NEWS JUNKIE POST
May 20, 2010 at 4:37 pmKentucky Fried Candidate: Rand Paul Implodes Day After GOP Primary Win
Blame it on Rachel Maddow. A day after his stunning GOP primary victory for the U.S. Senate seat in Kentucky, Tea Party favorite Rand Paul went on “The Rachel Maddow Show” to defend his controversial stand on the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He reiterated his outrageous position decrying parts of that landmark legislation. Now that those comments have drawn ire, he’s got regrets. Not about his comments–though his campaign has issued clarifications. His biggest regret? Going on Maddow in the first place.
“It was a poor political decision. And it probably won’t be happening any time in the near future, ” he told right wing radio talker Laura Ingraham on Thursday. “Because they can play things and want to say, ‘oh you believed in beating up people who were trying to sit in restaurants in the 1960′s.’ And that is a such a ridiculous notion and something no rational person is in favor of… she went on and on about that.”
Really? Listen to the exchange and tell me did Rachel Maddow, the most fair and balanced liberal on cable TV, put Rand Paul’s polished preppy loafered feet into his mouth? Think it was the novice candidate doing himself in.
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Spinning out of the bed of political thorns he made for himself, Paul’s campaign was busy sending out statements Thursday. The first one said, “I unequivocally state that I will not support any efforts to repeal the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” He later called comments made by his opponent Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway that suggested he was in favor a repeal “knowingly false and irresponsible.”
Conway, clarified his comments, saying, “I meant that he rejected a fundamental provision of the Act.” Conway was also fast to reference Paul’s 2002 letter to a local newspaper denouncing the Fair Housing Act on the grounds that a “free society” should allow private discrimination even if he finds it abhorrent.
“Whether he’s a racist or not isn’t the question. What he’s advocating would open the door to discrimination,” Rev. Al Sharpton said on Thursday’s edition of “The Ed Show.” “For this man to be sitting in the United States Senate is frightening. It would be funny if it weren’t so frightening.”
Even GOP leaders were busy distancing themselves from Paul as they offered lukewarm rebukes on Thursday. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told The Huffington Post, “It’s clear he doesn’t support racism. I think most people in Kentucky believe as I do that in 2010 you should be able to sleep in whatever hotel and eat in whatever restaurant you want to….but as for what’s the proper role of government in the privater sector, he’ll have to convince people that his views are acceptable.”
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas told Politico, “I support non-discrimination of people, so I would need to talk to him to see precisely what his concerns were.”
Even one of his chief boosters in the Senate, Jim DeMint of South Carolina told the website Think Progress, “I support the Civil Rights Act… I will talk to Rand about his positions.”
Maybe Paul will tell them “Maddow made me say it.”
Yeah, that’ll go down as smoothly as one of those lunch counter specials for which Paul apparently feels such nostalgia.
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I stopped reading when you referred to Maddow as fair and balanced.
You completely misrepresent Paul’s position. Straw man through and through.
This entire article is shameful.
Go back to J-school and try again.
Maddow certainly is a leftist, but that doesn’t mean that her information is not correct. The same cannot be said of Fox “News”, whose sole purpose appears to be to be the propaganda division of the Republican Tea Party.
Mike: I was being a little tongue and cheek with Fox’s “fair and balanced” slogan. I know Maddow is a liberal and I said so, but she is also a fair interviewer who gives her guests a chance to respond. She did so with Rand Paul and he just dug a deeper hole for himself.
Paul is speaking from a Libertarian stance. Business is wrong to discriminate and it is not in the best interest to discriminate. However, the gov’t had gotten so many detailed regulations that business is choking. In CA, there are people making a living off legalized extortion by drive by law suits charging small businesses must comply with ADA requirements. Many have been in business far longer than the ADA requirements and are technically grandfathered. As I listen, Paul is a true conservative.
I don’t understand the issue here. I applied for an internship through a minority organization and was told “You don’t qualify because we are seeking a minority.” Should they be forced to have given me an internship? Rand views matters of policy through libertarian lenses. It’s not his fault the rest of the world is so philosophically dependent on government to hear what he is saying.