see what is a valid issue that I can address. Immigration is always a hot topic, but I'll tell you what, the number one issue for me is ballot access laws. They're terrible. It's easier to run for President of Iran than President of the United States.

So people who have run as independents would be natural allies. What do you think of Joe Lieberman?

If Mr. Lieberman proposes something, I'll talk to him.

Even though he's Jewish?

He might like to hear some new ideas. You never know.

What other issues do you care about?

As National Socalists we believe America is headed in the wrong direction, and our leaders are too. Even Mitt Romney is on the wrong path. George Washington warned us not to get into alliances with other coutries, and now we have military bases in 70 countries. We're off of what the founding fathers wanted from this country.

So, nothing specific.

Just whatever comes up. We'll see.

[image via Wikimedia Commons]