Rand Paul’s Spectacular Fall - Rand Paul Can Never Be A Mainstream Republican
To this point, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has been the Republican flavor of the year. Events from the IRS scandal to NSA revelations to the Obamacare train wreck have corroborated libertarian suspicions of federal power. And Paul has shown serious populist skills in cultivating those fears for his political benefit. For a while, he succeeded in a difficult maneuver: accepting the inheritance of his fathers movement while distancing himself from the loonier aspects of his fathers ideology.
But now Paul has fallen spectacularly off the tightrope. It turns out that a senior member of his Senate staff, Jack Hunter, has a history of neo-Confederate radio rants. And Paul has come to the defense of his aide.
Pauls attempt to dismiss the matter has only added to the damage. It was a shock radio job, the senator explains.He was doing wet T-shirt contests. But can a guy not have a youth and stuff? People try to say I smoked pot one time, and I wasnt fit for office.
But Hunters offenses were committed as an adult. They included defending a regime founded on slavery, comparing Abraham Lincoln to Saddam Hussein and raising (in Hunters words) a personal toast every May 10 to celebrate John Wilkes Booths birthday. This was not a single, ideological puff but rather a decade spent mainlining moonlight and magnolias in the ruins of Tara.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/michael-gerson-rand-paul-can-never-be-a-mainstream-republican/2013/07/18/d2ec8bf4-efdc-11e2-a1f9-ea873b7e0424_story.html
I would have argued that he could never have been a mainstream Republican.