how can you say that? ....oh, wait. :o)
Posted on 03/09/2013 1:58:38 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
They say every dog has its day, but Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has had at least a whole week. Political figures and media types from left, right, and center have all hopped aboard the Rand Paul Drone-i-buster Express, praising his 13-hour ode to Reynolds Wrap as everything from Constitutional Heroism to an Important Moment For Democracy From A Flawed Messenger. There have been a few liberal dissenters like Lawrence O’Donnell, Sen. John McCain, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and myself, but for the most part, the reaction has been universal (if heavily qualified) praise. I’m sorry, Lawrence, but I’ve changed my mind: Rand Paul is a hero.
The Rand Paul Qualified Love-In continued Saturday morning on MSNBC’s Up with Chris Hayes, as host and panel generally agreed that, despite the batcave-liner content of Paul’s 13-hour opus, the filibuster was a good thing because it got us all talking about drones. Because there was no discussion of drones before Wednesday. They also falsely agreed that Paul’s talking filibuster had extracted the answer to an “important question” from Attorney General Eric Holder, a question that Holder had already answered hours earlier.
Still, host Chris Hayes did get around to making several key points, like the fact that if all of this drone criticism is to mean anything, then Congress ought to do something about the magic beans that the program grew from, and repeal the Authorization for the Use of Military Force, or the fact that many of Rand’s fans could give a good goddamn if people get Hellfired at cafés in brown countries. In my view, these points, and Paul’s mostly-unhinged ravings, should have been the lede, and this flawed messenger garbage should have stayed in the deli case with the rest of the baloney. The four segments the show devoted to the subject are worth a gander, but the overall effect was to further enable the cult of Rand Paul, (Perhaps Flawed) Hero For Democracy.
The “flawed messenger” premise that liberals have embraced, the notion that Paul’s filibuster is inherently valuable because it “got us talking” about drones, is utter nonsense, unless we’re ready to lionize Sarah Palin’s “Death Panels” for getting us all talking about health care reform. You know who else was a flawed messenger? Hitler. But he did get us all talking about anti-Semitism.
Even so, I’ve come around to the Rand fans’ way of thinking, but not because I opportunistically agree with a tiny sliver of what he’s saying. No, I’m a Rand fan because I opportunistically agree with the way he has energized the conservative base around himself, and against Republicans who say sane things.
You see, Republicans had very little to be happy about following the last election, but one of them was that the 2012 GOP presidential field didn’t just lower the bar, it threw it into the Sarlacc Pit. Their trouncing with Hispanic voters then forcibly dragged them into the current century on immigration, and their 2016 field was looking to be somewhat almost kinda reasonable, which it needs to be in the face of the Hillary Clinton buzzsaw.
Now, with Senator Rand Paul “seriously mulling” a 2016 bid, the prospect of grassroots conservatives rallying to his side, booing Jeb Bush and Chris Christie at debates, and delivering primary victories to Rand Paul doesn’t seem so bad. That 13-hour filibuster will chop up nicely into some Hillary Clinton campaign ads. For those reasons, you can mark me down: I Stand With Rand.
how can you say that? ....oh, wait. :o)
Speaking about campaign ads “What difference does it make”.
Hillary Clinton buzzsaw? Hahaha. She got her ass handed to her by a criminal, terrorist-loving thug with no record, just like McCain and Romney. What makes Shillary so threatening? We can just chop up some ads with Stephens’ body interspersed with “What difference does it make!”
Besides, we’re heading for a cliff. Demonrats will have to run after the Obama Reich, which might be harder than when we ran after Bush.
Why does Mediaite employ clowns like this? It sounds like the kind of low-ball attack Botox Colmes would produce.
Didn’t I read somewhere that Tommy Christopher has ties to Al-Qaeda? I’m sure I did.
MEDIAITE’S CALIPHATE CHEERLEADER: The Tommy Christopher Chronicles [Updated]
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2012/11/mediaites-caliphate-cheerleader-tommy.html
So all the pResident needs now are Tommy Christopher's coordinates.
Wow! He went right for the misplaced Hitler comparison. A better comparison would be to find a politician that, like Hitler, was a big government socialist who rose to power with the backing of labor unions who served as useful tools. I wonder who, today, is like Hitler...hmmm.....
Is that Garison Keiler’s kid? Hmm, I didn’t think, with his lifestyle, that he could have children?
Elton John and Michael Jackson are/were fathers.
Hillary is done—she looks like a shrill old hag with her Rosanne Barr Glasses. The Dems need to find Fresh Blood as do the GOP—No more Clintons, no more Bushes -— new people with new ideas. Democrats! Go back to your roots! Kick out the Commie Unionists! Republicans go back to Reagan/Goldwater and find new voices. Kick out the RINOs.
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