Harry Hope
2010-05-30 17:20:29 UTC
http://www.thepilot.com/news/2010/may/30/rand-pauls-foot-in-mouth-disease/
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Rand Paul's Foot-in-Mouth Disease
By Dusty Rhoades -
Following a Familiar Pattern
Rand Paul's Foot-in-Mouth Disease
On May 18, Rand Paul stunned the Republican establishment in the
Kentucky senatorial primary by smashing Trey Grayson, the hand-picked
choice of Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
He was roundly cheered by the tea party activists, whose banner he
waves whenever he gets the chance.
Then he immediately came down with an epic case of foot-in-mouth
disease.
When Robert Siegel of National Public Radio discussed Paul's
criticisms of the Americans with Disabilities Act (which Paul sees as
an infringement on the rights of businesses), Siegel asked if the same
criticism would apply to the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
You know - the one that says you can't have "Whites Only" restaurants
and drinking fountains.
Now, most of us had regarded that sort of thing as pretty well-settled
law.
But on Planet Paul, no battle, no matter how ancient or ill-conceived,
is ever really over.
When Siegel asked if the CRA and the ADA were "just overreaches" by
the federal government, Rand replied "Right."
Paul had also insisted in a recent interview with The Louisville
Courier-Journal that the right to refuse service to people on the
basis of race was a right protected by the First Amendment.
See, on Planet Paul, it was the people being set upon by police dogs
and blasted by firehoses while demanding basic human dignity who were
the real oppressors.
By the end of the week, Paul was reduced to earnestly insisting that
he really wasn't going to try to get the Civil Rights Act repealed.
Well, that's a relief.
Not to be deterred by that controversy, Paul then went on to take up
the cause of another oppressed minority:
British Petroleum.
You know - the people whose oil spill is killing the entire Gulf of
Mexico.
Criticism of BP, and of business in general, Paul said, was "really
un-American."
We shouldn't be playing the "blame game," Paul said, because
"sometimes accidents happen."
For good measure, he included the recent Kentucky mine disaster as one
of those things that "just happen," with no one accountable, certainly
not the company that owned the mine.
This should be a real comfort to the people of the Gulf Coast, not to
mention the families of the dead miners and oil rig workers.
See, that's the problem with the whole right-wing agenda.
You come to the party for the low taxes and limited government, but
then you realize that the deal also includes the government just
shrugging and looking the other way if a company discriminates against
you, kills or maims you, poisons your air or water, or destroys your
livelihood. It's nothing personal, it's just business.
Paul also has another congenital defect of the tea partiers:
He's against Big Government, unless Big Government puts money in his
personal pocket.
According to The Wall street Journal, Paul wants to slash government
spending - but not Medicare payments to physicians.
The fact that Paul himself is a physician (he's an ophthalmologist who
says 50 percent of his patients are on Medicare) is, I'm sure, pure
coincidence.
The firestorm finally grew to be too hot for Paul.
He canceled an appearance on "Meet the Press," and now he's singing
the old familiar tune about how the liberal media have it in for him.
Now, it's entirely possible that Rand Paul will not blow his lead and
that he can win this one.
We are, after all, talking about a state whose state song contained
lyrics about "darkies" until 1986.
But if he doesn't win, there's always another career path he can
follow, a path which I like to call "the Palin Track."
On the Palin Track, you turn possible victory into crushing defeat for
your party by saying one nutty thing after another, get roundly mocked
along the way, then go on the lecture circuit, taking a hundred grand
an appearance to tell everyone it was a liberal media conspiracy that
did you in.
Like Sarah Palin, it looks like Rand Paul is going to be another one
of those gifts that just keep on giving.
And that was just his first week.
What's next?
Will Rand Paul compare the government's lawsuit against Goldman Sachs
to the Holocaust?
Will he start arguing in favor of secession?
Well, we live in hope.
__________________________________________________
Poor Rand...folks just don't seem to understand him.
Harry
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Rand Paul's Foot-in-Mouth Disease
By Dusty Rhoades -
Following a Familiar Pattern
Rand Paul's Foot-in-Mouth Disease
On May 18, Rand Paul stunned the Republican establishment in the
Kentucky senatorial primary by smashing Trey Grayson, the hand-picked
choice of Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
He was roundly cheered by the tea party activists, whose banner he
waves whenever he gets the chance.
Then he immediately came down with an epic case of foot-in-mouth
disease.
When Robert Siegel of National Public Radio discussed Paul's
criticisms of the Americans with Disabilities Act (which Paul sees as
an infringement on the rights of businesses), Siegel asked if the same
criticism would apply to the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
You know - the one that says you can't have "Whites Only" restaurants
and drinking fountains.
Now, most of us had regarded that sort of thing as pretty well-settled
law.
But on Planet Paul, no battle, no matter how ancient or ill-conceived,
is ever really over.
When Siegel asked if the CRA and the ADA were "just overreaches" by
the federal government, Rand replied "Right."
Paul had also insisted in a recent interview with The Louisville
Courier-Journal that the right to refuse service to people on the
basis of race was a right protected by the First Amendment.
See, on Planet Paul, it was the people being set upon by police dogs
and blasted by firehoses while demanding basic human dignity who were
the real oppressors.
By the end of the week, Paul was reduced to earnestly insisting that
he really wasn't going to try to get the Civil Rights Act repealed.
Well, that's a relief.
Not to be deterred by that controversy, Paul then went on to take up
the cause of another oppressed minority:
British Petroleum.
You know - the people whose oil spill is killing the entire Gulf of
Mexico.
Criticism of BP, and of business in general, Paul said, was "really
un-American."
We shouldn't be playing the "blame game," Paul said, because
"sometimes accidents happen."
For good measure, he included the recent Kentucky mine disaster as one
of those things that "just happen," with no one accountable, certainly
not the company that owned the mine.
This should be a real comfort to the people of the Gulf Coast, not to
mention the families of the dead miners and oil rig workers.
See, that's the problem with the whole right-wing agenda.
You come to the party for the low taxes and limited government, but
then you realize that the deal also includes the government just
shrugging and looking the other way if a company discriminates against
you, kills or maims you, poisons your air or water, or destroys your
livelihood. It's nothing personal, it's just business.
Paul also has another congenital defect of the tea partiers:
He's against Big Government, unless Big Government puts money in his
personal pocket.
According to The Wall street Journal, Paul wants to slash government
spending - but not Medicare payments to physicians.
The fact that Paul himself is a physician (he's an ophthalmologist who
says 50 percent of his patients are on Medicare) is, I'm sure, pure
coincidence.
The firestorm finally grew to be too hot for Paul.
He canceled an appearance on "Meet the Press," and now he's singing
the old familiar tune about how the liberal media have it in for him.
Now, it's entirely possible that Rand Paul will not blow his lead and
that he can win this one.
We are, after all, talking about a state whose state song contained
lyrics about "darkies" until 1986.
But if he doesn't win, there's always another career path he can
follow, a path which I like to call "the Palin Track."
On the Palin Track, you turn possible victory into crushing defeat for
your party by saying one nutty thing after another, get roundly mocked
along the way, then go on the lecture circuit, taking a hundred grand
an appearance to tell everyone it was a liberal media conspiracy that
did you in.
Like Sarah Palin, it looks like Rand Paul is going to be another one
of those gifts that just keep on giving.
And that was just his first week.
What's next?
Will Rand Paul compare the government's lawsuit against Goldman Sachs
to the Holocaust?
Will he start arguing in favor of secession?
Well, we live in hope.
__________________________________________________
Poor Rand...folks just don't seem to understand him.
Harry