If You Ask Me, It Sure Doesn't Sound Like John David Dyche Is Thrilled With Rand Paul's Senate Candidacy. Read More Below.
John David Dyche | You may be asking: 'Who is Rand Paul?'
‘Who is John Galt?” was the opening and oft-repeated question in Ayn Rand's influential 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged. Kentuckians are asking, “Who is Rand Paul?” The Republican U. S. Senate candidate was not named after the author, but respects her work, which posits capitalist individualism as the ultimate morality.
Paul, 47, is the son of U.S. Rep. and former Libertarian Party presidential nominee Ron Paul. Born in Texas, he attended Duke Medical School and founded Kentucky Taxpayers United in 1994. Married and father of three, Paul practices ophthalmology in Bowling Green.
He is glib, a favorite of television talker Glenn Beck and the darling of Kentucky's Tea Party movement. Paul has raised around $2 million in campaign cash, had a 19 percent lead over primary foe Trey Grayson in recent public polling and was beating both major Democrats, Jack Conway and Dan Mongiardo. On Monday, The Washington Post confirmed that Sarah Palin has endorsed Paul's campaign.
Paul's stated positions portray a constitutional conservative more than a libertarian. He declares that “the federal government must return to its constitutionally enumerated powers and restore our inalienable rights.”
Paul “proposes balanced budgets” and favors lower taxes. He “opposes all federal bailouts of private industry.” Paul is pro-life and advocates an “underground electric fence” for border security.
When America fights, Paul says, we must “declare war as the Constitution mandates.” He backed military action in Afghanistan, but not Iraq. Paul criticizes the Patriot Act for “sacrificing civil liberties.”
But Kentucky Republicans still have lots to learn about Paul. Grayson will play a role in their education by running negative ads. Meanwhile, it would help if Paul answered direct questions for GOP voters. Here are some:
• You chide Grayson for having been a Democrat who backed Bill Clinton. Have you ever been a registered Libertarian Party member? For whom did you vote in each presidential election since 1984?
• Your father — who is campaigning for you as you did for him — co-sponsored a bill with Massachusetts liberal Democrat Barney Frank to eliminate most federal penalties for marijuana possession for personal use. Do you support such legislation?
• Talking about the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airplane, your father said, “They're terrorists because we're occupiers.” Do you agree?
• When asked about Guantánamo detainees, you said they “should mostly be sent back to their country of origin” or “drop 'em off back into Afghanistan.” Is that still your position?
• Grayson's campaign says you would not say whether you believed the U.S. government was responsible for the 9/11 attacks and quotes your campaign as saying it was a “complicated situation” with “truth on both sides.” Do you believe the U.S. had involvement in or responsibility for 9/11?
• America is sending Patriot anti-missile systems to Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait. Do you support this as prudent deterrence of Iran and defense of our oil supplies or oppose it as a “foreign entanglement” of the sort George Washington warned against?
• You advocate “term limits as a means of reining in career politicians and pork barrel spending.” Should five-term Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell be forbidden from a sixth?
• McConnell has used earmarks to bring Kentucky millions of federal dollars. Some — like $38 million for Louisville's 21st Century Parks — seem outside enumerated congressional powers. Is this “pork barrel spending?” What specific McConnell earmarks would you have opposed?
• Asked if you would support McConnell for Republican leader against South Carolina's Jim DeMint you replied, “I don't know that I could make a judgment.” Is that still your position?
• The White House predicts a record $1.6 trillion budget deficit for this fiscal year. What specific mix of revenue and spending changes would you make to balance the budget?
• Would you have opposed the Medicare prescription drug benefit for budgetary or constitutional reasons? The federal tobacco buy-out?
Kentuckians already know and trust the twice-elected Grayson. Paul remains a relative stranger. It is high time we got better acquainted.
John David Dyche is a Louisville attorney who writes a political column on alternate Tuesdays in Community Forum. He is the author of “Republican Leader: A Political Biography of Senator Mitch McConnell.” His views are his own, not those of the law firm in which he practices. Read him on-line at www.courier-journal.com; e-mail: jddyche@yahoo.com.
‘Who is John Galt?” was the opening and oft-repeated question in Ayn Rand's influential 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged. Kentuckians are asking, “Who is Rand Paul?” The Republican U. S. Senate candidate was not named after the author, but respects her work, which posits capitalist individualism as the ultimate morality.
Paul, 47, is the son of U.S. Rep. and former Libertarian Party presidential nominee Ron Paul. Born in Texas, he attended Duke Medical School and founded Kentucky Taxpayers United in 1994. Married and father of three, Paul practices ophthalmology in Bowling Green.
He is glib, a favorite of television talker Glenn Beck and the darling of Kentucky's Tea Party movement. Paul has raised around $2 million in campaign cash, had a 19 percent lead over primary foe Trey Grayson in recent public polling and was beating both major Democrats, Jack Conway and Dan Mongiardo. On Monday, The Washington Post confirmed that Sarah Palin has endorsed Paul's campaign.
Paul's stated positions portray a constitutional conservative more than a libertarian. He declares that “the federal government must return to its constitutionally enumerated powers and restore our inalienable rights.”
Paul “proposes balanced budgets” and favors lower taxes. He “opposes all federal bailouts of private industry.” Paul is pro-life and advocates an “underground electric fence” for border security.
When America fights, Paul says, we must “declare war as the Constitution mandates.” He backed military action in Afghanistan, but not Iraq. Paul criticizes the Patriot Act for “sacrificing civil liberties.”
But Kentucky Republicans still have lots to learn about Paul. Grayson will play a role in their education by running negative ads. Meanwhile, it would help if Paul answered direct questions for GOP voters. Here are some:
• You chide Grayson for having been a Democrat who backed Bill Clinton. Have you ever been a registered Libertarian Party member? For whom did you vote in each presidential election since 1984?
• Your father — who is campaigning for you as you did for him — co-sponsored a bill with Massachusetts liberal Democrat Barney Frank to eliminate most federal penalties for marijuana possession for personal use. Do you support such legislation?
• Talking about the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airplane, your father said, “They're terrorists because we're occupiers.” Do you agree?
• When asked about Guantánamo detainees, you said they “should mostly be sent back to their country of origin” or “drop 'em off back into Afghanistan.” Is that still your position?
• Grayson's campaign says you would not say whether you believed the U.S. government was responsible for the 9/11 attacks and quotes your campaign as saying it was a “complicated situation” with “truth on both sides.” Do you believe the U.S. had involvement in or responsibility for 9/11?
• America is sending Patriot anti-missile systems to Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait. Do you support this as prudent deterrence of Iran and defense of our oil supplies or oppose it as a “foreign entanglement” of the sort George Washington warned against?
• You advocate “term limits as a means of reining in career politicians and pork barrel spending.” Should five-term Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell be forbidden from a sixth?
• McConnell has used earmarks to bring Kentucky millions of federal dollars. Some — like $38 million for Louisville's 21st Century Parks — seem outside enumerated congressional powers. Is this “pork barrel spending?” What specific McConnell earmarks would you have opposed?
• Asked if you would support McConnell for Republican leader against South Carolina's Jim DeMint you replied, “I don't know that I could make a judgment.” Is that still your position?
• The White House predicts a record $1.6 trillion budget deficit for this fiscal year. What specific mix of revenue and spending changes would you make to balance the budget?
• Would you have opposed the Medicare prescription drug benefit for budgetary or constitutional reasons? The federal tobacco buy-out?
Kentuckians already know and trust the twice-elected Grayson. Paul remains a relative stranger. It is high time we got better acquainted.
John David Dyche is a Louisville attorney who writes a political column on alternate Tuesdays in Community Forum. He is the author of “Republican Leader: A Political Biography of Senator Mitch McConnell.” His views are his own, not those of the law firm in which he practices. Read him on-line at www.courier-journal.com; e-mail: jddyche@yahoo.com.
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