Rand Paul the diplomat
By Burgess Everett
7/23/15 5:11 PM EDT
Some Republicans were clearly itching to mix it up with Secretary of State John Kerry at Thursday’s big Senate hearing on the Iran deal, accusing him of getting “bamboozled” and vowing to scuttle the agreement if they get the chance.
Then there was Rand Paul.
The Kentucky senator and 2016 presidential contender adopted a more dispassionate, even diplomatic stance as he pecked away at the agreement during the Foreign Relations Committee hearing with Kerry, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew Thursday. In doing so he contrasted himself not just with his more bombastic GOP colleagues but also with more hawkish rivals in the GOP presidential race, such as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who are making their plans to undo the agreement a central plank of their foreign policy platforms.
Instead of launching into a monologue, Paul asked measured questions about why sanctions will be lifted so quickly under the agreement and whether Iran has any plans to create a nuclear bomb.
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Paul came in and out of the hearing room as he calculated when his turn would come up. Nearly four hours after the hearing began he finally got his chance. He didn’t raise his voice, allowed Kerry to finish his thoughts and avoided the explosive rhetoric of his colleagues. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the committee chairman, told Kerry he was “fleeced” by Iran; Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) used the term “bamboozled.”
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