Rand Paul, who campaigned against bailouts and pledged not to take money from politicians who had voted for one, recently took money from a $1,000 a plate fundraiser hosted by Mitch McConnell and other Senators who voted for the bailout.
If you want to join a game, you play by the existing rules, said Aaron Witten of Grayson County, a regional coordinator for Paul.
“That doesn’t mean that once you get into the game, you can’t try to change the system for the better,” Witten said. “He’s just playing the very few parts of the game that he has to to get in.”
If Paul thought he could win without McConnell’s fund-raising, he probably would, but he will need that help against Conway, who is wealthy enough to give his campaign a big financial boost, Witten said.
Since Paul was elected on the “whatever it takes to win” platform, this bit of flexibility shouldn’t present a problem.
In other teabagger news, Sharron Angle is so proud of her previous campaign website that she’s filing a cease-and-desist to keep the Reid campaign from posting a copy.
Waynski
That should be an interesting court case. If you put something like a website in the public domain, can you then claim after you take it out of the public domain that it’s private property? I would think not but I’m sure Clarence Thomas will find some phantom clause in the Constitution to uphold such a principle.
Uloborus
Absolutely. Rand Paul has completely abandoned the libertarian Teabagging that got him nominated. He recently criticized the government for not sufficiently regulating BP – although his claim that BP warned them that they needed better regulation was a nice touch.
It worries me, because it suggests he might be electable after all. Other Teabag candidates are less savvy. I’m hoping he’ll just piss off the people who nominated him and they won’t vote.
Sly
Don’t think it will be a big deal for his dedicated followers. Paul’s father repeatedly votes for pork-laden crap in the House, and you’ll hear nary a peep about this from the Paultard Legion. As for independents, he probably lost them anyway. Not that there are many of those in Kentucky.
Sharon Angle, on the other hand, could potentially be taken as proof that God both exists and loves Harry Reid.
frankdawg
Here in MN the Republican candidate for Gov came out against the current minimum wage for tipped employees. MN is one of a handful of states that has the same min for tipped & untipped alike – he wants to roll min wage for tipped employees to $2.20 / hour.
He feels this would create a bunch of new jobs!?!
Comrade Javamanphil
I am shocked that these two paragons of principle turned out to be conniving opportunists. Shocked, I tell you. I will be equally shocked when the principled voters that supported them before decide to continue supporting them still. David Vitter proved there is almost nothing you cannot do as a Republican and still turn out the base. Rep Inglis proved that dissing Glenn Beck is one of those things. Welcome to your new GOP.
Uloborus
@Comrade Javamanphil:
I disagree. There’s nothing you can do that will piss them off as long as you look conservative doing it. The Tea Partiers are obsessed with purity. I hold out a hope that they’ll decide Paul is becoming too liberal.
Zifnab
@Sly:
Proving that South Park may have known what they were talking about when they suggested that the one true religion is The Mormons.
kommrade reproductive vigor
He’s very popular in restrooms frequented by Republicans.
Yeah. Good luck with that. Although she’ll be able to whine about activist judges, the loss of privacy and mean nasty libs so it’s a win-win.
jrg
This never gets old, does it? Kind of reminds me of when Republicans accuse Media Matters of being a radical left-wing organization because they post unedited clips of right-wing “news” programs.
Hey, geniuses… If you don’t want people to hear what you’re saying, don’t f***ing say it in public.
fucen tarmal
after rand paul got hollowed out over his principled and esoteric stand on civil rights, now he is playing a pragmatic game?
this makes no sense. i mean if his loyal followers can understand why he is whoring for cash now, surely they can accept that paying lip service to 46 year old legislation to keep the heat off, even though they surely know he doesn’t mean it, because he is one of them? it really makes you question the defense of his principles in one, while you scoff at his lack of adherence to them in the other…
that is if he was defending a principle at all, or just making an excuse…
either way, taken together, it shows the guy is clueless.
JGabriel
Waynski:
It can still be under copyright, even after being published publicly.
That said, quoting from the site should fall under “fair use”, especially given the political context. Publishing Angle’s whole “old” site might cause some copyright concerns, but Reid, et. al., should feel free to quote from it liberally (pun not intended, but not avoided either).
.
Zifnab
@Comrade Javamanphil:
It’s worth noting that the diaper abusing hooker was neither a live boy nor a dead girl. So Vitter was never in any real danger.
Beyond that, Diaper Dave wasn’t allowed to do just anything. He’s been a staunch defender of BP, a loyal vote for the GOP caucus, and a vocal critic of the kerning on the President’s birth certificate. In that sense, the only thing that separates Dave from Mitch or Kyl or Voinovich has been a sex scandal.
If you think a loyal candidate in a bedrock Republican state is going to lose his seat over a four year old sex scandal, you’re tragically mistaken.
Staging a Comeback
@JGabriel:
He has. He’s set up another site doing just that.
If Nevadans vote for this imbecile-she makes Sarah Palin look like Margaret Chase Smith, for crissake-they deserve her.
Steeplejack
@frankdawg:
Yeah, and those would be great jobs.
Actually, I just had the funny/horrifying image of a bunch of tip jars suddenly showing up at McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, etc., as management moves to the suddenly viable new model. The invisible hand of the free market at work.
Steeplejack
__
It always amuses me that these “no dirty politics as usual” candidates never seem to work this stuff out ahead of time, but only later, when their supporters have less chance of actually finding out that what they really mean is: “Dirty politics as usual until I get in, then no dirty politics. But if I happen to discover further dirty rules that I have to play by–reluctantly, of course–then of course I will do that.”
ricky
@Waynski:
Mr. Silver retains the right to privacy when he withdraws his long dong so long as it remains flaccid in his pants. It is no longer in the pubic domain if shaven and not stirred.
russell
Look! A penumbra!
jwb
@Staging a Comeback: Yes, since she has clearly stated exactly how she plans to fuck over those who vote for her, I’m firmly of the opinion that anyone who votes for her deserves to get fucked over-and there are no safe words when you choose to play this game.
Kirk Spencer
Reid’s original reposting of Angle’s website had two weaknesses that made a successful lawsuit possible.
First, he used a name for the site that COULD be seen as supportive of Angle. “TheRealSharronAngle” is seen by many here as obvious sarcasm, but may not be such by some people. In particular it may not be seen as such by those who actually agree with her positions, copied on that site. And that led to the big problem:
He left the registration active. So people who agreed with Angle’s position were adding their names and emails as supporters, and Reid’s team was collecting them.
If a suit had occurred, Reid might not have won.
The new site, SharronsUndergroundBunker.com, has neither of those problems. Yes, the full site is posted. But the splash page is not Angle’s original, the name is obviously not pro-Angle, and the name collection part is turned off. Angle’s team MIGHT pursue copyright challenge, but they’re a lot less likely to win. (No certainty, just unlikely.)
Ash Can
In all seriousness, does Rand Paul genuinely stand for anything at all other than getting himself
a cushy gig on the taxpayers’ dimeelected?TomG
#14 – I don’t know if there is a Dunkin’ Donuts where you live (I’m in NY state), but they’ve had tip jars for a few years now.
ricky
It would be fun to live blog Angle’s testimony in a court case over her own website.
Vtr
I can’t remember if I’ve either of them state firm support for term limits. What’s their position on that?
ricky
@Zifnab:
What constitutes “diaper abuse”?
Zifnab
@Ash Can: He stands for lowering (his) taxes, cutting (other people’s) government assistance, and defending the personal liberties that best suite the needs of the people representing the great state of Tennessee.
Voting for Rand Paul is the political equivalent of wanking it. Not surprisingly, Tennessee has it’s fair share of wankers.
Steeplejack
@TomG:
True, as do most Starbucks, but I’m guessing those tip jars don’t represent a significant percentage of the workers’ pay, as in $2.20 an hour plus tips.
Zifnab
@ricky: If your hooker abuses your diaper, obviously.
ricky
@Zifnab:
Using a hooker on your diaper instead of a safety pin could abuse your wanker if you cross over from Kentucky to Tennessee without paying attention.
LindaH
@Steeplejack:
Oh, just visit Golden Corall Buffet and Grill. They have a so-so buffet that includes everything EXCEPT drinks and silverware. Those you have to get from the waitstaff. So good old Golden Corrall gets to call them servers and pay them less than minimum wage, because they serve one thing. Most people don’t see the point of tipping just to have a soda brought to their table. The restaurant very kindly printed up little sheets to tell us about this practice so that they could guilt us into tipping. We did tip, but will never go to one again. It was just despicable.
Uloborus
@Zifnab:
Let me remove one of those. Rand Paul actually is pretty much against everything that would benefit Kentuckians. It’s one of the reasons Conway has a real chance of beating him. Conway’s favorite issues are all things to help Kentucky. Rand’s favorite issues are all national level stuff. Traditionally, Senatorial elections are won by local issues, but… well, Kentucky, and Rand’s tracking hard to the center. He’s trying to get the best of both worlds, by being crazy and spiteful enough to keep his Teabag core while seeming sane and anti-Washington enough to rope in the merely moderately conservative.
sparky
@russell: win. nice photo, btw. is that Orient LI? sure looks like it.
@frankdawg: what happened to minnesota? floride in the water? demographics? too much Roundup?
Garrigus Carraig
Green balloons.
Redshift
For some reason, I’m put in mind of Animal Farm…
“Four legs good, two legs better!“
meander
Rand Paul is also trading principles for political expediency on farm subsidies. You’d think that a principled libertarian would be 100% against farm subsidies, and at first he was, but now he has seen the political writing on the wall and changed his tune. The Rural Blog writes: “Rand Paul, the Republican U.S. Senate nominee in Kentucky, said before he won the May primary subsidies to agriculture are ‘not a good idea.’ Now he has moderated that stance, embracing the largely Democratic idea of not paying subsidies farmers whose incomes are above a certain amount.”
He also clearly doesn’t understand the point of agriculture conservation programs, which he wants to get rid of because he doesn’t like how he thinks they “pay people not to farm.” But that’s not quite right, they aren’t paying people not to farm, they are paying people to protect the land, to give the land a chance to recover, to provide some space for nature. The checks are intended to make up for revenue lost by giving the land a break.
TomG
At this point I’m hoping Rand doesn’t win. Kentucky deserves a real Senator in office. Rand would do his state a big favor if he returned to private practice.
The only Republican I’m paying attention to right now is Gary Johnson, and he isn’t running for anything yet.
twiffer
@frankdawg: that’s a great idea! especially because people tip more when the economy tanks! even though tipping, by definition, is completly optional!
if these people could find a way to outsource jobs that require a physical presence, they would.
asiangrrlMN
@frankdawg: Yep. Sounds like the local GOP. Goddamn it. Why the hell do we keep electing this dumb fucks? Gr.
@Staging a Comeback: I gotta say, I’m reaching the point where I agree with you. If the crazies outvote the non-crazies, then, whatever. Same with Palin as prez in 2012. If enough people want that to happen, then, so be it. I will do what I can to ensure it doesn’t happen, but it still may.
Honus
@Zifnab: If Paul were running in Tennessee instead of Kentucky, that might be relevant.
Honus
@meander: Against farm subsidies in Kentucky? Where the biggest industry is not growing tobacco? (c.f. all the real estate ads that reference a country property’s “tobacco base”)
It’s not liberal democrats that live in all those big country manors.
Chris Grrr
Thank you, Wayback Machine…