itshappening
01-24-2013, 10:28 AM
Who’s more polarizing than Hillary Clinton? Try Sen. Rand Paul.
Bloggers on the left and right zeroed in on the Kentucky Republican after his engagement with Clinton at Wednesday’s Benghazi hearing. The right crowned Paul as their anti-Hillary crusader, bravely going against a mainstream media ready to anoint the outgoing-Secretary of State as 2016’s president in waiting. Across the aisle, the left viewed him as an arrogant, whiny politician, pushing radical conservative conspiracy theories.
“I would have fired you,” the son of former GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul told Clinton during her testimony about the Sept. 11, attack in Benghazi, Libya, where U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed.
“I figured he might be the boldest Republican questioner but I had no idea how bold,” wrote Hot Air’s conservative blogger Allahphundit. “He’s taking dead aim at the insulting charade of buck-stops-here bravado among American politicians who are happy to ‘show leadership’ by admitting to their failures on the condition that they’ll suffer no consequences for them. Accountability’s a smart theme for a populist would-be presidential candidate to take up.”
Conservative PJ Media’s Bryan Preston summed up the right’s sentiments: “Paul exposed Clinton’s weak grasp of her job.”
The Daily Caller’s Matt K. Lewis wrote that he was impressed by Paul’s performance, writing that “Rand Paul continues to impress in the senate. During Wednesday’s hearings, he pressed Secretary Clinton harder than any of his colleagues over her failure of leadership regarding Benghazi.”
Debra Moore on Exposing Liberal Lies praised Paul for being brave enough to “tell it like it is,” but predicted he’ll face a backlash in the mainstream media. She wrote: “I guess we know who will be the next conservative to come under attack from the American Pravda. Rand Paul dared to confront Hillary Clinton for her incompetence over Benghazi. Finally, someone dares to tell it like it is.”
Added Business Insiders’ Grace Wyler: “Paul’s grandstanding was a marked break from the Senate’s otherwise mild interrogation.”
The Daily Kos and others on the left disagreed, with one blogger taking issue with Paul’s assertion that the Benghazi attack was “the worst since [Sept. 11, 2001.]”
“Rand Paul is so damn dumb and wrong. The worst ‘tragedy’ since 9/11 could be the twenty 6 year olds who were massacred at Sandy Hook Elementary School,” wrote TeamSarah4Choice. “Not only does Rand Paul fail current events, he fails those ‘tragedies’ that happened during the Bush Administration.”
Added The Daily Kos’ MrTrueLiberal: “As for Rand Paul, who pontificated about what he would have done had he been president when Benghazi was hit, Hillary just looked at him without comment. Her look was the visual equivalent of Michelle Obama’s eyeroll at John Boehner.”
“Yes, Rand Paul is a whiny little turd,” Balloon Juice wrote, “he’s blatantly setting up for his presidential run in 2016, and he’s been informed by smarter people that if Hillary runs in 2016 he’ll get as much attention from the media as the evening’s “confused old person/drunk puts car thru storefront window” teaser. And his fellow Republican interrogators are no better.”
While Forbes’ contributer Rick Ungar wrote that Paul wanted to “burnish his tea party credentials” for 2016, another blogger on the left criticized Paul for suggesting that the U.S. is shipping weapons from Libya to Turkey, as some reports have indicated, to which Clinton responded: “I will have to take that question for the record. No one’s ever raised that with me.”
“Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) used today’s hearing on the Benghazi attack to confront Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about a conspiracy theory involving moving guns from Libya to Syrian rebels,” wrote Hayes Brown on Think Progress.
He continued: “That Sen. Paul would use his first hearing on the Foreign Relations Committee to push this theory, despite the fact even if it were true it would fall outside of Secretary Clinton’s purview, does not say great things about his future on the body.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/rand-paul-draws-blog-love-hate-86671.html#ixzz2IuXYl6Qp
Bloggers on the left and right zeroed in on the Kentucky Republican after his engagement with Clinton at Wednesday’s Benghazi hearing. The right crowned Paul as their anti-Hillary crusader, bravely going against a mainstream media ready to anoint the outgoing-Secretary of State as 2016’s president in waiting. Across the aisle, the left viewed him as an arrogant, whiny politician, pushing radical conservative conspiracy theories.
“I would have fired you,” the son of former GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul told Clinton during her testimony about the Sept. 11, attack in Benghazi, Libya, where U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed.
“I figured he might be the boldest Republican questioner but I had no idea how bold,” wrote Hot Air’s conservative blogger Allahphundit. “He’s taking dead aim at the insulting charade of buck-stops-here bravado among American politicians who are happy to ‘show leadership’ by admitting to their failures on the condition that they’ll suffer no consequences for them. Accountability’s a smart theme for a populist would-be presidential candidate to take up.”
Conservative PJ Media’s Bryan Preston summed up the right’s sentiments: “Paul exposed Clinton’s weak grasp of her job.”
The Daily Caller’s Matt K. Lewis wrote that he was impressed by Paul’s performance, writing that “Rand Paul continues to impress in the senate. During Wednesday’s hearings, he pressed Secretary Clinton harder than any of his colleagues over her failure of leadership regarding Benghazi.”
Debra Moore on Exposing Liberal Lies praised Paul for being brave enough to “tell it like it is,” but predicted he’ll face a backlash in the mainstream media. She wrote: “I guess we know who will be the next conservative to come under attack from the American Pravda. Rand Paul dared to confront Hillary Clinton for her incompetence over Benghazi. Finally, someone dares to tell it like it is.”
Added Business Insiders’ Grace Wyler: “Paul’s grandstanding was a marked break from the Senate’s otherwise mild interrogation.”
The Daily Kos and others on the left disagreed, with one blogger taking issue with Paul’s assertion that the Benghazi attack was “the worst since [Sept. 11, 2001.]”
“Rand Paul is so damn dumb and wrong. The worst ‘tragedy’ since 9/11 could be the twenty 6 year olds who were massacred at Sandy Hook Elementary School,” wrote TeamSarah4Choice. “Not only does Rand Paul fail current events, he fails those ‘tragedies’ that happened during the Bush Administration.”
Added The Daily Kos’ MrTrueLiberal: “As for Rand Paul, who pontificated about what he would have done had he been president when Benghazi was hit, Hillary just looked at him without comment. Her look was the visual equivalent of Michelle Obama’s eyeroll at John Boehner.”
“Yes, Rand Paul is a whiny little turd,” Balloon Juice wrote, “he’s blatantly setting up for his presidential run in 2016, and he’s been informed by smarter people that if Hillary runs in 2016 he’ll get as much attention from the media as the evening’s “confused old person/drunk puts car thru storefront window” teaser. And his fellow Republican interrogators are no better.”
While Forbes’ contributer Rick Ungar wrote that Paul wanted to “burnish his tea party credentials” for 2016, another blogger on the left criticized Paul for suggesting that the U.S. is shipping weapons from Libya to Turkey, as some reports have indicated, to which Clinton responded: “I will have to take that question for the record. No one’s ever raised that with me.”
“Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) used today’s hearing on the Benghazi attack to confront Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about a conspiracy theory involving moving guns from Libya to Syrian rebels,” wrote Hayes Brown on Think Progress.
He continued: “That Sen. Paul would use his first hearing on the Foreign Relations Committee to push this theory, despite the fact even if it were true it would fall outside of Secretary Clinton’s purview, does not say great things about his future on the body.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/rand-paul-draws-blog-love-hate-86671.html#ixzz2IuXYl6Qp