June 2^nd

Poor Rand Paul, every time he moves he steps in his own rhetoric. Rand is opposed to extension of the Patriot Act which allows federal authorities to record private communications. The point of this act is to catch potential terrorists before they kill people here. A recent police confrontation with a knife-wielding man in Boston is an illustration that ISIS inspired terrorists are not to be taken lightly. This man had been watched by the FBI and they were on their way to pick him up when he suddenly attacked a police officer and an FBI agent with a knife. From Rand Paul’s point of view the negation of our civil liberties by the Patriot Act isn’t worth the risk to our physical safety. His actions on the Senate floor have effectively eliminated, at least temporarily, the surveillance the government had been using to catch these people.

Now Senator Paul claims that his senate critics hope that a terrorist strike will occur just to prove that his antagonism to the Patriot Act is wrong. This accusation has outraged what few Republicans support his position.  The idea that Republican Senators would be happy with a successful terrorist strike just to spite Rand Paul has isolated Paul even further from his already miniscule Republican senatorial support. (It is important to note that Senator Paul’s positions on many issues have considerable support among members of the public; best not to confuse what the public supports with what Republican Senators support.) Paul has backtracked ever so slightly by claiming that he was just using hyperbole when he made that comment about Republicans hopping for an attack. In the very unlikely event that Paul becomes President I hope he will have learned to reign in his tendency to use hyperbole to make his points.

To that end Paul has now alienated that most powerful of all Republican influences, Roger Aisles and Fox News. In a recent review of the top ten Republican candidates Senator Paul was just inadvertently, entirely accidentally, left off the list even though he had more voter support than several of the candidates Fox had included. Fox claimed it was all a mistake, but then Fox made the same “mistake” again. I’m beginning to think that Senator Paul might not appear in the first debate. When Reince Priebus, the RNC chief factotum, was asked about this curious oversight he claimed that the party had complete faith in Fox News’ procedures.

Then there was his interaction with the statuesque and very bright Kelly Evans of CNBC who was trying to get him to answer a question while he was pontificating about something else. Not accustomed to being interrupted while instructing the masses, Paul said, “Now calm down Kelly…” CNBC is hardly a left wing outfit and Paul once again demonstrated a major disconnect between his pre-frontal cortex which controls judgment and his Broca’s area which controls speech production. Well, as I said in the first sentence, “Poor Rand Paul…”