“After the primary, I really wanted to jump right into the national debate,” he says. His civil-rights remarks, he admits, “have made doing that a little more difficult.” However, “No one [in the GOP] is forcing me to do anything. I do exactly what I want, but I am also realistic about what it takes to run a campaign and get elected.” For instance, instead of calling for the elimination of many federal departments — as his father, Ron Paul, the libertarian Republican congressman and former presidential candidate, regularly does — Paul says he is trying to “nibble around the edges,” to “not be the person who says he will eliminate every department in the federal government. My dad freely will say that, that he would eliminate at least half of the departments, but he is just more forthright.”"just more forthright"! Basically this is an admission that he's become cagey for electoral purposes. Huzzah for meta-candor.
[..] These are the sort of questions that Paul needs to be asked now, because the issue is not "area politician believes kooky but harmless thing." It's "area politician espouses extremist philosophy on issue he will be voting on constantly."I'll take these one by one:
Can the federal government set the private sector's minimum wage?Depending on your interpretation of the commerce clause, it may be able to. But it certainly should never do so.
Can it tell private businesses not to hire illegal immigrants?Probably. But due to immigration laws that have been far too restrictive for far too long, we should offer most illegals amnesty at this point. However Rand Paul does not support an amnesty (yet?), so I'm speaking for myself here.
Can it tell oil companies what safety systems to build into an offshore drilling platform?Assuming the offshore platform is within the country's territorial waters, yes.
Can it tell toy companies to test for lead?I don't think it should, and I especially don't think it should be able to require them to do so expensively as per the awful bill Mattel has lobbied for that is going to put an extraordinary number of small toy companies out of business.
Can it tell liquor stores not to sell to minors?I don't think the federal government has any jurisdiction here; this is a state and local matter.
TNC admires Maddow's interviewing chops:You know, Jon Stewart's been offering that glimpse for awhile now.
It's also, in my view, the answer to the cable news dilemma. Instead of going to FNC propaganda route, or the CNN fake "neutrality" route, you have a host who has a point of view but is open to other points of view, and can keep his or her cool under fire. Yesterday was a good day for cable news in that respect. Maddow offered a glimpse of a more useful future.That interview would have gone a lot better for Rand Paul if Maddow had have just thrown her notes in the air and accused him of being a bigot, and a covert member of the Klan. That's what they want. And I don't simply mean conservatives--I mean people you disagree with. I know I've won a debate when my adversary says, "What the fuck type of name is Ta-Nuh-hah-see, anyway?" It translates to "I've got nothing." Much scarier is the opponent who takes your argument, with whatever nuances it may or may not possess, and politely disagrees with the argument as it is.
I try to do this in writing, with some success. Much more difficult, for me, is to do it in person. I'm always impressed by broadcast journalists who can, without getting angry, grab the point of contention and drive at it in a manner that is as civil as it is relentless. This is the art of killing softy, of quietly twisting the knife.
Democrats now project to hold an average of 54.0 seats when the Senate convenes in January, 2011, according to our latest forecast, and Republicans 46.0. This reflects a roughly one-seat improvement for Republicans since our previous forecast [2 weeks ago].I'm following the Kentucky race most closely. Today Grayson, Rand Paul's primary opponent, won the coveted Dick Cheney endorsement, aka the neocon-rightist establishment's stamp of approval.
Odds Rand Paul wins primary: 75%
If victorious in primary, Paul wins general: 80%
Combined odds, broken down:
Paul elected: 57%
Grayson elected: 21%
A Democrat elected: 22%
KY SEN, Ron Paul's son, Dr. Rand Paul (yes, named after Ayn) is now leading...or slightly leading... in the Republican primary (incumbent Sen. Jim Bunning is retiring). The GOP establishment chose Secretary of State Trey Grayson, but Paul has pushed hard on his party's dissatisfaction with GOP leaders. (There's a bit of Mitch McConnell fatigue in his home state.) Paul is ostensibly a libertarian, but he's getting support from all the conservative establishment interest groups, including the taxpayers union he once headed. For TV producers, the Paul pa-son angle is irresistible. And the "audit the Fed" message resonates beyond the confines of the ReLOVEution. Also funky: one of those campaign-aides-posts-something-racist-and-has-to-resign angles. Grayson, again, is running a conventional NRSC campaign against Washington (jobs, Democrats, D.C.); Paul is running against Grayson as an embodiment of Washington. The primary is May 18.
Over at the blog In the Agora, Joshua Claybourn notes that libertarian (and Ron Paul offspring) Rand Paul has taken an early polling lead for the Republican nomination to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.). Paul has already raised far more money than his opponent, Kentucky's GOP establishment-backed Secretary of State Trey Grayson. But Paul has also been able to convert dollars into poll points. He has jumped 14 points in the last three months.
Claybourn, an attorney and writer just across the Ohio River in Evansville, Indiana observes:
Rand Paul is a strong states’ rights advocate who wants the federal government out of people’s lives. He opposes federal drug laws and says the U.S. government should not outlaw gay marriage because only churches should be in the marriage business. He is skeptical of foreign interventionism and doggedly Constitutional about any engagement. But more than anything he likes talking about fiscal issues and the need to scale back government intrusion in economics and reform the nation’s fiscal policies...All of which would explain why the national GOP is trying like hell to make sure he doesn't get the nomination.
Libertarian intrusions into Republican primaries are nothing new. But what separates Rand Paul from most other libertarian candidates (including his father) is that Rand is not a novelty act. He is a known commodity as a long-time practicing ophthalmologist in western Kentucky. Along with tremendous intellectual heft, Rand is a polished public speaker with a professional presence. In short, he is an ideal candidate for the libertarian cause.
Sen. Jim Bunning, the Senate Banking Committee member who has castigated Federal Reserve chairmen for years, won’t be around after next year. The Kentucky Republican said today he won’t run for reelection in 2010 because he can’t raise enough money. Our friends at WashWire have the details.The Post:
Mr. Bunning was the only committee member to vote against Ben Bernanke’s confirmation as Fed chairman almost four years ago. It wasn’t personal: He also was the lone vote against Alan Greenspan’s confirmation for his final term leading the central bank. The former Major League Baseball pitcher, inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1996, could always be counted on to spend his seven minutes at a hearing attacking the Fed for its monetary policy, its bailouts and just about everything else it did.
He’ll still be around for a year and a half to attack the central bank. And among the GOP candidates for the Bunning seat: Rand Paul, the son of Texas Rep. Ron Paul, whose anti-Fed sentiment is gaining traction among lawmakers. (Imagine what the father-and-son team could do from both sides of Capitol Hill.)
On the Democratic side, state Attorney General Jack Conway's $1.3 million haul over the last three months established him as the frontrunner against Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo in next year's primary.Cathy Bailey doesn't seem to have a website yet, though the cathybailey.org domain has been registered. Trey Grayson's blog is here, and Rand's is here.
"Democrats will be will be targeting this seat whether we are running against Ernie Fletcher acolyte Trey Grayson, Ron Paul's son Rand, or George Bush fundraising Ranger Cathy Bailey," promised Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee communications director Eric Schultz
A Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group (D) poll; conducted 5/12-13 for '04 nominee/LG Dan Mongiardo (D); surveyed 336 Dem RVs; margin of error +/- 5.3% (McArdle, Roll Call, 5/28).But that could just be initial name recognition; with a year to go before the primary, these numbers don't mean much.
Tested: Mongiardo and AG Jack Conway (D).
Primary Election Matchup
D. Mongiardo 43%
J. Conway 28
Undec 29
Disappointed soldiers in the Ron Paul Revolution, take heart. Your leader may have been defeated in '08, but He was not vanquished. For He hath given unto you a Son to continue His work.(Heh, I used star wars)
And He shall be called Rand Paul. And He shall run for U.S. Senate in Kentucky. And He shall have gloriously curly locks of salt-and-pepper hair that shall drip with the oil that shall fuel a libertarian uprising!
Dr. Ron Paul's son, Dr. Rand Paul, 46, may run for Senate in Kentucky...Yoda voice: Sigh. Told you, I did. Senior citizen is he. Now matters are worse.
Obi-Wan: That geezer was our last hope.
Yoda: No. There is another.
Political Browser | washington
