Free Republic

ormer Vice President Dick Cheney fired back Sunday after Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) criticized his position on Iraq. In an appearance on ABC's "This Week," Cheney argued Paul, who is widely seen as a potential presidential candidate in 2016, is an "isolationist" who doesn't understand the "absolutely essential" need for America to be involved in the Middle East. "Now, Rand Paul and — by my standards, as I look at his — his philosophy, is basically an isolationist. That didn't work in the 1930s, it sure as heck won't work in the aftermath of 9/11, when 19 guys armed with...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) criticized former Vice President Dick Cheney and blamed "those who supported the Iraq War" for the current crisis in the country in an interview with NBC's David Gregory Friday. Gregory asked Paul about the op-ed co-authored by Dick Cheney and his daughter, Liz that blasted President Barack Obama's handling of the Iraqi crisis and his foreign policy as a whole. Paul said the same questions raised by Cheney in his op-ed could be asked of those who supported the original decision to invade Iraq. He also said he didn't blame Obama for the current crisis, pointing...

Yesterday Sen. Rand Paul spoke on a conference call organized by Michael Bloomberg's Partnership for a New American Economy and - together with Grover Norquist - promoted comprehensive immigration reform (what most call "amnesty").Now, either because he got pushback or to take the sales job to his Tea Parties base, Paul offers a guest editorial at Breitbart News ( peekURL.com/z96LtY3 ). I'll briefly describe how it's wrong and how he's attempting to deceive you. If you're a Rand Paul supporter, I hope to change your mind.Paul begins: I am for immigration reform because I am against allowing 12 million more...

Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) voted against the Senate’s comprehensive immigration reform bill last year, but on Wednesday he plans to “discuss the need for immigration reform.” Mr. Paul will join former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Partnership for a New American Economy’s monthly series on immigration reform hosted by Grover Norquist.

Rand Paul told GOP activists Saturday that the GOP can’t nominate another “Chamber of Commerce Republican” and expect to win the presidency in 2016. It’s time, he said, for a “libertarian moment.” “Chamber of Commerce is fine, I was a member of the Chamber of Commerce, but a Chamber of Commerce Republican is not going to win a national election,” Paul (R-Ky.), the libertarian-leaning senator and likely presidential contender, said. “I’m not saying we give up on what we believe in, but we have to expand what we believe in.” His comments came during an address to the Republican Liberty...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) says in a new interview that Republicans should embrace a more tolerant view of those who don't hold conservative positions on social issues."I think that the Republican Party, in order to get bigger, will have to agree to disagree on social issues," Paul told vocativ.com. "The Republican Party is not going to give up on having quite a few people who do believe in traditional marriage. But the Republican Party also has to find a place for young people and others who don’t want to be festooned by those issues."Paul's comments harken back somewhat to former...

CINCINNATI (AP) — Potential Republican presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Rand Paul said Friday in a visit to swing state Ohio that the GOP needs to broaden its appeal.The Kentucky senator was the featured speaker Friday evening for the Hamilton County Republican Party's annual Lincoln-Reagan dinner. Paul took part in school choice discussion earlier Friday at a Cincinnati public charter school, and later said that the GOP needs to try harder with every ethnic group."The Republican Party needs to be bigger, bolder and better," Paul told reporters. "I think we can be all of those things. We have to reach out...

The concept of a 2016 election featuring a Marxist like Hillary Clinton against a liberal RINO like Jeb Bush or Chris Christie is so terrifying that it is tempting to grab at any candidate outside the GOP establishment. But some potential alternative candidates may not be much less pernicious, to judge by rhetoric we have been hearing from Rand Paul: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) believes that the GOP’s focus on voter fraud is “offending” Americans, especially blacks. “Everybody’s gone completely crazy on this voter ID thing,” Paul told The New York Times in an interview on Friday. “I think it’s...

Sean Hannity had Rand Paul on his radio show today to ask him about the NY Times article where it was reported that he said “I think it’s wrong for Republicans to go crazy on this issue because it’s offending people.” In short, Paul explained that while both sides have over-emphasized this issue, his point had nothing to do with the reality of the law, but the perception of the law. Paul argues there are a group of voters we need to court who have the wrong perception of voter-ID and because of that, we need to be careful not...

I’ve been waiting three hours since I saw this tweet for the NYT to publish a transcript or story about what he said, but no dice as I’m writing this. If it happens tonight, I’ll update with a link. The quote’s almost certainly not out of context, though: Remember, Paul told David Axelrod a few weeks ago that he thinks the GOP might be overemphasizing the issue. What’s newsy about this is the tone. Sounds like he’s gone from “maybe this isn’t a great idea” to “let’s drop it, quickly.” Just sat down w @SenRandPaul after his meeting with black...

Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) was the first lawmaker to vote against Speaker John Boehner on the House floor in January 2013. Now the GOP Establishment, and especially allies of Boehner, are looking to take him out. Top GOP power brokers in Michigan are putting resources into the August primary race in which Amash faces businessman Brian Ellis. But as evidenced by Rep. Walter Jones victory in North Carolina Tuesday, defeating an incumbent can be a difficult enterprise. Jones has a similar libertarian ideology to Amash and narrowly bested a well-financed opponent who attacked him on foreign policy. Amash has raised...

Another potential Republican candidate for president has waded into North Carolina's competitive Republican Senate primary with an endorsement. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush offered his stamp of approval Thursday for Thom Tillis, who leads his party's field heading into next week's primary contest. “Thom Tillis is a proven conservative leader with an impressive track record of results for North Carolina businesses and families,” Bush said in a statement. “His work on key issues like improving education, keeping taxes low and eliminating burdensome regulations is a testament to his leadership as North Carolina’s House Speaker." "It is critically important that Republicans...

Among the liberty movement the Rand Paul debate rages on. Is he a political player or an opportunist sellout? Senator Rand Paul stunned many libertarians in 2012 when he endorsed Mitt Romney for President. This was the same Romney who deployed campaign lawyers to the Republican National Convention and rigged the future nomination process.Now Senator Paul has “wholeheartedly” endorsed Senator Susan Collins for re-election, telling the Portland Press Herald she is “doing a great job for Maine and for the country.” Enter another war between Senator Paul apologists and principle-driven libertarians.It’s unsurprising to some degree. A year ago State Senate...

BOSTON (AP) — Fighting to move beyond his father’s shadow, Sen. Rand Paul is crafting new alliances with the Republican Party establishment during a Northeast tour that began Friday in Boston.The 51-year-old Kentucky Republican, son of libertarian hero and former Texas Rep. Ron Paul, headlined an afternoon luncheon hosted by top lieutenants of former presidential nominee Mitt Romney — a private meeting that comes as Paul weighs a 2016 presidential bid of his own. To succeed in a national campaign, however, those close to Paul acknowledge that he must broaden his appeal beyond the Tea Party and libertarian-minded activists who...

The messages from Sen. Rand Paul seem to get less conservative whenever he speaks to students on liberal college campuses, Boston Herald columnist and radio host Howie Carr says. On Friday, Paul, a Kentucky Republican who is considering a run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016, tested his libertarian-leaning brand of politics on students at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. . . . Carr told J.D. Hayworth and John Bachman on "America's Forum" on Newsmax TV on Monday that Paul has that appeal to young voters because he tells them what they want to hear, not necessarily the...

Telegram: You’re going to join U.S. Sen. Susan Collins for a state party fundraiser today. She’s defended National Security Agency spying programs you oppose, and she’s also running against a Democrat, Shenna Bellows, who comes pretty close to sharing your views on that and other privacy issues. Do you support her, despite disagreement on many of those issues? Rand Paul: I wholeheartedly endorse Senator Collins for re-election. I think she’s doing a great job for Maine and for the country. ... I don’t really know, exactly, what her position is on the NSA; you’d have to ask her about that....

Republicans are still months away from kicking off the presidential race – and that's a good thing for front-runners like Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who could use the extra time to hone their messaging. In four years, the Kentucky leader has won over plenty of fans for his solid record on a whole range of issues, including life. But today, it isn't his record that's concerning people – it's his rhetoric. Wednesday, in a sit-down with former Obama insider David Axelrod, Sen. Paul surprised a lot of conservatives with his nonchalant attitude on abortion and his role in ending it....

Via WaPo and RCP, another nugget mined from yesterday’s chat with Axelrod in Chicago. As with abortion, Paul’s “different kind of Republican” brand requires a compromise here. He knows that most voters, including those in his own party, support voter-ID laws; he also knows that those laws are easily demagogued as racist by lefties, which means that toeing the GOP line too closely could jeopardize Paul’s effort to connect with black voters. What’s a different kind of Republican to do? He insists that ID is a good idea — “I don’t think dead people should vote” — but concedes to...

David Corn of Mother Jones has assembled a number of clips from Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) over the years criticizing former President Ronald Reagan for the budgets he signed into law. In some cases, Paul declared Reagan worse on budgetary issue than his predecessor, former President Jimmy Carter.

Excerpt of the face off between Rand Paul and David Axelrod at the University of Chicago: RAND PAUL: Education historically was a state and local subject and I think that what we've seen is since we've spent about a hundred billion dollars in the Department of Education each year and that's been going on since 1980. I'm not so sure we're better off than we were before. You see, the one thing -- DAVID AXELROD: So you would vote for a budget that would eliminate most of that. RAND PAUL: Well what I would do is I would have its...