This kind of pointless, macho posturing is no doubt part of the reason Rand Paul is a teabag icon:
After winning Kentucky’s Republican primary Tuesday night, Bowling Green ophthalmologist Rand Paul refused to take the call of congratulations from opponent Trey Grayson, according to Grayson’s campaign manager Nate Hodson.
Hodson did not elaborate, except to say “it happened.”
“This is truly a classless act in politics,” said Marc Wilson, a Republican lobbyist and friend of Trey Grayson.
It will be fun seeing what Brooks and Broder make of this dude if he becomes Senator.
Poopyman
He won’t be. If the political climate holds as it is today, Grayson’s supporters will vote for the dem out of spite. Of course, a lot can happen in 6 months.
Scott
It will be fun seeing what Brooks and Broder make of this dude if he becomes Senator.
Manners are for liberals.
A proper moderate Republican is rude as fuck to everyone but other Villagers. Unless they’re liberal Villagers, in which case, fuck those librul foggortz.
stuckinred
Well, my telephone is ringin’, they told me
They told me it was Chairman Mao-uh
Well, my telephone is ringin’
Only it was Chairman Mao
Ah you, just tell him anything
I just don’t wanna talk to him now
Not now, baby
I got me my apolitical blues
An’ it’s the
meanest blues around
Talk about the apolitical blues
Baby, it’s the meanest blues around-uh
Now, I don’t care if you’re John Lennon, baby, I just
I just d-do-don’t wanna take no calls-uh
No calls baby
Just wanna play the blues
Mike Kay
spoiled elitist brat
MattR
@Scott:
But wasn’t this Republican on Republican rudeness? Or does Grayson somehow qualify as a liberal?
jomo
Not just classless – stupid as well. This is the type of personal slight that Grayson voters will take to the polls in November when they have to choose between Paul and Conway. They already don’t like Paul, this will make it worse.
Karen in GA
Was he in the phone booth, the one across the hall?
(I wanted to be Deborah Harry when I was a kid.)
arbitrista
What I don’t understand is why Rand Paul would give up the most delicious moment in any winning campaign: when your opponent has to call you up and congratulate you for kicking his butt.
Meanderthal
He’ll probably regret it in the end, if he gets elected. Politics is hard! Let’s go shopping!
Uloborus
Wonderful! I’m IN Kentucky these days, and it sounds like the apple did not fall far from the tree. I’m looking forward to some good ‘ol down home Tea Bag nonsense to poison the Paul name to all moderates everywhere and give Conway a chance to actually win in this godawful hillbilly paradise.
Last night he was on local television insisting that he’s not going to run as a moderate in any way, but I thought he might just be posturing. It sounds like he’s actually batfuck like his old man. Bats, hide yer daughters, it’s a long way yet to November!
Syndicalist
His first name is “Rand.” I’m surprised he didn’t invite Mrs. Grayson over to touch his fountainhead while he took the concession call.
Poopyman
@Mike Kay:
More of that demonstrated here.
Balconesfault
@Syndicalist: lol – I was already wondering how Ron decided between naming him Rand Paul or Burke Paul.
dmsilev
Wasn’t something similar part of the reason that the Republican in NY-23 ended up endorsing the Democrat rather than the tea-bagger?
As Winston Churchill once said, “When you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite”. Here’s hoping that the teabaggers never figure that out.
dms
J.W. Hamner
What would be pretty awesome would be if Cornerites charge to defend Paul for this, so we could compare and contrast what it takes from them to call Obama “arrogant” vs. Rand Paul a “cutthroat champion of capitalism” or whatever.
The Moar You Know
He’s better be careful. If he pulls this on a Villager they’ll be screaming for his head come November.
MikeJ
@Karen in GA: Funny, I always hear the Nerves version in my head when I think of that song. Either way, a great tune.
ed
Meh. While I’m confident that Randy’s douche-back bona fides check out, this seems like a non-story.
The Moar You Know
@Poopyman: Huh, he’s a raging bigot well versed in the art of throwing around dogwhistles. What a shocker.
EDIT: Also, heinous toupee.
QuaintIrene
Sounds like another tough ‘Jack Bauer’ Republican. He don’t take no crap!
God help this country.
Comrade Darkness
Ah, the anti-social leading the anti-social.
Ash Can
Actually, Mongiardo, who lost to Conway in the Dem primary, is being something of a dick as well, albeit not quite as blatantly. Maybe there’s something in the water in that district.
Seriously, though, if Conway has any smarts at all, he’ll take this shithead move by Paul and run like hell with it.
Litlebritdifrnt
According to El Rushbo the republican lost in PA-12 because it was rigged for the dem to win and the repubs picked the wrong candidate. Hmmmmmm when us dems used that excuse Rush was all over it as “an excuse for their failure they know they are going to get crushed in the fall” Oooookaaaaayyyyy
sukabi
Just think what it’s going to be like when his self described “security forces” decide to take on the government….
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
I don’t think Rand Paul will win the general election in November. Conway and Mongiardo both drew more votes and Grayson supporters are not going to move over to Paul in any significant numbers. Paul is going to turn off a lot of voters between now and election day. I think Conway will win with 53% of the vote.
Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle
@MattR: Supposedly, Grayson and family were big Bill Clinton supporters. So says Joshua Green over at Sully’s hangout.
nepat
Real libertarians don’t congratulate.
Their godhead, Ann Rand, was a notorious pain in the ass.
Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle
@Syndicalist: His full name is Randle. As in McMurphy from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
I assume this is a reference to the siren song of bipartisanship those two douchebags reference constantly. If that’s the case, they won’t say nothing since it’s always the Democrats fault there ain’t no bipartisanship.
And if he gets elected, they’ll just blather on about what this means for the tea baggers and 2012. Nothing else will penetrate their Villager Shield.
Mike Kay
AIPAC is gonna freak out about this. They hate Ron Paul.
MattR
@Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle: In that case, Rand Paul was clearly correct to be a rude prick to him ;)
Zifnab
In other news, Republican lobbyists and Trey Grayson supporters throughout Kentucky express their disdain for the guy who defeated Grayson, calling him a “Scoundrel” and “Disreputable” and suggesting that it would be a bad idea to vote for him. SHOCKER!
Seriously, why in the flying fuck should I care about what one WATB says about his rival’s classiness? Was anyone interviewing Kerry or Gore staff members at the end of 2000 and 2004, asking whether they thought the Bush team was a bunch of stand up guys? You lost all of ten minutes ago. Why am I not stunned that you have no nice things to say.
This isn’t to suggest that Paul’s actions were polite or ordinary, but why interview a LOBBYIST and SUPPORTER of the guy who just lost to get a bead on the other guy’s intangibles? What answer did you think you were going to get?
Quick, now lets ask Mitch McConnell what he thinks of Harry Reid. *gag*
flukebucket
@arbitrista:
That is why I think there is more to this story than meets the ear. There has to be a logical explanation.
MattF
Ah, interesting times. Do you think it’s remotely possible that Republicans will figure out that if you ‘lend’ your respectability to a thug, you might not get it back? Nah.
A Ghost To Most
@stuckinred:
I still miss Lowell.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:
From your keyboard to the KY electorate’s ears, or eyes, or levers or whatever.
I don’t share everybody’s optimism tho. I mean Kentucky is in many ways more bumfuck, Appalachian than here in Misery and if Rand Paul was running here, I think he’d have a good chance of getting in…and that’s running against a Carnahan with great name recognition and who will probably turn out to be as crappy a Dem senator as McCaskill has become.
Hope I’m wrong.
jl
The big meme I heard this morning from the media Village is that this will be a really tough year for incumbents, so Democrats are in trouble.
But that seems to be based all on Specter, who I don’t think is representative. And I wondered whether these sharp analytical minds were confusing trouble for candidates sponsored by GOP and Democratic party establishments with trouble for incumbents. Not the same thing, really.
So, if the relection rate of incumbents goes from 97 percent to 95 percent, will that shake our world?
TPM makes the case that the national GOP establishment had the most disappointing outcome last night.
The Biggest Losers
TPM, Dave Kurtz
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/05/the_biggest_losers.php?ref=fpblg
And, from what I heard on teevee and radio this morning, even the Village can sense dimly that the GOP two minutes of hate on Pelosi is not working out.
Maybe, even if people find her ‘too liberal’ in many parts of the country, I think she stands out as one of the few political leaders who has been able to get anything constructive done.
Kryptik
The fact that he’s an asshole isn’t surprising. I mean…part of his platform is a wish to repeal the Americans with Disabilities Act…
Rob
‘Paul’s campaign manager, David Adams, tells 9 News, “Paul did not refuse Grayson’s call. He was in transit and could not take the call.” ‘
But let’s not confuse the issue.
MattR
@Zifnab: There is a bit of a difference between a primary and a general. In theory, Grayson and Paul are supposed to be on the same team.
Redshirt
@sukabi: Indeed. Raging fascist populist with jacked up “private security detail.”
Little Goodwins are dancing in my head.
Elie
@ed:
Its not a story, its a “tell”… reveals his character and possibly sets up strategies that play into his arrogance and related flaws
PaulW
Rand isn’t going to lose because he was rude to Grayson.
Rand is going to lose because the Democratic voter turnout was 513,659 voters compared to the Republicans’ 348,680.
I can’t imagine 100,000 or so Democratic voters switching to vote for an extreme wingnut like Rand. And there’s no way Rand can reposition himself now as a “more moderate” establishment-type candidate to pull in the Indy and Moderate votes: the teabaggers expect unconditional loyalty.
Zeke
He was in transit? He doesn’t have a cell phone? An Invisible Hands Free Set?
Napoleon
@Rob:
Come on, that smells to high heaven as an excuse. Everyone has cell phones. If they called the wrong phone and he was not present they would have explicitly said something like “he called the hotel room and Paul was already in the freight elevator heading toward the ballroom”.
But that is not what they said.
jl
@sukabi:
thanks for that link about Paul’s “security forces’.
Is that a real Mark Twain quote at the top of the blog you linked to?
“I want to be in Kentucky when the end of the world comes, because it’s always 20 years behind” -Mark Twain
Dungheap
@Rob:
In transit? Is that what the kids are calling it these days?
Ash Can
@Rob: Now all we have to do is figure out what the truth is. Easier said than done, I know…
licensed to kill time
__
The pump don’t work ’cause Randle took the handle
jl
Sorry, I messed up the thread. I missed the stupid hyphen in the Mark Twain quote and now internet explorer will not let me edit it. FYWP. And why did I use MS explorer, when I installed firefox just to avoid exlorer? Thoughtless of me.
mak
Sadly, it appears from the stories that this may have been an actual case of phone-tag (or at least that they’ll be able to explain it away as such come their ‘unity’ get-together this weekend).
Still, couldn’t hurt to get it out there before it’s entirely debunked. My guess is that there are lots of folks predisposed toward believing that someone named Randy who refers to himself as “Rand” is precisely the sort of dooshbag who would diss his opponent like this.
khead
Blondie?
I think I just felt the first twinges of a mid-life crisis.
Rob
I’m just saying, the claim that Paul “refused the call” was made by Grayson’s campaign manager, while Paul’s campaign manager Adams said otherwise. Adams further said that “he (Adams) personally received Grayson’s call and [told Grayson] he couldn’t reach Paul at the time. ‘I said Rand isn’t here. So Trey said tell him congratulations and I will say good things about him tonight and I’ll see him on Saturday.'”
So what is the point of this post?
Nethead Jay
@Rob: Uh, what. Are they saying doesn’t carry his own cellphone like most everybody today. And that nobody with him “in transit” had one either. Smells like bullcrap to me.
About the only thing i can imagine preventing him from taking a call would be doing some celebratory horisontal exercizing, and that could be easily solved with a “could you call again in x amount of time”.
Anonymous37
Let’s see if this works.
Short Bus Bully
Well, to be fair, all the opthamologists I know ARE total macho badasses. I guess it was either killing terrorists with his bare hands in the Delta Force or eye surgery. That’s just how this patriot is wired, amirite?
Rob
@Nethead Jay – That, or the campaign manager for a Republican Senate candidate is full of shit (and see #53). I’m not sure which is true, but neither does anyone here I’d bet.
Quicksand
@Rob:
It doesn’t matter a bit what the truth is. Grayson’s campaign manager just lateraled the ball over to Conway.
Run, Jack, run!
Keith
If this means we get to hear more about “the comity of the Senate”, then I’m all for it…if I’m John McCain.
The Moar You Know
OT: The Mustache of Understanding manages to lower the bar yet again.
I don’t know how he does it. He manages to outdo himself in dumbfuckery with virtually every column he pens.
Corner Stone
I doubt this happened this way.
We’ve seen a lot of “hit” pieces on BJ recently that have been pretty back and forth.
Derek
DougJ, how do you have such awesome taste in music?
fourlegsgood
@Syndicalist: LOL. Best comment I’ve seen today.
Alex
Well, at least now I’m confident he’s a bona-fide libertarian: his self-centered prickishness is showing. Couple more incidents like this and everyone say hello to Jack Conway (D-KY).
Bill Section 147
At least Rand has a real Merkin. But since he is a Libertarian he won’t mind if I exercise my right to laugh at that thing on his head. This will be the most important race in the country because it will show you all that the Tea Party is real.
Rand is the poster child for what passes as Libertarian these days. He is the son of a famous father. What an achievement. Libertarian Meritocracy for the win.
Mike Kay
I’m surprised no one has congratulated Chairman Steele on last night’s victories.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@licensed to kill time:
Lolz.
Of course if Randle does manage to get elected and does a kamikaze mission on the FY 2012 budget, the Keynesian pumps will not be laughing.
Jim/The Velvet Blog
My Rand Paul Quote of the Day, from USA Today:
What a man of the people.
Midnight Marauder
@PaulW:
Here’s the real kicker: In Rand Paul’s world, there is no need to even think about repositioning himself and his campaign to pull in independent and moderate voters. Just look at what he said in his victory speech last night:
Yeah, good luck with that sell in the next few months, Rand.
Corner Stone
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: If Rand is elected the teabaggers will be teabagged.
He’ll be just as much a part of the system as his daddy, and use all the same reasoning and excuses.
Derek
@khead:
WTF is this supposed to mean?
licensed to kill time
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
I just figure he wants to prove how government doesn’t work and all.
Nethead Jay
@Rob: Yeah, wouldn’t that be a surprise! Guess we’ll just have to keep an eye out for any further details.
Mike Kay
@Derek: there was an earlier post about Deborah Harry’s 1970s band, which is making him feel
middle agednostalgic.Paris
Go Fuck Yourself. Also.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@licensed to kill time:
My favorite slogan:
Electing Republicans to run the govt. is like hiring Vegans to run a steakhouse. Don’t be surprised if all you get is burnt meat, angry customers going hungry, and lots of money missing from the cash register.
DA
Rand Paul is just a fundamentally weird guy.
khead
@Derek:
@Mike Kay:
What it means is that y’all probably need to pay more attention to Doug’s thread titles.
LD50
@Corner Stone:
No shit. He and any others will be assimilated. Dick Armey is counting on it. The Teabaggers are just his useful idiots to resume GOP, one-party business as usual.
some other guy
Did they ever get on Cheney’s case for telling a legislator to go fuck himself on the Senate floor?
Bill Murray
@Balconesfault: I would guess Nathan Bedford Paul and maybe Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Paul were in the mix
catclub
@Rob:
#53
That is exactly how Rand Paul does not take someone’s call.
His subordinate says he is unavailable. That is why there is a story.
Notice that his campaign manager did not add: “Rand told me to tell him he was unavailable.”, but probably could have.
maus
@The Moar You Know: Linking to him just tempts us to click. Just paste or sum up the essence of his stachery.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
posted in wrong thread
maus
@LD50:
Ron has already been assimilated into the Teabag system, his son is going even more deep in. Whereas I actually saw the elder Paul as an honest(ly crazy, half the time) outsider, they’ve both been co-opted into mainstream Republicanism, regardless of whether they hold allegiance to Steele’s “GOP”. Obviously there’s a sort of shadow-GOP that they’re remaking, the teabaggers will be folded back in and claim a bloody revolution within a few years. But, of course, in reality the same people will be doing the same things with the same politics. The media will report this whole “take-over” as credulously as always.
Derek
What I’m asking is, why you gotta be middle-aged or nostalgic to like Blondie? I’m 26 and I fuckin love ’em!
(Of course I got the reference to the song title! As you can see in comment 62, I complimented Doug on his excellent taste in music.)
Citizen_X
@Ash Can:
The joke writes itself: “And I can promise Rand Paul right now that when I win, I will still take his call!”
Citizen Alan
@MattR:
He is to the left of Paul. Ergo, he is a liberal as far as Paul’s cult of personality is concerned. Probably half the Republicans in Congress are considered “leftists” by the Teabaggers.
Keith G
@The Moar You Know:
He does seem over wrought and almost twitchy, yet I agree with a couple of his specific points.
Stroszek
@LD50: I think it’s a mistake to assume that Teabaggers care about anything other than electing their “team” back into office. This is the Fox News demographic. Once the GOP is back in power, they’ll get back to cheerleading deficit-exploding tax cuts and unfunded Medicare expansions just like they did during the Bush years.
srv
@Corner Stone:
Win the Bottom!
Linda Featheringill
@Elie:
‘Its not a story, its a “tell”…’
That is right. And people all over the country will remember it and will probably use it if the opportunity arises.
Uloborus
I’m not sold on the ‘The GOP is just using the Teabaggers’. It seems more like the Teabaggers are using the GOP, because it’s GOP elected officials who’ve consistently had to toe the Teabag party line. Yes, eventually they’ll be folded back in. They’re all conservatives. But how long will that take? Meanwhile they’re poisoning GOP electoral chances everywhere. I mean, Rand Paul?
Jim C
Nothing against Blondie, but I’m a bigger fan of the original version.
Joseph Nobles
@PaulW: “And there’s no way Rand can reposition himself now as a “more moderate” establishment-type candidate to pull in the Indy and Moderate votes: the teabaggers expect unconditional loyalty.”
Rand Paul isn’t in the mood to do that anyway. He specifically said he wouldn’t do that last night and he didn’t take Grayson’s concession call. I’m so ready to watch this nut crash and burn.
Corner Stone
@LD50:
I’m looking forward to reading a quote from Senator Rand Paul after running to be re-elected for his 4th term in office:
“Those people in Washington are ruining the country. Gosh I hate being a US Senator. But I have to keep fighting for the teabaggers who elected me 18 years ago. And I’ll change the system if re-elected!”
*not really looking forward to it, but you know what I mean
licensed to kill time
@Corner Stone: That will be known a a classic Hatch Maneuver with a double inside/outside flip.
PaulW
Is everyone overlooking the one fact I highlighted first in my original post?
Rand isn’t going to win because there’s 513,000 plus Democrats to the 380,000 or so Republicans.
That’s what people should be looking at: the actual registered voter counts between Dems and Reps. There’s a +700,000 plus Democratic count in the state of Florida, for God’s sake, but everyone thinks Rubio can win enough of them over from Crist or Meek?! Hasn’t anyone else noticed that there’s more registered Democrats over registered Republicans in the last 10 years? Hello! Someone do a head count please…!
Chuck Butcher
The problem, PaulW, is that it is apparently the norm in KY for D primaries to have a 3:2 edge and then elect GOP in the General. One can always hope, but…
maus
@PaulW:
Well-populated South Florida is also full of Dems, but don’t tell the media that. It might get in the way of their existing narratives.
Joseph Nobles
@PaulW: Oh, I’m totally with you. Rand refuses to do anything about it, too, which is enormously entertaining to me. He prefers to suffer on his cross of gold rather than try to solve real problems.
hal
Is there really any difference between a Teabagger and a Republican? If they’ve voted, 99% have voted for Republicans every time.
maus
@Uloborus: They may have created a monster by co-opting the look and feel of the Ron Paul revolution and making it their own, but it’s still their monster. It’s not going to shake up Washington once the teabaggers get there. They’ll continue the same old boy politics.
I mean, seriously, there aren’t any Ron Pauls there, nor even any equivalent to the Al Frankens. It’s all just the same GOP on steroids, in a new wrapper.
jake the snake
@Uloborus:
I sort of resent your comment, while I sort of agree with it.
Right now, I think the general is completely unpredictable.
Kentuckians vote Republican in national elections, but I suspect there will be a lot of crossover voting. Paul will have to find a middle ground to appeal to the moderates, while keeping his tea party base happy.
Corner Stone
@srv:
This sounds really, really good right now.