Ron Paul brings in the black helicopters

Yeah, I thought of this too. The Nissan guy does have a more legit claim on the domain though, kinda, because that's like his actual name.

Assuming for the sake of argument that Ron Paul either has or could obtain a trademark on his name (not an unreasonable assumption), Section 1125(d) of Title 15 of the US code provides that:

If, as is stated upthread, the site is currently being used to flog Ron Paul gear from which the site's proprietor is profiting (in itself probably a trademark violation), Paul has a reasonable argument that the owner is violating these provisions (catchily named the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act). There are, of course, a host of factors bearing on whether the use is "bad faith" within the meaning of the statute, and probably a number of defenses. I am disinclined to give any hits to any of the people involved in this situation to further investigate the facts involved, but from what is posted here, "I has your web address and will sell it to you for $250,000" doesn't look great.

He's selling the mailing list as well not the web address.

I seriously doubt that Ron Paul has trademarked his name. His best argument would probably be cybersquatting, but IIRC you need to demonstrate that the domain holder registered the domain for the explicit purpose of selling to the relevant party, and that is clearly not the case here. This is a website that has been around for the better part of a decade, and Ron Paul hasn't said boo about it before now. On top of that, the USSC has recently ruled that it is A-okay for unaffiliated third-party organizations to promote politicians, and even collect money in their name. I'm guessing that his legal options here in the US are pretty much nil, and that's why he hasn't pursued them.

Doesn't mean he can't.

I don't read the statute to require the registration itself be in bad faith, but merely that the person have a bad faith intent to profit in connection with the registration or use of the domain.

Could also be that UDRP is a faster, cheaper, or more efficient process. Once you disappear into the federal courts, there's no telling how long things will take.