(mediaite.com) - Remember when Rachel Maddow interviewed then-Senate candidate Rand Paul in 2010 over whether he supported the Civil Rights Act? It was one of the first times Paul got national media attention, since he admitted to having some serious issues with the landmark legislation. So it was with some shock that Maddow reacted to Paul’s claim during an event at Howard University that he “never came out in opposition to the Civil Rights Act.” Maddow slammed Paul for trying to run away from something she still remembers very well.
Maddow reminded viewers that Paul had a somewhat awkward time reaching out to Latino voters in a speech at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce last month, only a day after the GOP released its “autopsy” report recommending they need to do better with minority voters. And Maddow pointed out how Paul had a similarly awkward moment at Howard, when his attempt to call out the crowd for not knowing enough about black history backfired.
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What is it with senators from Kentucky?
Between Mitch Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul I’m honestly not sure which one is more of an embarrassment.
One of the least appreciated but easily-confirmed facts about the current state of the American economy is that the number of Americans employed by the government has gone down under President Obama. But apparently this is news to one the Republican Party’s most prominent tea party conservatives. During a roundtable discussion on ABC this morning over the size and adequacy of the 2009 stimulus, a flabbergasted Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) asked economist Paul Krugman if he was actually arguing that government employment had gone down under Obama:
PAUL: The thing I don’t understand is that your arguing that the government sector is struggling.Are you arguing that there are fewer government employees under Obama than there were under Bush?
KRUGMAN:Of course. That’s a fact. That’s a tremendous fact.
PAUL: No, the size of growth of government is enormous under president Obama.
KRUGMAN:If government employment had grown as fast under Obama as it did under Bush, we’d have a million and a half more people employed right now — directly.
PAUL: Are there less people employed or more people employed now by government?
As Krugman quickly pointed out on his blog, the answer is “less.” Now, perhaps Sen. Paul was thinking of employment by the federal government alone, which did tick up just slightly: 2.77 million at the end 2008 versus 2.8 million currently. But add in state and local government jobs, and the hard number for government employment dropped by around 600,000 after Bush left office.
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"Congress hereby declares that the right to life guaranteed by the Constitution is vested in each human being."
— The Life at Conception Act, an amendment introduced by Sen. Rand Paul • Gumming up the works of an otherwise non-controversial bill about flood insurance. The amendment to the bill also “ensure[s] equal protection for right to life of each born and preborn human person.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid stated he would not allow a vote on the amendment, and asked other GOP senators — who, incidentally, are the major supporters of this bill, even without Paul’s amendment — to deal with their colleague “on their side of the aisle.” An incredible hail mary for pro-life policy. source (via • follow)
