Rand Paul's Off GOP Message Again, This Time on Gitmo

If a Republican wins the White House, the military prison at Guantanamo Bay will almost surely be kept open for the foreseeable future. That is, unless Rand Paul nabs the GOP nomination.

Yet again, the senator from Kentucky has scouted out a position on a national-security issue that makes him an outlier, at least among senators running for president.

That was clear Monday after Marco Rubio introduced two amendments that would extend the use of the prison: one to prohibit funding to programs that would help close the facility, and another that sets a series of tough ground rules before a president could transfer U.S.-held land or water back to Cuba. This follows Rubio's statement two months prior that he would "absolutely" reopen the facility known as Gitmo if Obama somehow closed it, as he promised he would on his first day in office.

Rubio's amendments are more expansive than one proposed by Ted Cruz, the Texas conservative, to end funding for the transfer of detainees to countries covered by the State Department's travel warnings. Cruz's amendment would codify the U.S.'s informal, revived ban on transferring the vast majority of detainees, who are Yemeni, back home. But Cruz, Florida's Rubio and South Carolina's Lindsey Graham support a bill that would prohibit for two years the transfer of detainees who are considered "medium-risk" or higher, and any transfers to Yemen.

Even former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a likely presidential candidate, recently said the U.S. should keep Gitmo open, despite the public statements of his brother. After he left office, former President George W. Bush, who oversaw the use and expansion of the prison after 9/11, called Gitmo a "propaganda tool for our enemies and a distraction for our allies," and reiterated that it was his goal to close it in his second term.

As with his recent fight to end some of the National Security Agency's spying authorities, Paul finds himself sitting alone, the rare Republican presidential candidate willing to buck the party's traditional position on an issue of national defense.

Over the past several years, Paul has pushed back on the hawks by voting to weaken restrictions on transferring detainees and by not signing onto this year's bill temporarily prohibiting transfers. In 2012, he rebutted Graham's notion that the prisoners—currently numbering 122, down from a total of 779—are "crazy bastards" and advocated for them to be tried.

Two presidents have talked about closing Guantanamo. Yet the prison remains open, largely because neither the Obama nor the Bush administrations have been able to lay out a plan for dealing with the prisoners deemed too dangerous to release but impossible to prosecute.

Sen. John McCain, the GOP's 2008 nominee and now chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is leading the annual defense authorization bill and has dangled before Obama a provision that would authorize the president to close Gitmo so long as Congress gets to approve his plan. McCain, who was tortured as a prisoner of war, says he supports shuttering Gitmo because it has become a worldwide symbol of abuse.

"For over six years, the administration has stated that one of its highest policy priorities is to close the detention facility at Guantanamo, but for that same period of time members of the Senate have repeatedly requested a plan that explains how the administration will handle the detainees held there," McCain said on the Senate floor Monday. "Unfortunately … the administration has consistently failed to provide that plan."

Previously, Paul said he would keep the prison open but that he wishes previous administrations had prosecuted the prisoners years ago. On Monday, an aide to Paul would not talk on the record but sent a statement on background that restated his opposition to closing the prison by executive order and opposition to the United States detaining anyone indefinitely.

as if this is new.

Rand Paul On Shutdown: "Even Though It Appeared I Was Participating In It, It Was A Dumb Idea"
I said throughout the whole battle that shutting down the government was a dumb idea. Even though it did appear as if I was participating in it, I said it was a dumb idea. And the reason I voted for it, though, is that it's a conundrum. Here's the conundrum. We have a $17 trillion debt and people at home tell me you can't give the president a blank check. We just can't keep raising the debt ceiling without conditions. So unconditionally raising the debt ceiling, nobody at home wants me to vote for that and I can't vote for that. But the conundrum is if I don't we do approach these deadlines. So there is an impasse. In 2011, though, we had this impasse and the president did negotiate. We got the sequester. If we were to extend the sequester from discretionary spending to all the entitlements we would actually fix our problem within a few years.
[Posted on 11/19/2013 12:16:51 PM by Third Person]

Rand Paul: Time for GOP to soften war stance
...by softening its edge on some volatile social issues and altering its image as the party always seemingly "eager to go to war... We do need to expand the party and grow the party and that does mean that we don't always all agree on every issue" ... the party needs to become more welcoming to individuals who disagree with basic Republican doctrine on emotional social issues such as gay marriage... "We're going to have to be a little hands off on some of these issues ... and get people into the party," Paul said.
[Posted on 01/31/2013 5:08:50 PM PST by xzins]

Rand Paul's immigration speech
...The Republican Party must embrace more legal immigration.

Unfortunately, like many of the major debates in Washington, immigration has become a stalemate-where both sides are imprisoned by their own rhetoric or attachment to sacred cows that prevent the possibility of a balanced solution.

Immigration Reform will not occur until Conservative Republicans, like myself, become part of the solution. I am here today to begin that conversation.

Let's start that conversation by acknowledging we aren't going to deport 12 million illegal immigrants.

If you wish to work, if you wish to live and work in America, then we will find a place for you...

This is where prudence, compassion and thrift all point us toward the same goal: bringing these workers out of the shadows and into being taxpaying members of society.

Imagine 12 million people who are already here coming out of the shadows to become new taxpayers.12 million more people assimilating into society. 12 million more people being productive contributors.
[Posted on 03/19/2013 7:04:07 AM PDT by Perdogg]
Rand Paul calls on conservatives to embrace immigration reform
Latinos, should be a natural constituency for the party, Paul argued, but "Republicans have pushed them away with harsh rhetoric over immigration." ...he would create a bipartisan panel to determine how many visas should be granted for workers already in the United States and those who might follow... [and the buried lead] "Imagine 12 million people who are already here coming out of the shadows to become new taxpayers...
[Posted on 04/21/2013 1:52:42 PM PDT by SoConPubbie]
[but he's not in favor of amnesty, snicker, definition of is is]

Rand Slams Congress for Funding Egypt's Generals: 'How Does Your Conscience Feel Now?'
Sen. Rand Paul is hammering his fellow senators for keeping billions in financial aid flowing to Egypt's military -- even as Cairo's security forces massacre anti-government activists. [by "anti-government activists" is meant church-burning Christian-murdering jihadists]
[Posted on 08/15/2013 5:44:10 PM PDT by Hoodat]

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