Senator Rand Paul Detained By the TSA

Human Events ^ | 01/23/2012 | John Hayward

[neverdem]

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!

Senator Rand Paul was on his way from his home in Bowling Green, Kentucky to Washington, D.C. Monday morning, when he caused some kind of “anomaly” in a body scanner at the airport in Nashville. Agents of the Transportation Security Agency declared that he would have to submit to one of those legendary full-body pat-downs, but before a single rubber glove had snapped into place, Senator Paul refused. He wanted a new scan instead, but the TSA agents really had their hearts set on that pat-down.

This ended with Senator Paul parked in a cubicle while his plane took off. The TSA insists he was not “detained,” according to a CBS News report. Perhaps Paul exclaimed that he wasn’t expecting the Spanish Inquisition, and the Comfy Chair had to be dragged out.

Coincidentally – it has to be a coincidence, right? – both Rand Paul and his father, congressman and Presidential candidate Ron Paul, have been very critical of the TSA, and enhanced pat-downs in particular, as CBS News notes:

In a June 2011 hearing, Paul told TSA administrator John Pistole, "I think you ought to get rid of the random pat-downs. The American public is unhappy with them, they're unhappy with the invasiveness of them."

After reports surfaced of young children getting intense, random pat-downs, Paul said in the hearing, "It just really just shows that no one is thinking... We need to be doing better police work and doing less of the universal giving up of our freedom to live our life the way we would like to live our life."

He suggested there should be a "trusted traveler" program in which people who travel frequently and are known to be not a threat, like congressmen, don't have to be searched...

[superloser]

Rand Paul fueled the controversy himself.

I'm betting you're one of those people who thinks that having the TSA strip-search you for your own safety actually helps.

If you're that batty, try medication. Feeling safer because the Government gets to feel you up is a sure sign of insanity.

[Nickname]

I disagree with you on this. It’s his father. Nutty as some of Ron’s ideas are, I’d have lost respect for Rand had he shunned his father in his run.

[toldyou]

Rand Paul Incident Leads to Ron Paul Fundraiser..

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/01/24/rand-paul-tsa-detention-leads-to-ron-paul-fundraiser/