Rand Paul Open Thread
There’s been a lot of news stories on Rand Paul since he won the Republican Senate primary in Kentucky on Tuesday. He’s gone from hero to zero in about 48 hours. It all started with this Rachel Maddow interview.
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In the interview he supports segregation and opposes the 1964 Civil Rights Act. It’s all downhill from there.
Use this thread to put all your Rand Paul-related items here. I’m having a hard time keeping up!
You have to be having a bad day when you make Mitch McConnell seem reasonable and moderate in comparison:
It’s gonna be fun, hope some of this slops back on Jim DeMint and the rest of the clowns who endorsed him.
Actually apparently he was even worse on NPR, but I haven’t heard the audio yet. Because of what he said to the editorial board before the primary, NPR asked him about it, and Maddow followed up. On Morning Joe this morning even Joe couldn’t defend him.
I’ve heard some of the NPR interview, it’s about the same. Give it time, theres more to come.
This morning Joe S. was trying to explain, “Rand’s not a racist”, but that he shows the absurdity of being a pure libertarian. Joe did say if Rand doesn’t walk it back by the end of the day he’s toast. Rand’s Democratic opponent was on Hardball yesterday, before Rand was on TRMS and told Chris that Rand supports abolishing the civil rights act, and Chris gave him a look like come on, and asked him ”what’s your source for that”. Chris sounded really skeptical, and he told Chris the editor board interview is on the papers website. That might be entertaining as well.
With Paul and Toomey the wingnut wing of the wingnut party are getting to test the “run to the right and win the middle” theory. It could work if the Democrats allow it to work by not articulating core Democratic values.
Here is Paul’s interview with the Louisville Courier Journal:
Here is Paul’s NPR interview (partial excerpt here, whole excerpt at link):
Not Paul news, but a funny thread at dKos about potential Paul actions to neutralize his current race issues — Nothing But WIN
LOL! Love that link, Cass! Here’s the intro:
Kicking his own ass on the Maddow Show, so true!
TPM documents the evolution of Rand Paul.
Um, it’s Friday morning, anyone know what Rand Paul’s stand is on discrimination at this moment in time?
With the way this is heading I’m leaning towards his taking the Madonna/Angelina Jolie adoption path. 🙂
“Um, it’s Friday morning, anyone know what Rand Paul’s stand is on discrimination at this moment in time?”
Yes, it’s the same as Dr. Martin Luther King jr’s stand.
FBH, you need a smiley at the end of your comment.
“Judge not by the color of skin but by quality of character”
I think that says it all nemski.
It takes more than slogans to build a country, FBH.
But… isn’t Rand’s position that it’s okay to judge by skin color, sexual orientation, etc.? That in a perfect world, when discrimination occurs, pixies riding unicorns will swoop in to save the day?
Wow, FBH is comparing Rand Paul to Martin Luther King, Jr. seriously? Please explain how Rand Paul has fought for social justice. Please explain the discrimination faced by Rand Paul.
FBH, here’s a picture of the signing of 1964 Civil Rights Act. It speaks for itself. Please stop with your insipid comparisons.
Republicans are blaming Rachel Maddow for Rand Paul’s problems, despite the fact that Rand Paul has said the very same things to NPR, the Louisville Courier-Journal and to the Bowling Green newspaper. Rand Paul says he regrets going on MSNBC. He hasn’t said anything about regretting what he actually said.
Someone needs to get Mike Castle on record on whether he supports the Republican candidate for Senate in Kentucky.
It’s fun to talk about how crazy Rand Paul is. But really, all he did is explain to America a few planks from the Libertarian platform… and America barfed.
Nonetheless, it will still take a lot more work to strip away Paul’s irrational appeal to low-info voters as a small government, tax-cutting kind of guy.
It’s getting near time for the folks at DelawareTomorrow to switch parties, saying “I didn’t leave the GOP; the GOP left me.”
Or maybe that’s a bridge too far. I guess their plan is to be the last guys standing after the teabagger-driven GOP flameout.
If the GOP crashes and burns in 2010, I bet they STILL won’t turn to their moderates for the answers.
Exactly, anon. Rand Paul put Libertarianism front and center. It would be wise to keep our focus on Libertarianism. Rand is simply the poster boy, and a very politically naive one at that.
Nutty commenter Rick nails it (almost) over at DP:
Translation:
“The first rule of Libertarianism is, you don’t talk about Libertarianism!”
His name is “Rand” – I just got it. How stupid am I.
Moderates have no answers. That is why they all lost in 06 and 08 except for a couple hangers on. Moderates never had any answers other than trying to keep power by finding out which way the wind blows today.
As for Paul, he settled this issue and as for the limited government debate, bring it on. Start by showing me which government programs failed. It is almost all of them. They have not improved life, but created more problems and cost us more for the privilege.
Rand Paul has consistently opposed discrimination and consistently said he supports Civil Rights and opposes interfering with the Civil Rights laws. That is his position. What is yours? Do you disagree?
See, I told you they were blaming MSNBC for Paul’s stupidity. Paul was ready to babble his nonsense to anyone who would listen to him.
I don’t believe government should be in the job of protecting the delicate feelings of racists.
Rand Paul’s worst enemy is an open microphone.
See, I told you they were blaming MSNBC
And don’t forget the hit job Katie Couric did on Palin.
I blame MSNBC for hitting him too hard before he REALLY said something dumb. I think he was able to catch himself and possibly save himself from further gaffetasticness.
I don’t think Paul can help himself. Here’s what he said today:
Leave BP aloooooone!
I for one appreciate Paul’s honesty. Finally we have a Republican who tells us how Republicans really feel. He is like John Boehner on truth serum. I don’t know where this truth serum came from but we need more of it.
Fortunately, Paul’s mavericky-ness will keep him from listening to wiser heads in the GOP who will tell him to STFU.
So — Rand Paul *would* vote for the Civil Rights Act if it were for BP?
Republican David, The Civilian Conservation Corps worked, bigtime.
I was talking to a man the other day who told me my towns curbstones were installed by the CCC. He used to sell them corn. That’s just one of literally hundreds of public works projects that I’ve enjoyed ( as a frequent user of public parks) that owe their usability and a lot of their beauty to a program that employed thousands who would otherwise have turned to crime or been on the dole.
Great program.
The interstate highway system is a government program and that works pretty well when I need to get to places. The highways could use some expansion in some places, but it is way easier for me to get to Baltimore via I-95 than, say, Route 1 or Route 40.
you are a socialist for liking the highway system. if only it were privatized… as well as our police force, and fire department… THEN we would be the “real” america the founders were told about by Jesus and Adam Smith!
With all the crazy crap Rand Paul has said this week, just unscientifically checking some of the major news sites, what headline do you think they are going with? that’s right:
“Rand Paul Calls Obama BP Criticism Un-American”
One topic related to Rand Paul, actually it’s more related to Ron Paul — Ron has got to be crazy to name his kid after a think tank. That’s just plain weird.
He named him after an influential writer in his philosophy. Lotta kids named Kennedy out there. 😉
TPM gives a summary of Rand Paul’s week. The latest news is that Rand Paul backed out of Meet the Press – only the 3rd guest to do so in 62 years. He cites “exhaustion.” I believe it – all that backpedaling must be tiring.