Rand Paul
June 26, 2014 — Paul Mirengoff
I wrote here about Rand Paul’s unconstitutional plan to propose federal legislation that would enfranchise some felons. Now, Sen. Paul has addressed the constitutional issue posed by such legislation. He argues, in essence, that states decide who votes in state elections, but the federal government has the final say on who can vote in federal elections. Roger Clegg makes short work of Paul’s contention: The U.S. Constitution itself explicitly gives
»
June 25, 2014 — Paul Mirengoff
Rand Paul is fond of invoking the Constitution to support his policy preferences. But is he really a “constitutional conservative”? Roger Clegg raises the question in light of Paul’s announced plan to introduce federal legislation to enfranchise some felons. This plan probably reflects Paul’s desire to increase his appeal to African-American voters. But is it constitutional? No, it is not. As Clegg explains: The Constitution gives the states the authority
»
June 22, 2014 — Paul Mirengoff
Rand Paul said today on Meet the Press that he does not blame President Obama for the instability in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East; instead he blames President Bush. Paul told an undoubtedly delighted David Gregory: What’s going on now I don’t blame on President Obama. Has he really got the solution? Maybe there is no solution. But I do blame the Iraq war on the chaos that
»
April 20, 2014 — Paul Mirengoff
A new Granite State poll of likely New Hampshire Republican primary voters is out. The poll was conducted for WMUR by the University of New Hampshire. The results can’t be taken too seriously because only 1 percent of those surveyed say they have definitely decided how they will vote. But the results are interesting, nonetheless. Rand Paul is the leader at 15 percent. He is followed by “favorite daughter” Kelly
»
April 15, 2014 — Steven Hayward
We’ve got a link in our “Picks” section this morning to Bret Stephens’s Wall Street Journal column mockingly titled “Rand Paul for President,” whose subhed suggests that perhaps the GOP, like Democrats in the 1980s, needs to suffer a landslide defeat to get its head on straight. Stephens thinks Rand Paul’s “bark-at-the-moon lunacy” would be just the ticket. Paul’s partisans will discount Stephens as part of the neocon conspiracy. But
»
March 20, 2014 — Paul Mirengoff
Rand Paul says he will call for the creation of a bipartisan committee to probe and reform the intelligence community. Paul wants the committee to “watch the watchers,” along the lines of the post-Watergate Church Committee in the 1970s. This idea was well-received by Berkeley students, as you would expect. The Church Committee too was very popular in leftist circles. The Church Committee was a response to serious abuses of
»
March 19, 2014 — John Hinderaker
Rand Paul is one of a small number of Republicans–Marco Rubio is another–who have the potential to expand the playing field in 2016 and bring a mostly-conservative message to voters who aren’t used to pulling the GOP lever. He showed that again today when he visited the University of California at Berkeley: Nobody should be surprised that Rand Paul got so warm a welcome Wednesday, even in a city whose
»
March 8, 2014 — John Hinderaker
I want to like Rand Paul. I really do. He is a very smart guy and in most respects a solid conservative. He has tried to distance himself from some of his father’s less savory positions, and has even described himself as a “social conservative,” although what he means by that is not at all clear. And Paul is indisputably an effective, even charismatic politician whose unique slant on the
»
March 3, 2014 — Paul Mirengoff
Politico reports that Marco Rubio is “seeking to rehabilitate his image with much of the GOP base” by falling back on “staunch conservative positions” such as a “more aggressive U.S. response to Russia in the Ukraine crisis.” I hope that denouncing passivity in response to aggression by our adversaries remains a staunch conservative position. Rubio explained that “many of my supporters maybe disagreed with me on immigration — and disagreed
»
December 26, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
For what it’s worth, and that may not be much, Chris Christie is in a statistical dead heat with Hillary Clinton in a poll by CNN/ORC International. The poll puts Christie at 48 percent and Clinton at 46 percent. Christie wins nearly six in ten votes among independents, and wins a majority of suburbanites and older voters. Clinton wins decisively among women. Unfortunately, Christie is the only Republican among those
»
October 12, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Ted Cruz has won a straw poll at the Value Voters Summit. Cruz picked up an impressive 42 percent of the vote. His fiery rhetoric regarding the shutdown showdown, a topic avoided by other legislators who spoke to the group, must have helped. Rick Santorum and Dr. Benjamin Carson were next in the poll with 13 percent. Rand Paul finished fourth with 6 percent and Marco Rubio was fifth with
»
October 1, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Rand Paul said today that he would support a short-term funding measure “to keep the government open while we negotiate.” The negotiations Paul has in mind would take place in “conference committee.” Paul would put a time limit of a week or two on these negotiations. What are we to make of the Senate’s most prominent libertarian breaking ranks with Republican hardliners in the name of reopening the federal government?
»
September 4, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Today the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 10-7 to authorize a limited use of military force in Syria. Those voting for the resolution included Chris Coons, Robert Menendez, Barbara Boxer, Benjamin Cardin, Jeanne Shaheen, Dick Durbin and Tim Kaine, all Democrats, joined by Republicans Bob Corker, John McCain and Jeff Flake. The resolution was amended, at McCain’s insistence, in a manner that puts the U.S. on the side of the
»
September 4, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Marco Rubio and Rand Paul both questioned John Kerry and his sidekicks during yesterday’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Syria. Rubio was very skeptical about the president’s idea of attacking the Assad regime; Paul was adamantly opposed to it. They were coming from different places. Rubio said he favors taking out the Assad regime, though he acknowledged the risks of doing so. Paul wants a “hands off of Syria.”
»
July 30, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Chris Christie and Rand Paul are in the midst of a food fight. Not literally, but very much figuratively. Their debate has devolved from one about warrantless federal surveillance programs to the question of which state, New Jersey or Kentucky, receives more “pork.” You can read some of the lowlights here. For the record, I’m with Christie on the original issue — warrantless federal surveillance programs — and agnostic on
»
July 26, 2013 — Steven Hayward
So the big story on the right today is that Gov. Chris Christie has leveled a blast at libertarians, in particular his potential 2016 primary rival Sen. Rand Paul: “This strain of libertarianism that’s going through both parties right now and making big headlines I think is a very dangerous thought. … You can name any number of people and he’s [Rand Paul] one of them,” Christie said at a panel
»
July 15, 2013 — Scott Johnson
I found Ron Paul’s foreign policy views during the 2012 campaign for the GOP nomination to be deeply troubling when they weren’t simply embarrassing. I’m sure if I’d been paying attention to his congressional career I could extend the statement beyond the 2012 campaign. During the campaign one memorable lowlight came when Paul attributed 9/11 to the foreign policy of the United States. As I understood him, Paul sought for
»
