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.
The media will happily and assiduously play off the differences between the two like Nero and his fiddle....to the detriment of Rand.
You'd think that the blood bond between pater/filius would cause the elder Paul to....well, examine his conscience, purchase a time-share in the Cayman Islands....and SHUT UP!
Leni
Rand is just as looney as his daddy but he is crafty....I’ll never vote for him.
The paul crowd is like a toilet that doesnt flush.....keep flushing but the crap stays.
BTW, the “American Conservative” magazine is nothing of the kind.
wRONg PAUL supporters are twisted. Seriously.
Rand Paul is not Ron Paul. Hopefully we will continue to see a difference.
The legions of the Daily Paul are very angry!
Who is Billy Koch?
I say pass the ammo to both sides......maybe they will wipe each other out
Rand Paul..likely my first pick amongst early pics but Rove already has Rubio so guess im outta luck
Why does Levin support Rubio?
I said the same thing a week ago after his Islam & foreign policy speech at the Heritage Foundation. Worth reading:
http://reason.com/archives/2013/02/06/containment-and-radical-islam
One of the Koch Brothers.
There is one thing I know about Rand Paul. He will never distance himself from his father. He says things that sound oh so good, but like his father, he is a isolationist, hates Israel, considers America the bully and our Military baby killers.
I do not trust Rand Paul at all!
As for the so called conservatives who supported Ron Paul and stayed home because they wouldn't vote for Romney, they helped to give us Obama for four more years.
Oh thanks, I know who they by the last names.
If he didn’t, his supporters should STFU.
RuPaul's supporters will never shut up. Ever.
But, the more they decide to hate Rand Paul, the greater the possibility that I will at least give Rand a fair, open-minded listen in the future.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2988970/posts?page=35#35
From the article about Rand Paul's foreign policy speech:
“Proxy war was the heart of a successful containment policy,” said Smith. “Containment was a bloody, active affair.”
“From looking at Sen. Paul’s speech, we’re not quite talking about the same ideas of containment,” Smith added. “What containment means for him is the same as what it means for the most of the commentariat and probably most of the Obama administration. ‘Containment’ just means anything but the use of military force.”
*******
It was infuriating to me to hear Rand Paul use the name Reagan. Reagan believed in Peace through Strength and that is why Iran released the 52 Americans they held hostage for 444 days the minute Reagan was elected! They knew he wouldn't think twice about using military force, something Ron Paul or Rand Paul would never do!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2988970/posts?page=35#35
From the article about Rand Paul's foreign policy speech:
“Proxy war was the heart of a successful containment policy,” said Smith. “Containment was a bloody, active affair.”
“From looking at Sen. Paul’s speech, we’re not quite talking about the same ideas of containment,” Smith added. “What containment means for him is the same as what it means for the most of the commentariat and probably most of the Obama administration. ‘Containment’ just means anything but the use of military force.”
*******
It was infuriating to me to hear Rand Paul use the name Reagan. Reagan believed in Peace through Strength and that is why Iran released the 52 Americans they held hostage for 444 days the minute Reagan was elected! They knew he wouldn't think twice about using military force, something Ron Paul or Rand Paul would never do!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2988970/posts?page=35#35
From the article about Rand Paul's foreign policy speech:
“Proxy war was the heart of a successful containment policy,” said Smith. “Containment was a bloody, active affair.”
“From looking at Sen. Paul’s speech, we’re not quite talking about the same ideas of containment,” Smith added. “What containment means for him is the same as what it means for the most of the commentariat and probably most of the Obama administration. ‘Containment’ just means anything but the use of military force.”
*******
It was infuriating to me to hear Rand Paul use the name Reagan. Reagan believed in Peace through Strength and that is why Iran released the 52 Americans they held hostage for 444 days the minute Reagan was elected! They knew he wouldn't think twice about using military force, something Ron Paul or Rand Paul would never do!
SO SORRY ABOUT THE TRIPLE POSTS! Don’t know how that happened!!
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