jct74
02-13-2014, 08:21 PM
Is the GOP Now Rand Paul’s Party?
Jonathan S. Tobin
02.12.2014 - 6:30 PM
It’s been a good month for Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. Last week, conservatives applauded as Paul tore into Bill Clinton as a sexual predator. Much of the nation was puzzled by the exchange because they couldn’t see how a rerun of the debate over the Monica Lewinsky scandal would help the GOP stop Hillary Clinton from being elected president in 2016. But many Republicans cheered because it showed that Paul had the guts to take on the Clintons and a mainstream media that continues to treat the former president as a revered figure in spite of his past. Paul added more luster to his image today by a filing a class action lawsuit against President Obama and the heads of U.S intelligence agencies over the National Security Agency’s metadata collection program. Like the spat with Clinton, the lawsuit is more about public relations than substance. But the support it has gotten from the GOP base shows that it is no longer possible to dismiss the senator as merely a housetrained version of his father—libertarian gadfly Ron Paul.
A year after Paul rocketed to stardom with a 13-hour Senate filibuster protesting administration policy on drone strikes against terror targets, the younger Paul is a genuine GOP star and a potential first-tier presidential contender for 2016. Unlike Ted Cruz he chose not to identify himself with the cause of the government shutdown that so tarnished the GOP brand last fall, thus showing he is willing to edge closer to the party establishment on tactics. More importantly, his views on distrust of government and foreign policy—positions that were bolstered by a series of Obama administration scandals involving the IRS, spying, and Benghazi—seem more mainstream today than ever. Though Paul’s stunt to force the government to give up its collection program may fail, the question is whether Paul’s views reflect mainstream Republican thinking. An even better question is if they are not, why aren’t more GOP leaders publicly disagreeing with Paul?
...
read more:
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2014/02/12/is-the-gop-now-rand-pauls-party-nsa/
Jonathan S. Tobin
02.12.2014 - 6:30 PM
It’s been a good month for Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. Last week, conservatives applauded as Paul tore into Bill Clinton as a sexual predator. Much of the nation was puzzled by the exchange because they couldn’t see how a rerun of the debate over the Monica Lewinsky scandal would help the GOP stop Hillary Clinton from being elected president in 2016. But many Republicans cheered because it showed that Paul had the guts to take on the Clintons and a mainstream media that continues to treat the former president as a revered figure in spite of his past. Paul added more luster to his image today by a filing a class action lawsuit against President Obama and the heads of U.S intelligence agencies over the National Security Agency’s metadata collection program. Like the spat with Clinton, the lawsuit is more about public relations than substance. But the support it has gotten from the GOP base shows that it is no longer possible to dismiss the senator as merely a housetrained version of his father—libertarian gadfly Ron Paul.
A year after Paul rocketed to stardom with a 13-hour Senate filibuster protesting administration policy on drone strikes against terror targets, the younger Paul is a genuine GOP star and a potential first-tier presidential contender for 2016. Unlike Ted Cruz he chose not to identify himself with the cause of the government shutdown that so tarnished the GOP brand last fall, thus showing he is willing to edge closer to the party establishment on tactics. More importantly, his views on distrust of government and foreign policy—positions that were bolstered by a series of Obama administration scandals involving the IRS, spying, and Benghazi—seem more mainstream today than ever. Though Paul’s stunt to force the government to give up its collection program may fail, the question is whether Paul’s views reflect mainstream Republican thinking. An even better question is if they are not, why aren’t more GOP leaders publicly disagreeing with Paul?
...
read more:
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2014/02/12/is-the-gop-now-rand-pauls-party-nsa/