Posted on 02/15/2013 2:41:41 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul’s vote to temporarily block Chuck Hagel’s nomination for secretary of defense elicited blowback from an unlikely source: antiwar conservatives and libertarians, many of them supporters of his father’s GOP presidential campaign.
Paul, the son of former Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul, joined all but four Republican senators Thursday in voting against a motion to end debate over Hagel’s nomination. GOP leaders are saying that they will not filibuster Hagel indefinitely, but instead want to delay a vote until they have more information about his speeches and finances.
“That is also why I voted to not end debate on the Hagel nomination,” Paul said in a statement. “I do not believe Sen. Hagel has adequately explained his activities and their financing since he left the Senate, and I believe this criteria is especially important when dealing with the revolving door between government and the private sector.”
That explanation wasn’t good enough for Justin Raimondo, editorial director of Antiwar.com and a strong supporter of Ron Paul. “It’s time for libertarians to treat Rand Paul like the turncoat he is: boycott,” Raimondo tweeted. “No $$, no support, & start calling him Paul the Lesser.”
Daniel Larison, a blogger and senior editor for the American Conservative magazine, called it “an awful, indefensible vote.”
Scott McConnell, one of the magazine’s founding editors, went a step further: “If Rand Paul persists on going demagogic on Hagel, he will have established beyond any serious doubt that regardless of who his father is, he is Bill Kristol and Jennifer Rubin’s boy.”
Kristol is editor in chief of the Weekly Standard, and Rubin is a blogger at the Washington Post. Both were strongly opposed to Hagel’s nomination, partly on the grounds that the former senator was too dovish on foreign policy and insufficiently pro-Israel.
Rand Paul, who argued for a more restrained Republican foreign policy in a speech at the Heritage Foundation earlier this month, had previously expressed an open mind toward Hagel. But on Wednesday, he began to signal publicly that he would support delaying Hagel’s confirmation.
Guardian blogger Glenn Greenwald, a liberal who has been sympathetic to the Pauls, complained, “Any hope Rand Paul was going to usher in some sort of new foreign policy in the GOP has just been torpedoed by his NO vote on Hagel cloture.”
The senator has weathered dust-ups with his father’s strongest supporters in the past, such as when he endorsed Mitt Romney for president near the end of the 2012 Republican primaries.
Republican opposition to Hagel’s nomination has intensified since his confirmation hearings. The cloture vote failed 58 to 40, two votes shy of what was necessary to end debate.
If Raimundo is all aflutter, then Rand probably made the right choice.
Further PROOF that many Ron Paul supporters are stupid idiots.
Wow.
The Paulitos are scummier than I thought. lol.
and “temporarily block” means delay... which means the GOPe will cave in a week or two
Did Ron Paul apologize for his comments about the late Chris Kyle?!
If he didn’t, his supporters should STFU.
Thumbs up for Rand.
If he is to be taken seriously - he MUST distance himself from his father and those kooky libertarians.
Hagel looks (from everything I’ve seen reported, anyway) like a terrible nomination, especially for this job. And Rand definitely has to differentiate himself from his Dad, particularly on defense and foreign policy, if he wants to move forward in politics (at least in America). So, good for Rand!!
I’m really liking Rand Paul now.
Ditto.
I do wish he’d ditch that Billy Koch haircut.
Justin Raimondo. Har!
How far crazy can you get?
Rand, tell us what you really think. This is just baloney.
Saw an interview w/Ron Paul last night. On Neil Cavuto show? When asked about Rand he said in so many words that Rand will go his own way & not necessarily be like his father. I think that is A good thing for Rand.
BINGO!
I am a huge fan of Rand Paul.
For decades I followed Ron Paul, loved his house speeches. But once in a while he’d go completely off the ranch...like this and when he voted for most favored trade status for China.
Homosexual Jew hating dope fiends.
Rand Paul is looking better and better. He seems to be his own man, and his father’s cult can’t seem to handle that.
“Homosexual Jew hating dope fiends.”
Been to the Libertarian Party convention, have you?
Truth is not a popularity contest. Chuck Hagel is, without doubt, a very cynical nomination on the part of Bronco Bama.
Hagel’s very public and outspoken hostility to Israel does not bode well for the proposed direction of our international strategy in the area, and also indicates how other alliances throughout the world may very well be subverted. While this may be perfectly in alignment with how Bronco Bama means to make his legacy in the world, the fact that Chuck Hagel was also nominally a Republican, makes the choice all the more cynical. Like see, the Republicans were all a bunch of ninnies the Current Occupant of the White Hut can order around any way he wants, they will cave to any demand and fold up like a cheap umbrella when push comes to shove.
I do not much like this new country that has taken over the territory of the geographic area once known as “the United States of America.
Resist we much.
I think that the Paulites tinfoil hats are getting a wee bit too tight these days.....
Maybe the headline the should read “Ron Paul supporters support an another anti-Semitic, anti-American snot”
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