Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

It’s a new day. Light all those Biden polls of young people on fire and throw away the ashes.

American History and Black History can not be separated.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

The choice is between normal and crazy.

I also would like a pony to improve my balloon juice experience.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

FFS people, this was a good thing. take the win.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

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You are here: Home / Rand Paul and the Village Short Bus

Rand Paul and the Village Short Bus

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Ezra Klein asks a few obvious questions, such as whether the junior Dr. Paul believes the government can set a minimum wage. Conor Friedersdorf retorts:

That this is the best Mr. Klein can do lays bear the absurdity of fretting about the prospect of Senator Paul. There is just no possible way that the federal minimum wage is going to be repealed, and even if it were, states are perfectly capable of setting their own minimum wage laws, as many do.

Is young Conor always this snotty when he’s being stupid? Because he would have to be very fucking stupid to accept that argument, which implies this one:

There is just no possible way that the Hyde Amendment is going to be repealed, and even if it were, states can control what their Medicaid programs pay for, so we needn’t worry about a Senator’s position on federal funding of abortions.

Unless the Kentucky Senate campaign is the Special Olympics of politics, Rand Paul, MD, FAAO should have to answer legitimate questions about the issues, no matter what wannabe Villagers like Mr. Friedersdorf think.

Reader Interactions

152Comments

  1. 1.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Is young Conor always this snotty when he’s being stupid?

    You’re not seriously looking for an answer to that, are you?

  3. 3.

    Mnemosyne

    You’ve gotta admit, it’s pretty astounding that asking politicians about actual laws and policies that they might end up voting on is now considered out of bounds.

    I guess all we can do between now and November is ask who Paul thinks is going to win “American Idol” since any questions about how Paul plans to do the work he’d like to be hired to do are over the line.

  5. 5.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Joseph Nobles:

    Dr. Paul the Lesser has called off his Meet the Press massage interview

    Well shit. There goes the weekend. NOW what’ll I do Sunday morning?

  6. 6.

    DougJ

    I mean, for God’s sake, if you can’t ask candidates how they feel about legislation, then what’s the fucking point?

  8. 8.

    Midnight Marauder

    At the end of a rocky week, newly chosen Senate nominee Rand Paul (R-KY) has canceled a planned interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” citing exhaustion. It’s only the third cancellation from a major guest in 62 years, the show’s Executive Producer Betsy Fischer said in an interview this afternoon.

    Peak Wingnut. Making History Everyday.

  10. 10.

    licensed to kill time

    Maybe we should rename this blog Randal Juice. Temporarily, of course.

  11. 11.

    kay

    @Joseph Nobles:

    They should give the slot to Paul’s opponent, who will happily show up.
    I guess that would be “too mean”.
    It’s not like Senate seats are hotly contested. Rand Paul is really doing us a favor taking this one.

  12. 12.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Midnight Marauder:

    It’s only the third cancellation from a major guest in 62 years, the show’s Executive Producer Betsy Fischer said in an interview this afternoon.

    Yeah, Dr. Rand’s in good company. The other two that blew off MTP were Louis Farrakhan and Prince Bandar.

  13. 13.

    Punchy

    Does Doctor Paul, M.D. pay liability insurance for his practice? Doesn’t this make him a hypocrite? Why wouldn’t he stand by his conviction and just announce anytime he fucks up as “mistakes can happen”, so who needs insurance?

  16. 16.

    JGabriel

    DougJ @ Top:

    Unless the Kentucky Senate campaign is the Special Olympics of politics …

    Any Kentuckians want to weigh in on that question?

    I’m suspecting Yes, but I figured the KY staters should get first shot.

    .

  18. 18.

    Martin

    @DougJ: Starbursts and leg-thrills is the fucking point. I think the last 2 years has made that obvious enough.

  19. 19.

    beltane

    @mistermix: I still go to Sully for links to interesting, non-political sites, particularly ones dealing with photography. Mostly, though, he just pisses me off.

  20. 20.

    Fern

    @Midnight Marauder: He’s been campaigning for the senate seat for three days and he can’t take it anymore? Hmm.

    I’m starting to wonder if he had just assumed that he would not win the primary.

  21. 21.

    Dracula

    citing exhaustion

    As long as this exhaust isn’t monitored by the EPA and regulated by the Feds.

  22. 22.

    beltane

    @Punchy: Some 50% of his practice is made up of Medicare patients. That, more than anything else, brands him as the lowest of hypocrites in my mind.

  23. 23.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Fern:

    He’s been campaigning for the senate seat for three days and he can’t take it anymore? Hmm.

    Reminds me of someone . . . .

    ETA: Anyone want to start a pool on when Rand Paul’s book (Regnery Press) will hit the stores?

  24. 24.

    Midnight Marauder

    @kay:

    It’s not like Senate seats are hotly contested. Rand Paul is really doing us a favor taking this one.

    When you are canceling an interview with David “Mr. Stay Puft” Gregory, that is how you know someone is terrified of answering any question about anything. He’s afraid of David Gregory?!

    “He’s trying to say that the media is out to get him or the liberals are out to get him,” Conway said. “The problem is, several weeks ago he gave that interview to the Louisville Courier-Journal, the editorial interview. He knew what he said, but then right after the election, he said it again on NPR, and then on MSNBC he had those 20 very painful minutes with Rachel Maddow. And it just kind of took on a life of its own.”
    __
    “What did he say this morning?” Conway added. “‘Sometimes accidents happen’ in the context of miners? We have families right now in Western Kentucky grieving over their relatives that were lost in a mine collapse. We have families in West Virginia still grieving in that terrible mine tragedy over there. And he says ‘sometimes accidents happen?’ That’s not only an empathy gap, that’s cold and callous. And I think that’s a real problem for his campaign.”

    Jack Conway is going to eat this guy alive.

    Edit: I have to say, the Jack Conway fever that is sweeping over me…i dig it. I dig it and I dig it hard.

  25. 25.

    Sue

    I hope this “no uncomfortable questions” rule also applies to Supreme Court nominees.

  26. 26.

    kay

    @Sentient Puddle:

    Because we think like normal people. This is a race, right? He doesn’t feel like showing up, his opponent gets his time.
    No, instead they’ll beg the newest Tea Party celeb to pretty-please TAKE that Senate seat, which was going begging.

  30. 30.

    Third Eye Open

    Why is it that glibertarians always have such WASPy names? Conor…What, was Thurston too provincial? I have never met a glibertarian named Zahara or Jamir. Although, I must admit that GOP did luck out with Young Boozer.

  31. 31.

    Malron

    Conor Friedersdorf retorts (and makes a funny):

    That this is the best Mr. Klein can do lays bear….

    I’m sure Conor knows everything there is about bear fucking.

  32. 32.

    robertdsc

    Maybe we should rename this blog Randal Juice. Temporarily, of course.

    Paint the blog teabag brown in solidarity with the oppressed Rand Paul.

    As I said yesterday, what a bitch he is.

  33. 33.

    Martin

    @JGabriel: I don’t think he means the Special Olympics for Kentuckians, rather for the political press and DC insiders.

  34. 34.

    kay

    @Midnight Marauder:

    He does seem to thoroughly enjoy a fight, and people like that are always fun to watch. Enthusiasm is appealing.
    I was impressed yesterday when he tied Paul and Palin together. Extra points! I was chuckling. He just wades right in.

  35. 35.

    scav

    mmmm, more images, this time moving. half-guv la Palinista and half-interview mini-Paul in “Short Bus on the Nafta Superhighway” I’m undecided if the plot is more Thelma and Louise or Speed, hampered chiefly by my never having seen either movie. I’m sure there’ll be a scene where they’re throwing handfuls of fluttering Ameros out the windows, probably just as they head for the clifftop against the sunset.

  36. 36.

    MikeBoyScout

    mistermix,

    What was the purpose of introducing the terms “Short Bus” and “Special Olympics”?

    Who rides a “Short Bus” and who participates in the “Special Olympics” and why is it relevant to Conor Friedersdorf and Rand Paul?

  37. 37.

    schrodinger's cat

    @DougJ: His blog has become so boring, between promoting bright (according to Sully) young conservatives like Conor and Salam, talking about God, pot and discussing whether Elena Kagan is gay or not, and how great the Tories are, reading his blog has become a waste of time. Now, I check it may be once in two or three days, whereas earlier I was a regular reader who checked his blog at least couple of times everyday.

  38. 38.

    Mark S.

    Geez, so if a candidate is in favor of selling Texas to Mexico, nuking Israel, and decriminalizing pedophilia, we shouldn’t ask him about any of those things because they would never happen? That’s the lamest argument I’ve ever seen made.

  40. 40.

    Cat Lady

    @kay:

    and, as we discussed on an earlier thread about Mitch Daniels, Conway is easy on the eyes. That’s no small thing coughScottBrowncough.

  43. 43.

    Ash Can

    Who the fuck is Conor Friedersdorf, and why does anyone care what he says?

    And that’s too bad that Rand Paul cancelled his appearance on Meet the Press. It sounds like his campaign honchos have managed to shut him the hell up for the time being, while they give him a crash course on how to speak like a political candidate in public. That’s a shame; he was a sure-fire guffaw every time he opened his mouth. I hope they have minimal success in their attempts to school him.

  44. 44.

    Martin

    @arguingwithsignposts: Oh, he would get DESTROYED if he showed up on another Sunday show. Remember when McCain backed out on Letterman only to show up for Couric? Hosts take shit like that personally.

    In other words, PLEASE let him show up on Fox! Oh, the fireworks!

  46. 46.

    FlipYrWhig

    @scav: I think it’s more like Butch Bitch Cassidy and the Sundance Tapdance Kid. They’re snottily dodgin’ a posse of tough questions!

  47. 47.

    Dave C

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    At least in the rural midwest where I grew up, the short bus was typically the bus that kids with disabilities rode to school. It was smaller and equipped with some additional specialized features (like wheel chair access kinds of things) that the “normal” kid’s buses didn’t have.

  48. 48.

    kay

    @Cat Lady:

    Is he? Good. I just read his statements, which come about one every thirty minutes.
    Rand Paul has a horrible voice, IMO, he’s vague and whiny-sounding, which is important to me, as a crucial component of “attractive”, but apparently not to Republicans, who nominated Sarah Palin.
    I’ll have to listen to Conway.

  49. 49.

    Midnight Marauder

    @kay:

    He does seem to thoroughly enjoy a fight, and people like that are always fun to watch. Enthusiasm is appealing.
    I was impressed yesterday when he tied Paul and Palin together. Extra points! I was chuckling. He just wades right in.

    “I think Rand Paul would be bad for the country,” the Kentucky Attorney General said in an interview with the Huffington Post. “Rand Paul would be bad for Kentucky.

    “We are going to say: ‘Look, Rand Paul seems to want to be the prince of some national ideology. I want to be a senator for Kentucky, for the Kentuckians who are hurting right now,'” Conway explained.

    Yeah, the guy is ready for a fight.

    This is why I’ve been stunned that so many people keep saying “Yeah, but it’s Kentucky. Rand Paul is still going to cruise to victory.” Uh, I know it’s Kentucky and all, but there are still human beings there who have real lives and actual hearts and rational minds, who will not appreciate a candidate for Senate saying “accidents will happen” after their uncle or their cousin was blown up.

    Rand Paul is like an ideological automaton and after this first week he’s had, I really don’t see how it gets better for him. I don’t see how his performance improves over time; I don’t see how his rhetoric is moderated at all; and I don’t see how his ideas and positions grow to be more encompassing.

  51. 51.

    danimal

    Conor is an idiot or tremendously disingenuous.

    Have we seen this pattern before?
    1. GOP backbencher makes ridiculous claim that resonates well outside the bounds of conventional discourse.
    2. GOP Wurlitzer 2000 spins the ridiculous claim into a fine, perfectly defensible conservative talking point. This only takes time and repetition.
    3. When GOP is anywhere near the halls of power, previously ridiculous item is passed into law.

    Of course Rand Paul’s extreme views are fair game, they’re a better predictor of conservative actions than the conventional wisdom can possibly imagine.

    ETA: Before I’m asked, of course Conor can be BOTH an idiot and tremendously disingenuous.

  52. 52.

    Chuck

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    I may be missing a joke, but I’ll answer since some actually don’t know, or they went to school where the municipal bus system is also mostly the school bus system (like it is in San Francisco):

    When I rode to school on a big yellow school bus, we all waited around in the freezing cold and got on the regular size bus when it arrived, the one that would fit a platoon of kids. The “special” kids however, took a separate bus, and since there were less of them to take to school, that bus would always be smaller. Ergo the short bus.

  53. 53.

    licensed to kill time

    @robertdsc:

    Paint the blog teabag brown in solidarity with the oppressed Rand Paul.

    I wanna see it painted, tainted brown
    Brown the blog, brown as tea
    I wanna see the Rand blotted out from the sky
    I wanna see it painted, tainted, tainted, tainted brown
    (because of that clown)
    Yeah!

  54. 54.

    kth

    It has been dispiriting* to see one and all of the inward-gazing Culture 11 Grand New Party smart conservative set from circa 2007 find a comfy seat on one bandwagon or the other as it pulled out of the depot. All that stuff about re-examining priorities and learning from their mistakes totally out the window as soon as a new set with a shot at winning emerged, even though they are utter charlatans of the Paul Ryan / Rand Paul stripe.

    *who am I kidding, it has actually been hilarious (and due exception made for Larison and maybe Reihan Salam).

  55. 55.

    invisible_hand

    Rand Paul and the Village Short Bus

    Unless the Kentucky Senate campaign is the Special Olympics of politics…

    I agree with the thesis of this post: Dr. Paul’s political views are directly relevant to his candidacy, and giving him special excuses due to theoretical impossibility of his desires being fulfilled is not a good direction for American politics.

    However, i don’t think using this kind of insensitive language is appropriate.

    i am a long-time reader (though infrequent commenter), and i quite often love reading this blog. please try to use more appropriate language to express your legitimate outrage.

  56. 56.

    Drive By Wisdom

    Anti-establishment fellow wins, and the John Cole’s of the left go beserk and regurgitate the lies of their beltway masters.

    It is going to be fun watching the left get progressively more hysterical as their grip on America slips.

  57. 57.

    scav

    @FlipYrWhig: ooo, good, and that line could bring in some epic images of the defense of the Alamo . . . could do one of those things where the story in the past echos the story in the present to make it edgy.

  58. 58.

    celticdragonchick

    Charles Johnson is smacking Rand Pual left and right. Paul just cancelled out of Meet The Press…

    Also see this nightmare yesterday in Tennessee.

    A Glen Beck 9/12 project lecturer and his son were killed in a gun battle with police after killing two other officers. Lotsa links with Alex Jones as well.

    Bad craziness out there…

    A member of the far right sovereign citizen movement (and quack mortgage adviser) and his son were shot to death yesterday in Memphis in a gun battle with police, in which two police officers were also killed: Relatives ID West Memphis suspects.

    Where else do we find Jerry Kane on the web? Why, at Glenn Beck’s “9/12 Project” website, of course: Two exceptional nights with Jerry Kane! – successes surrounding Foreclosure & Credit Card Debt along with several interesting technologies! – The 9/12 Project (New York, NY) – Meetup.com. (Hat tip: KT.)

  59. 59.

    Chuck

    Why stop there? Why should we refrain from electing a senator who wants to all manner of idiotic and horrific things that the President and the rest of Congress would actually restrain them from doing?

    There is just no possible way that we are going to move to chicken bartering as our new economic system, so we needn’t worry about a Senator’s position on that.

    There is just no possible way that we are going to nuke Canada and Germany for no reason whatsoever, so we needn’t worry about a Senator’s position on pointless unpremeditated genocide of our allies.

    There is just no possible way that the Senate would pass a bill mandating tin-foil hats for everybody, so we needn’t worry about a Senator’s position on the CIA and space aliens listening to his thoughts.

    Why do we really need to know anything about the way a potential Senator thinks?

  60. 60.

    joel hanes

    I quit reading Sullivan shortly after the US invaded Iraq and it became clear that all the justifications offered for that war were lies. He’s a brilliant wanker. Watching him attempt to paper over the remaining “conservative” lies to which he still clings is wearying and ultimately sterile.

  61. 61.

    scav

    @schrodinger’s cat: Unless, of course, you live in a very small district, in which case every single one of us climbed into the short bus. Lucky us: I don’t think we could have pushed the long bus out of the snow the few times we needed to!

  63. 63.

    arguingwithsignposts

    Just to be fair, there are short buses used in rural counties to pick up kids in sparsely populated areas where it doesn’t make sense to send a big bus (long bus?), and also short buses that take athletic teams to sporting events. But the popular understanding is the use for special needs kids.

    ETA: I see SCAV beat me to it.

  64. 64.

    LD50

    @Drive By Wisdom: Are you here for another one of your legendary ‘history lessons’, DBW? You kind of scurried away the other day when you tried to tell us how civil rights workers opposed the Civil Rights Act.

  65. 65.

    kay

    @Midnight Marauder:

    I don’t remember where I read it, but Paul apparently almost forgot to mention “Kentucky” in his crowing acceptance speech, and instead promoted the Tea Party. It was like one to nine mentions. Not good.
    It looks like Conway is hitting that (Kentucky, Kentucky, Kentucky), which is smart.
    I think Senate seats are really state offices, in a way that House seats are not.

  68. 68.

    Mike Kay

    Hmmm,

    Funny how glen greenwald has nothing to say about rand paul.

    I can only imagine his breathless outrage if elena kagen opposed the civil rights act.

  69. 69.

    The Other Chuck

    @Chuck:

    THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!

    Since I’m considering retiring my current net-wide nickname (sproingie) I think I’ll just be The Other Chuck then.

    (And can someone tell me why this went into moderation? The shouting?)

  70. 70.

    freelancer

    Rand Paul has a horrible voice, IMO, he’s vague and whiny-sounding, which is important to me, as a crucial component of “attractive”, but apparently not to Republicans, who nominated Sarah Palin.

    Sarah’s contract rider:

    -If the name of the speaking venue exceeds four syllables, then it must be temporarily changed to “Thompson Hall”

    -Book of word searches and package of string cheese for Todd

    -Extra red clothing just in case something happens to her other red clothing

    –Audio engineer must ensure speakers are capturing full cuntiness of voice

    -Dressing-room lighting fixtures must be equipped with non-efficient bulbs

  71. 71.

    scav

    @LD50: Hey, be easy on the guy. He explicitly admits he Drove By Wisdom — didn’t say anything about stopping to pick any up. We’ll just hope he’s headed for the nearest off-ramp on the NAFTA Superhighway in a bus of indeterminate length and bad brakes.

  73. 73.

    licensed to kill time

    @scav: I go for the end scene in Thelma and Louise, with Palin and Paul sailing off the cliff in the convertible (I did not say short bus, for all you delicate flowers, though I was tempted.)

  75. 75.

    Mnemosyne

    @Drive By Wisdom:

    It is going to be fun watching the left get progressively more hysterical as their grip on America slips.

    I love Republican projection. It smells like … victory.

  78. 78.

    Midnight Marauder

    @kay:

    I don’t remember where I read it, but Paul apparently almost forgot to mention “Kentucky” in his crowing acceptance speech, and instead promoted the Tea Party. It was like one to nine mentions. Not good.
    It looks like Conway is hitting that (Kentucky, Kentucky, Kentucky), which is smart.
    I think Senate seats are really state offices, in a way that House seats are not.

    You are not far off at all:

    “I have a message from the Tea Party. A message that is loud and clear and does not mince words: We have come to take our government back. We’ve come to take our government back from the special interests who think that the federal government is their own personal ATM…Washington is horribly broken. I think we stand on a precipice. We are encountering a day of reckoning and this Tea Party movement is a message to Washington that we’re unhappy and we want things done differently.”

    Rand Paul is trying to run a national, Tea Party revolution campaign in the race for a Kentucky Senate seat. Jack Conway is trying to win the race for a Kentucky Senate seat.

    “I have a message from the Tea Party.” That’s nice. What about one from Kentucky citizens?

  80. 80.

    JGabriel

    Via SiubhanDuinne:

    It’s only the third cancellation from a major guest in 62 years, the show’s Executive Producer Betsy Fischer said …

    … adding, “John McCain never cancels.”

    .

  81. 81.

    matoko_chan

    wannabe Villagers like Mr. Friedersdorf think.

    notice he doesn’t cross-post this at TAS.
    cw and chet would totally eviscerate him.
    and i would use my mad engineer-motie skillz to make the thread into a devastating Rand Paul fisking.

    /flexes motie toolarms

  82. 82.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Mike Kay:

    I can only imagine his breathless outrage if elena kagen opposed the civil rights act.

    I can only imagine his breathless outage if his shoe came untied.

  84. 84.

    Claudia

    Isn’t it also interesting to somebody that our political discussion now extends into basic principles? that people want to talk about how systems that sound great don’t always work well in practice? that disparaging citizens who want to discuss and participate in favor of know-it-alls of the Elite class, may mean we’ve stopped believing in Democracy at all??

    Since this site seems to be full of “my team is better than your team nah-nah-nah,” you may assume the questions above are rhetorical. Sadly.

  85. 85.

    Martin

    @arguingwithsignposts: We’ve only got short buses in our very urban/suburban area because the schools are set up to be walking distance, and only kids that are on the periphery of that distance need to get picked up. I think there are 2 small buses that serve 6 elementary schools here.

    Lots of ways to cut education costs – good planning is one of them. Buses are expensive to operate.

  86. 86.

    maus

    @Martin:

    Starbursts and leg-thrills is the fucking point. I think the last 2 years has made that obvious enough.

    Tweety probably sees Paul as “weak” enough that he can unload his disdain along with the rest. If Paul hadn’t just tanked himself I’m fairly certain that Matthews would be slurping himself along.

    @Midnight Marauder: It’s pretty wonderful that he got so excited about his future for the presidency that he wasted his entire momentum and both tied himself to his father’s failures and further tore holes in the thin veneer of respectability the teaparty had in “independent”/”moderate” America. Y’know, the undecideds.

  87. 87.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @Claudia:

    that people want to talk about how systems that sound great don’t always work well in practice?

    Which systems would those be? Medicare/Medicaid? Social Security? The ADA? or the Civil Rights Act? or Regulation on industry?

    I don’t think I’ve heard or read anything Rand Paul said about those systems “sound(ing) great” but not “always work(ing) well in practice?” He’s basically said those systems don’t sound great at all.

    that disparaging citizens who want to discuss and participate in favor of know-it-alls of the Elite class, may mean we’ve stopped believing in Democracy at all??

    By know-it-alls of the Elite Class, do you mean Drs. Ron and Rand Paul?

    I believe it was Soc1alist Bernie Sanders who said we live in an “oligarchy” on one of the MSNBC shows the other day. Maybe you’re a confused Soc1alist?

  88. 88.

    licensed to kill time

    __

    Isn’t it also interesting to somebody that our political discussion now extends into basic principles? that people want to talk about how systems that sound great don’t always work well in practice?

    Like Libertarianism?

  89. 89.

    matoko_chan

    @Claudia: your team is teatarded.
    They had the ball and fumbled badly and now you want a do-over?
    Sowwy….. we live in a meritocracy.
    “commonsense” and a strong relationship with Jesus just don’t cut it.
    we had that for 8 years.
    now we are going for IQ and skillz. sowwy if that makes me an elitist, but then, thomas jefferson was too.

  90. 90.

    JGabriel

    @Fern:

    I’m starting to wonder if he had just assumed that he would not win the primary.

    Paul thought he was supposed to get a honeymoon. Or, as Paul himself said:

    I thought I was supposed to get a honeymoon.

    Yeah, that one just kinda stands there on its own without any real need for more creative mocking.

    .

  91. 91.

    Prof. K&G

    If Conway has a half-decent media outfit, he’ll make Paul’s “accidents happen” into this election’s “I did it to get reeee-eeeelected.”

  93. 93.

    MikeBoyScout

    I think it is time to update the Balloon Juice lexicon

    Randroid — Portmanteau of android and Ayn Rand’s surname; used to describe those so enamored of Rand’s Objectivist pseudo-philosophy (as popularized in her novels Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead ) that they have become reflexive, morally inhuman grotesques (h/t commentor JGabriel).

    Best exemplified by Kentucky 2010 US Senate Republican candidate Rand, Teabagging Hero, Paul.

  94. 94.

    Jon

    What’re the odds that GOP handlers can control the Rand man? Slim to none. You cross a know-nothing teabagger with a profession already brimming with arrogance (M.D.) and you get a guy who thinks he knows absolutely everything and can’t wait to tell us.

  95. 95.

    Brachiator

    @licensed to kill time:

    (I did not say short bus, for all you delicate flowers, though I was tempted.)

    And I guess that a Tropic Thunder reference would send some into spasmodic pearl clutching because, by any measure, Rand Paul’s problem is that he went full libtard. He didn’t try to lighten any of his shit up.

  96. 96.

    gwangung

    @Claudia: You appeared initmidated by people who can put together coherent sentences to make an argument.

    You may want to up your game, citing specifics and making cogent rhertorical arguments.

  97. 97.

    Prof. K&G

    that people want to talk about how systems that sound great don’t always work well in practice?

    You mean like how the free market failed to force all those shopkeepers to allow blacks in their establishment?

    It’s a fine conversation to have, but first you have to be not historically illiterate.

  98. 98.

    bemused

    @beltane:
    Rand finally realized the answer to his question of when he is going to get his honeymoon is not any time soon.
    Rand & Palin really are birds of a feather…can’t take the heat.

  99. 99.

    Downpuppy

    This is the Jim Bunning seat, after all.

    Batshit crazy with a side of stupid is what folks have come to expect.

  100. 100.

    arguingwithsignposts

    I just heard Rand Paul say the “Democrat National Committee” quoted on Tweety’s show.

    Is that a genetic thing with GOPers? FSM, that drives me crazy, which is probably the point. If we could just think of something similar to call the Republican Party – Republicrat Party?

  101. 101.

    kay

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    I don’t get that either. Why is Dr. Rand Paul, privileged son of long-term House member Dr. Ron Paul, being portrayed as this common-man outsider?
    Because he can’t talk, and doesn’t understand legislation, and the Constitution?
    That’s true of a lot of people.

  102. 102.

    Mnemosyne

    @Claudia:

    Isn’t it also interesting to somebody that our political discussion now extends into basic principles?

    Since the basic principle of the Republicans and libertarians is that there shouldn’t even be a government, that’s unfortunately the ground we have to start on: trying to convince people that having police stations, public schools, and bridges that don’t fall into the Mississippi and kill people is a good thing. If your opponents can’t even acknowledge that we might need some form of government to keep a country of 350 million people running then, yes, we have to go back to basic principles to explain those confusing ideas in the Constitution like “the common defense” and “the general welfare.”

  104. 104.

    Mnemosyne

    @kay:

    Why is Dr. Rand Paul, privileged son of long-term House member Dr. Ron Paul, being portrayed as this common-man outsider?

    The same reason George W. Bush, son of a president and grandson of a US senator, was portrayed a Washington DC outsider: because it’s easier to get the rubes to sign on that way. See Claudia above for a good example.

  105. 105.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @JGabriel:

    Thanks for that. Somehow I had missed the “honeymoon” comment whine.

    “I thought I was supposed to get a honeymoon. When does my honeymoon start after my victory?”
    ___
    Wolf Blitzer answered: “No such thing in politics.”

    Rand Paul is some kind of shiznit miracle worker. He made Wolf Blitzer say something I agree with!

  106. 106.

    bemused

    I wonder if DeMint had that talk with Rand & told him to shut up & quit digging his hole deeper.

  107. 107.

    kay

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    But: Rand Paul isn’t a member of the Republican Party. He’s a principled outsider.
    In the same way that Tea Party was a spontaneous, grass-roots movement that came complete with a logo-ed bus and long-term Republican operatives running it.
    It’s magical.

  108. 108.

    licensed to kill time

    @Brachiator:

    I never quite get the fainting couch folks, since we are all here on a site that regularly talks about creative copulation techniques with goats, the skulls of kittens and farm implements that have been left out in the rain.

  109. 109.

    mai naem

    Anybody notice how Rand Paul has that 50’s WASPish look about him? He even manages to look like a member of the elite. Apart from Failin Palin, I can’t think of anybody less ready for prime time than Rand Paul. And seriously, his dad really named him Rand after Ayn Rand? How come his mom allowed that?

  110. 110.

    kay

    @Mnemosyne:

    That always made me laugh with Bush. He’s a third generation politician. So, of course, he ran as an outsider.
    Imagine Daddy Bush’s donor list. That’s a valuable item, right there.

  111. 111.

    JGabriel

    @gwangung:

    You may want to up your game, citing specifics and making cogent rhetorical arguments.

    Tea Partiers know who they can trust, they don’t need no steenking cogency or rhetoric like those snobby intellectual liberal elites!

    .

  112. 112.

    Midnight Marauder

    @Claudia:

    Since this site seems to be full of “my team is better than your team nah-nah-nah,” you may assume the questions above are rhetorical. Sadly.

    I bet you are still wishing this site assumed those questions were rhetorical, aren’t you?

    Yeah, it’s a tough break when people respond to nonsense in a decidedly serious fashion.

  114. 114.

    maus

    @Claudia:

    Isn’t it also interesting to somebody that our political discussion now extends into basic principles?

    “Basic principles” are what people are supposed to vote for and legislate upon. They are the foundation of everything we act upon and formulate.

    The only “interesting thing’ is that the media is JUST NOW paying attention to basic principles, and will proceed to forget about it, heading back into the realm of beltway gossip soon enough.

    @Midnight Marauder: Asking her questions isn’t fair. You’re just like the Lamestream media with that whole “figuring out motivations and predicting behavior” stuff.

  116. 116.

    kay

    @Brachiator:

    Short bus bothers me a little, today, I admit. I went to a grammar school event and the handicapped kids trooped in to the gym to attend. I was getting a little teary, because the “ordinarily-abled” children were accepting of them, and I was thinking there’s been progress there. We were sort of rigidly segregated, back in the day. I never saw “them”. They didn’t come to “assemblies”.

    I don’t know: once you have faces with a “joke”, it’s harder.

  117. 117.

    LD50

    @SiubhanDuinne: I think the deal is, that like all devout libertarians, Paul expected everyone to just LOVE his ideas, once they were properly explained. When this didn’t happen, it turned out he didn’t have a Plan B.

  118. 118.

    SiubhanDuinne

    The first sentence on the home page of Rand Paul’s website is:

    Dr. Paul has been married to his loving wife, Kelley, for 19 years and they have three boys.

    I’m not sure why, but it creeps me out a little bit that he feels the need to emphasize that Kelley is his loving wife. As though we might otherwise assume that she hated him, or was indifferent to him, or just kind of tolerated him.

    Also, and maybe now I’m just looking for things to critique, but in the video* and still photos of his family while he was giving his acceptance speech the other night, his sons all appear quite apprehensive, uncomfortable. Might just be adolescence, might be stage fright, might be the lighting and camera angles — but I didn’t think any of them conveyed happiness or relief or any sense of victory. I admit I could be very wrong on this.

    *I also admit I couldn’t bear to watch more than a minute or two of the video, so there’s that.

  123. 123.

    Brachiator

    @kay:

    I don’t know: once you have faces with a “joke”, it’s harder.

    No, it’s not. Not always. And I say this from personal experience.

    There is humor, even raunchy nasty humor. This is not the same as putting down someone who is handicapped. Nor does humor need to be an impediment to understanding and acceptance.

  125. 125.

    LD50

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I’m not sure why, but it creeps me out a little bit that he feels the need to emphasize that Kelley is his loving wife. As though we might otherwise assume that she hated him, or was indifferent to him, or just kind of tolerated him.
    Also

    I think he’s just trying to assure the Republicans that he’s not gay.

  126. 126.

    JGabriel

    <a href="#comment-1778680">arguingwithsignposts: Y’all have no appreciation for how much I suffered to find the most mind-blowingly bad/hysterical video of Macarthur Park. Sooo many options. What I go through for this site, I tell ya …

    .

  127. 127.

    Fern

    @SiubhanDuinne: His wife looked really uncomfortable too – the smile was very forced. I heard Rand say on some video clip or other that she did not want him to run.

  128. 128.

    Brachiator

    OT, but a semi-anti-Randian theme. I just saw this subhead on a New York Times article (How Obama’s 16 Months Has Changed Washington)

    The financial reform bill completes a period of legislative and executive activity that rivals any other since the New Deal in scope and ambition.

    But weren’t progressives bitching just the other day that Obama couldn’t get anything done? Wasn’t there a hissy fit of buyer’s remorse from some in the “we shoulda voted for Hillary” crowd?

    Just askin’.

  129. 129.

    K. Grant

    Randal Paul. Rand Paul. R. Paul. Ru Paul. Oh my God! A black drag queen is running for the Senate in Kentucky?!? Do they know this?!?

  132. 132.

    kay

    @Brachiator:

    I’m not calling for a boycott or anything. I don’t usually laugh at really ribald or obvious humor like “short bus”, anyway. I just go right by it.
    Just watching them today was really nice, there was a naturalness to the acceptance in their body language when the two groups came together that made me think something good has gradually happened, but I’m a sucker for that sort of thing.
    They should have put us together more, back in the day. We would have done fine with each other, with practice.
    Anyway, I’m not offended.

  133. 133.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @JGabriel:
    I personally have no appreciation because I would *never* click on a link to MacArthur Park unless someone tricked me (just like that song about dying in the springtime). But your service to teh lulz is duly noted.

  134. 134.

    Brachiator

    @kay:

    Just watching them today was really nice, there was a naturalness to the acceptance in their body language when the two groups came together that made me think something good has gradually happened, but I’m a sucker for that sort of thing.

    I did not add, and I should have, that I take your point. Your description of the event was very moving. And the issue of acceptance, and how far we have come in some ways about some things, resonates in all kinds of ways, political and otherwise.

  135. 135.

    SectarianSofa

    @DougJ:

    Yeah, I wish I had gotten the hint earlier. I would just not read the blog for a few days when “It” Boy Conor was guest-postin’.

  136. 136.

    SectarianSofa

    @beltane:

    Yeah, Sullivan and his blog helpers do grab some great stuff from around the webs. Like I said, er, yesterday, though, ever since the Kagan gay-coverup-freakout, I just couldn’t take it anymore. He ‘ll have to carry on with his Breathless! Quest! for! Truth! Justice! Jesus! without me.
    Gagh.
    Oh, and before that, his ‘Puss TV’ updates with his “good friends” matt and trey . Blargh. Fucking stop it, man.
    Oh, before that, it was Misunderstanding Buddhism 101. Followed by, “Yes, I’m a closet TM’er”

    Phew. OK. I’ll stop.

  138. 138.

    SectarianSofa

    @JGabriel:

    In Kentucky, lead balloons may float.

    I shouldn’t talk, being from Texas, where the Global Embarrassment that is the SBOE is in Full Stupid, running as fast as possible back towards the Middle Ages.
    Different kind of dumbassery where I work though — libertards abound.

  139. 139.

    SectarianSofa

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    Wow. Niiiice.

    I did remember finding it interesting that his blog sounded almost exactly the same when he was out on vacation. Whoever was usually finding links and whatnot was doing entry posting, but using using their name.

  141. 141.

    Chuck Butcher

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    but he didn’t name him after her.

    I don’t know why you seem so sure about “-al” on the end means Ayn wasn’t involved. I’m sure you’re familiar with the name “Charlene” and have to ask if you figure that has something to do with other than “Charles”? Now I don’t know that Ayn was the model, either. Ron and his wife never bothered to tell me back then. Not that I care…

    In regard to the short bus, it isn’t a joke I use though I do laugh at some usages of it. Humor and words are funny things, it isn’t uncommon to use idiot in place of stupid, retarded replaced the uncomfortable idiot and was in turn replaced and that will probably also be replaced. It is an uncomfortable subject with a noun that describes intellectual disability that comes close enough to rank stupidity to get used interchangably as an insult. We’re stuck with that and all the PC in the world won’t change it. Add into semantic confusion the concept that humor is very frequently used in regard to uncomfortable to tragic events.

  142. 142.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @Chuck Butcher:

    I don’t know why you seem so sure about “-al” on the end means Ayn wasn’t involved. I’m sure you’re familiar with the name “Charlene” and have to ask if you figure that has something to do with other than “Charles”? Now I don’t know that Ayn was the model, either. Ron and his wife never bothered to tell me back then. Not that I care…

    That’s a fair point. But sometimes a “Charlene” is just a “Charlene,” (because it was a grandmother’s name, or something else) even though the etymology may have been from “Charles.” Just like a Shawn/Sean may just be a Shawn/Sean, even though the etymology is from John.

    Maybe David Gregory could ask Ron on MTP sometime.

  143. 143.

    Chuck Butcher

    @arguingwithsignposts:
    Since I’m a “III” I’m real sure about my name – and they told me. I don’t think it is or would be odd that Ron’s fake philosophy founder’s name is an “al” short of the same as though Randal is a common name.

  144. 144.

    SectarianSofa

    @LD50:

    I believe plan B is a 125-ton concrete and steel box, which will keep him away from the press. Plan C is they put a pipe down him and suction as much of the raw crazy out as they can, and try to plug the leaks on an ad hoc basis. (The recovered raw crazy will be sent to Uganda, to keep down the gays, and elsewhere, as Business Interests see fit.)

  146. 146.

    The non-Other Chuck

    @The Other Chuck: Sorry, it had been a while since I posted here, but the name was prepopulated in the browser and I didn’t think twice or scan for duplicates. You can have it. :)

  150. 150.

    Yutsano

    @kay: Just as an FYI I went to college with a full paraplegic named Chet. He got laid more than I did, and I didn’t do too terribly in the shagging department in college. So exposure really does help both sides in these situations.

  151. 151.

    Joey Maloney

    @LD50: I think he’s just trying to assure the Republicans that he’s not gay.

    makes sense, especially with that lisp.

  152. 152.

    Kilkee

    @Third Eye Open: Glibertarian he may be, but “Conor” is a decidedly non-Waspy name. It is nearly exclusively Irish (in Irish, it’s ‘Conchulbhan,’ or something close) and until recently almost unknown outside of Ireland. It has lately become more popular (including its misspelled version, ‘Connor’) with everyone from Tom Cruise to RFK Jr to Larry Bird using it for one of his sons. My son Conor just celebrated his 32nd birthday, and only in the last 10 years has he ever met another Conor who was not born in Ireland.

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