The Grand New—and Old—Party
Rand Paul compares Capitol Hill to the Soviet Politburo. Other Senate newcomers include Washington veterans like Roy Blunt.
By Matthew Kaminski
Updated Nov. 6, 2010 12:01 a.m. ET
A 'Crazy' Reformer
Bowling Green, Ky.
'I don't plan on being bashful," says the next junior senator from Kentucky with an ever-so-mild drawl. "I'm not someone who's sort of still trying to figure out what I believe in. I don't think I'm really open to having Washington change me."
The morning after the election, Rand Paul's suite at the Holiday Inn is littered with Mello Yello and Dr. Pepper cans, a day-old fruit plate and mostly-finished plastic cups of wine. He's been up since before dawn, hitting the national morning news shows, and by 8 a.m. his voice is hoarse and his face looks drawn. In a few hours, Mr. Paul will be off on vacation, "at an undisclosed location," but not before he can send his future colleagues a message. He may be the lone pure tea party stalwart to enter the Senate, but he represents the new zeitgeist on the American right. Don't count on him to sit quietly in the back benches.
His first speech on the floor, he promises, will be on "the out-of-control deficit." But since, "as Mark Twain said about the weather, that everybody is talking about it and nobody is doing anything about it," Mr. Paul plans in his first legislative act to introduce a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget. And, he adds, he'll force a vote on it, too: "People don't like to vote against something that's so incredibly popular." He also wants to look hard at steep cuts in defense and entitlements, the largest chunks of federal outlays, and in one swoop antagonize many Democratic and Republican lawmakers.
Next on his docket are term limits. He jokes that the Soviet Politburo saw more turnover than Capitol Hill. He also wants to "sunset" all regulations until approved by Congress. "Let them write all the regulations they want," he says. "They do anyway, but in two years they're gone unless they get voted on by Congress."
Another tea party favorite is the Read the Bills Act, which he's keen to move on. He wants a "one-day waiting period for every 20 pages" of a proposed bill. I must betray a smile. "People laugh," he says. "But they need smaller bills and they need time to read bills." This is supposed to be an incentive.
He says that the public stands behind this reformist agenda. Tuesday's Republican sweep, he says, reflects "concerns about the debt and . . . an out-of-touch Washington."
Fresh faces in the Senate: Roy Blunt from Missouri (left), and Rand Paul from Kentucky. ENLARGE
Fresh faces in the Senate: Roy Blunt from Missouri (left), and Rand Paul from Kentucky. Terry Shoffner
Yet other prominent tea party candidates—Sharron Angle, Christine O'Donnell and Ken Buck—failed in their Senate bids. Mr. Paul doesn't blame the tea party, or anyone else, for their losses, except to note that the election in Nevada was all about Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid's "power of incumbency." Other new faces who'll join Mr. Paul in the Senate include businessman Ron Johnson in Wisconsin, who got his start at a tea party rally but didn't embrace the movement to the same degree. Marco Rubio served in the Florida state house for nearly a decade and considers himself above all a Republican.
Mr. Paul puts "the movement" (in his words) above partisan loyalties. "I'm somebody who believes that the issues are more important than the party," he says. "People in the tea party will tell you that the movement is about equal parts chastisement to both parties. You'll often hear that Republicans doubled the debt and Democrats tripled the debt."
Rand Paul comes with softer edges than his father, Ron Paul, who first won a seat in Congress in 1976. The difference was apparent on election night. At the convention hall next to the Holiday Inn, here in Mr. Paul's hometown, Rep. Paul introduced his son by Skype, hailing him as a politician "who stands for something" and is supported by a movement that is vigorous because "it is outside the party." No note of compromise with the Republican establishment there.
Father and son, age 47, have different styles. Asked what he wanted to do in Washington in a Wednesday morning television interview, the senator-elect said that his kids were hoping to meet the Obama girls. He has made other concessions to the mainstream. He now avoids his dad's talk of shuttering the Federal Reserve and abolishing the income tax. In a bigger shift from his campaign pledge to end earmarks, he tells me that they are a bad "symbol" of easy spending but that he will fight for Kentucky's share of earmarks and federal pork, as long as it's doled out transparently at the committee level and not parachuted in in the dead of night. "I will advocate for Kentucky's interests," he says.
So you're not a crazy libertarian? "Not that crazy," he cracks.
Soon after his surprise primary win this spring, Mr. Paul nearly self-destructed. He mused about the constitutionality of the 1964 Civil Rights Act on MSNBC, looking extreme and, to some, racist. He then cut back on national interviews, regrouped and duked it out in a hard-hitting campaign. In the end he won by 12 points over state Attorney General Jack Conway.
The Republican leadership, which shunned him, now makes nice. One of the first congratulatory calls came from senior Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate leader. Though Mr. McConnell backed the other candidate in the primary, Mr. Paul says that "people will be surprised that we actually get along and do many things together." As for the GOP leadership, "They're all saying they want new blood up there. They think that I'll be a refreshing face. They might just be being polite, but I take them sincerely."
Mr. Paul says he thinks that Republicans, tea party enthusiasts and even Democrats can make this all work if they form creative "coalitions" behind the changes that the public seems to demand. He brings a message of government reform and could yet find his niche in the chamber. Alternatively, Mr. Paul may end up short of friends, with many a lonely night ahead.
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