Posted on 09/14/2015 11:50:08 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
I caught up with Rand Paul at Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum convention in St. Louis over the weekend, and he was in a feisty mood. While he was there to introduce his 80-year-old mother before she accepted an award from Eagle Forum, he was primed to discuss this week’s upcoming GOP debate and Donald Trump.
“Someone has to bring him down,” he told reporters in the lounge of the St. Louis Marriott. “I’m not going to sit quietly by and let the disaster that is Donald Trump become the nominee. Do you want someone who appears to still be in grade school to be in charge of the nuclear arsenal?”
Paul later told me he thinks he has found an approach that will separate Trump from the rest of the GOP field: eminent domain. “A hallmark of Republicans is that they respect private property. But Trump runs roughshod over it,” he said. “He is a serious abuser of taking property for his private benefit.”
Paul recounted the story of Vera Coking, an elderly widow who lived in a three-story house in Atlantic City. Trump decided he wanted a “fantastic” limousine parking lot for his Trump Plaza hotel. He bought up nearby properties, but Coking declined to sell.
So Trump had a local government agency – the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA) – do the dirty work of seizing her property. CRDA offered her $250,000 for the property – one-fourth of what another hotel builder had offered her a decade earlier. When Coking wouldn’t budge, CRDA went to court to seize her property under eminent domain.
Coking went to court represented by the Institute of Justice and was able to win. As the Washington Post reported this month: “In the long melodrama that is Trump’s business career, the house in Atlantic City is the place where all the billionaire’s money and all the billionaire’s men couldn’t keep a 5-foot-3 widow from whupping him.”
But Trump remains unrepentant about his used of eminent domain. After a 5 to 4 majority of the Supreme Court approved the seizure of property for the benefit of other private entities in the infamous 2005 Kelo case, Trump told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto: “I happen to agree with it 100%. if you have a person living in an area that’s not even necessarily a good area, and … government wants to build a tremendous economic development, where a lot of people are going to be put to work and … create thousands upon thousands of jobs and beautification and lots of other things, I think it happens to be good.”
But should Paul bring up the issue of eminent domain in Wednesday’s debate, don’t expect a philosophical argument from Trump. In the last few days, the billionaire has responded to Paul’s criticism of him by calling him a “lightweight,” suggesting that he shouldn’t be included in this week’s debate and comparing him unfavorably to his father, former congressman and Libertarian firebrand Ron Paul. The Kentucky senator, Trump tweeted, “didn’t get the right gene” rom his father.
Wednesday’s debate will no doubt be entertaining, even if it’s not enlightening.
>>Here’s to all the slime scumbag POS Paul supporters!
You know, I was one of those supporters. I believe he supported the Constitution more than any other candidate. And that still might be true, I don’t know. BUT, the way he acted in the first debate so turned me off to him. He was so rude and out of place, I found it cringeworthy. I just could no longer support him. This decision was reinforced by his doubling down to go after Trump. I find this so utterly disgusting. I do not believe his father or he is what some here call “nutters”. Reading insults like that is unhelpful to those who are looking for candidates who want to follow the Constitution. I am not saying that I support his every position, I do not. His “offense” against Trump is just disgusting.
Trump should either ignore Rand or swat him like and fly and then ignore.
Rand trying to make his bones using Donald Trump is idiotic.
Why is Trump’s face covered in this video?
As someone involved in eminent domain disputes, I am amazed that The Donald was willing to give her 2 million. Usually, the offer from the developers is way under what the property is worth. I know this as a fact because I fought to keep homeowners in their homes in Long Branch, New Jersey. Thanks to Chris Christie and others (one of the reasons he became governor) we prevailed and those working-class people kept their homes by the sea. It speaks well for The Donald that he was willing to offer her a very excellent price in a depressed area.
That said, she had every right to reject his offer and I still despise ED by private business.
This, in no way, would prevent me from voting for him.
From what I read, CNN does not plan for a debate. They are doing a Fox News dog pile where they will try to get the candidates to ignore their ideas and instead, attack one another - especially Trump.
So Rand will fits right in with the stupids. Who knows what Rand Paul stands for? All the midgets attack Trump’s ideas (which Americans like) and his hair but don’t express their own ideas to a national audience when given a chance. They let Fox lead them by the ring in their noses and Trump won.
If they were smart, when they see CNN doing this, they would ignore the moderators’ questions and just say what will promote themselves over Trump so a National audience can actually hear them like they have heard Trump.
My anger got the best of me...should have sat on my hands. No offense to you.
None taken, Rrrod. You are an honorable man for posting this.
Let’s hope and pray that God will give us a winning candidate who will restore America back to the great nation it once was.
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