The "open secret," as Reason puts it, is pretty much out: Bob Barr is going to announce his candidacy for president in Kansas City this weekend.

There is no truth, however, at least according to Reason associate editor David Weigel, to the rumor proffered earlier this week by the New Republic's lead left-neocon Ron Paul-hater that Barr will run not as a Libertarian, but as an Independent. 

Also, the conventional guesswork at this point, apparently, is that the GOP Texas Congressman will not actually endorse Barr (at least for now), per some earlier speculation, but will merely "wish Bob the best," according to one of Paul's campaign flak.  

At any rate, Republicans are taking notice of this Barr business and they're not untroubled. The conservative Washington Times reported yesterday that one of the most popular stories on their website was an examination of how a Bob Barr campaign for president might affect Republican John McCain's quest to invade the White House.

"Barr obviously is dangerous. At least he negates any possible Nader benefit," said David Norcross, a New Jersey member of the Republican National Committee and its Rules Committee chairman, arguing Mr. Barr would hurt Republicans at least as much as Ralph Nader, who has announced his own independent presidential bid, would hurt Democrats.

Republican campaign pros said a Barr bid could range from causing them some damage all the way to being the equivalent of Ross Perot's 1992 presidential bid, which many Republicans think split their party's voters, unseating then-President Bush and electing Democrat Bill Clinton.

Moreover, what those GOP apparatchiks are forgetting to mention is that the final tally on Ross Perot's uneven 1992 effort — in which he received 19,741,065 votes, or roughly 19 percent, more than half George H.W. Bush's 37 percent — came after he famously flaked out and took a powder at the height of his popularity in midsummer following the Democratic Party Convention. Had Perot kept his peculiar populist act together, he might have deadlocked the Electoral College and sent the contest into the U.S. House of Representatives, where anything could have happened.