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Sen. Rand Paul unloaded on fellow Republican Mitch McConnell for the Senate GOP leader’s handling of an anti-abortion judicial nomination, criticizing McConnell for refusing to consult with him about abandoned nominee Chad Meredith. The White House pulled Meredith’s nomination last week, with both McConnell and administration officials blaming Paul for refusing to sign off. Now, the two Bluegrass State Republicans are involved in a back and forth, reigniting an intraparty and intrastate fight. On Monday, Paul said McConnell was working behind his back on a “secret deal” with President Joe Biden and said it was “a little bit insulting” that...

The more we learn about Donald Trump’s baseless, false and discredited claims about the 2020 election, the more baseless, false and discredited those claims have become. Just consider the revelations over the past week — from Republicans: In Michigan, a GOP-led investigation by its state Senate concluded that it “found no evidence of widespread or systematic fraud in Michigan’s prosecution of the 2020 election.” (Remember, Biden won Michigan by more than 150,000 votes.) Regarding Arizona, a report co-authored by former Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson criticized the so-called “audit” of the election results in that state, saying it “does...

According to one of the tea party's leading voices, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R), who is being challenged by conservative Matt Bevin in Kentucky's Senate GOP primary, is not an "Arlen Specter" Republican."It's not like we're talking about Arlen Specter here," said Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), in an interview with The Washington Post. "Senator McConnell has a longstanding conservative record and for an opponent to beat him, they'll have to prove somehow that he's not a conservative."Specter, the late Pennsylvania senator who left the GOP for the Democratic Party in 2009, was a villain-like figure to many on the...

Former Reasoner David Weigel has an interesting article up that seeks to answer why there aren't any Club For Growth/FreedomWorks/Tea Party/Paulista-style primary-election challenges to the worst of the Democratic Party's status quo (like, say, the execrable Dianne Feinstein). This section in particular is unintentionally revealing: Two months ago, Progressive Insurance founder Peter Lewis left the Democracy Alliance, a lefty donor coalition. Earlier this month, billionaire George Soros made his first 2012 political donations—$1 million each to America Votes and American Bridge 21st Century. That’s $23.5 million less than he gave to liberal groups in 2004. According to David McKay, chairman...

Yesterday on Laura IngrahamÂ’s radio show, she asked Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell about a recent Roll Call article that framed me as one of the loud leaders of conservatives opposed to Mitch McConnell. The Senator from Kentucky responded that he had never heard of me and I did not have an audience. That sounds a bit like the child, when asked if he ate the cookie, replying that he had not and besides it did not taste good. If heÂ’d never heard of me, how can he comment on my audience? If he states plainly I have no audience,...

Christian conservative leader James Dobson withdrew his endorsement of Kentucky Senate candidate Trey Grayson Monday, switching his support to Rand Paul’s campaign and accusing “senior members of the GOP” of misleading him about Paul’s record on abortion. Dobson said in an audio recording that he made an “embarrassing mistake” as a result of misunderstanding Paul’s position on abortion. “I was given misleading information about the candidacy of Dr. Rand Paul, who is running in the Republican Primary for the U.S. Senate. Senior members of the GOP told me Dr. Paul is pro-choice and that he opposes many conservative perspectives, so...

Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson is accusing ophthalmologist Rand Paul's (R) campaign of conducting a "widespread voter interrogation scheme" as voters go to the polls today in the primary for retiring Sen. Jim Bunning's (R) seat. Grayson's campaign issued a memo to reporters this afternoon highlighting a document it claims Paul's campaign has been distributing to supporters. The Paul campaign document instructs supporters to check voting machines before polls opened at 6 a.m. and "attempt to determine that all voting machines are set to zero." The document (PDF) also directs Paul supporters to conduct exit polling as voters leave...

Fueled by a high level of unhappiness with the direction of the Republican Party, Rand Paul appears to be poised for an easy victory over Trey Grayson in Tuesday's Kentucky Senate primary. He leads PPP's final poll 52-34. There are more Republicans planning to vote on Tuesday (41%) who are unhappy with the current direction of their party than ones who are happy with it (36%). Among those discontented folks Paul has a staggering 59-28 lead which more than offsets the 47-45 lead Grayson has with the voters who think the party's current course is fine.

<p>In a sometimes testy televised debate Monday night, Paul's chief Republican opponent, Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson, said he "proudly" would vote for McConnell. McConnell has endorsed Grayson in the May 18 primary.</p> <p>The debate is the final face-off in what has become an increasingly acrimonious race to replace Sen. Jim Bunning.</p>

Elections are about choices, and in the GOP primary on May 18th the choice for republicans should be Rand Paul. Here are ten of the top reasons why: 1. Americans have grown justifiably weary of “politics as usual”. In 2008 an emerging sentiment in our nation helped propel a man into the Presidency in large part because he gave people hope that he would change the way things were going to be done in Washington DC. He didn't, and now Obama’s popularity has plummeted. Yet ever since his campaign ended, the cry for change has grown louder, and has spread...

A new Kentucky Poll shows novice political candidate Rand Paul with a commanding 12 point lead over Trey Grayson, the Republican Party establishment’s choice in the GOP race for U.S. Senate in Kentucky. The state’s Democratic primary to replace U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning is closer, with Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo holding a 7 point lead over Attorney General Jack Conway, says the poll conducted on behalf of the Lexington Herald-Leader, WKYT in Lexington and WAVE in Louisville. With less than two weeks to go before the May 18 election, Conway remains within striking distance of Mongiardo, who leads 39 percent...

Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) said today he doesn't think Senate Min. Leader Mitch McConnell's endorsement of Sec/State Trey Grayson (R) will give Grayson enough of a boost to catch ophthalmologist Rand Paul (R) in the race to replace Bunning. "I spoke to Rand Paul this morning," Bunning, who endorsed Paul in the race, said in an interview. "His internal polling has him 15 points up. There was a publicly released poll, independent poll, it has him 18 points up. So ... plus or minus four percent, that's a minimum of 12." "Senator McConnell obviously thinks that by his endorsement he...

Mitch McConnell endorsed Trey Grayson in Kentucky today, a fairly unusual move for the Minority Leader, and also a kind of doubling down: A Republican source tells me that James Dobson, who angrily switched candidates this week and endorsed Rand Paul, blames McConnell for allegedly misleading him on Paul's abortion credentials.

Another reason I’m with Rand Paul? In an editorial board meeting in Kentucky, Trey Grayson is asked what he thinks about the “extremist,” Jim DeMint. His response? Well, he does not defend DeMint and likeminded conservatives from the “extremist” label. What he does do is go on about how Jim DeMint has been a harsh critic of Mitch McConnell for working with Democrats, then praises McConnell for keeping Olympia Snowe and DeMint together on a few issues. Where does Grayson really part ways with Rand Paul? Well, Grayson is happy to have budget deficit busting budgets and disagrees with Rand...

Another reason I’m with Rand Paul? In an editorial board meeting in Kentucky, Trey Grayson is asked what he thinks about the “extremist,” Jim DeMint. His response? Well, he does not defend DeMint and likeminded conservatives from the “extremist” label. What he does do is go on about how Jim DeMint has been a harsh critic of Mitch McConnell for working with Democrats, then praises McConnell for keeping Olympia Snowe and DeMint together on a few issues. Where does Grayson really part ways with Rand Paul? Well, Grayson is happy to have budget deficit busting budgets and disagrees with Rand...

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - (Business Wire) The Rand Paul Campaign has learned that Trey Grayson paid at least three members of his 2007 Secretary of State Campaign Team as independent contractors. This revelation comes after Grayson yesterday announced that he had filed formal complaints with the IRS and six other enforcement agencies alleging Rand Paul’s Senate campaign had not properly classified their workers and therefore not paid proper taxes. As background, it should be noted the Paul For Senate Campaign, acting on the professional advice of Certified Public Accountant, is following a practice considered normal and common in political campaigns...

Wednesday, 21 April 2010 08:21 For Immediate Release Date: April 21, 2010 Re: U.S. Senate Candidate Rand Paul’s KRLA Questionnaire Contact: Susan Kenney, Treasurer (502) 895-5959 It has come to our attention that Rand Paul has supplied the Kentucky Enquirer with a "copy" of his Kentucky Right to LIfe PAC Questionnaire "proving" that he did score 100% on the KRLA PAC Survey. As has been our policy, KRLA PAC will let the evidence speak for itself. Attached please find a PDF unedited scan of the questionnaire Rand Paul faxed (and also sent original hard copy to us) on February 11th....

Yesterday I linked to the video of the Courier Journal's editorial board interviews with the four candidates for US Senate. This comment concerns the republicans. As I have said many times, I have tried to limit the focus of my observations to the campaigns, not the individuals. However this set of interviews reveals more about the candidates than their campaigns. They had no handlers, their message was unedited, this was not a commercial or a prepared speech. As such this comment will focus on the impression one gets from the interviews of the men themselves. Ardent supporters will see what...

The Trouble with Trey Grayson: Attacking Conservative Ideas and Sarah Palin by Erick Erickson Let’s look at the NRSC’s favored candidate Trey Grayson for just a minute. The man has refused to take a substantive position on bailouts, etc. for the longest time. He’s peddled false smears against Paul that Paul is pro-choice. In fact, Rand Paul is very much pro-life, but thinks because abortion is a non-constitutional issue contrary to Roe v. Wade, it is an issue for the several states to ban and not for Congress, except for the bit about defunding federal payment for abortion, which he...

I know some of you have a hard time supporting Rand Paul, mostly because of his dad. In fact, most of the attacks hurled at Rand have been about his father’s positions, confusing the two. To be fair though, I don’t agree with all of Rand’s positions. But let’s look at Trey Grayson for just a minute. The man has refused to take a substantive position on bailouts, etc. for the longest time. He’s peddled false smears against Paul that Paul is pro-choice. In fact, Rand Paul is very much pro-life, but thinks because abortion is a non-constitutional issue contrary...