Rand Paul

Senate Tea Party Membership And Their Allies Becoming The New Supreme Court?

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We live in crazy times, where states such as Arizona claim the right to nullification of federal laws and the Constitution of the United States, if they disagree with what the federal government is promoting.

Now we can add to that sad reality the declaration of the Tea Party Senate caucus, and others who have signed on this week, that they will block any bill they deem wasteful or unconstitutional, and prevent any new spending with equivalent fund cuts, but of course continue to promote special interest tax breaks.

Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina gained the backing of Utah Senator Mike Lee, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, and Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, all elected with the help of the Tea Party Movement.

But also joining them were Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, a new Senator who defeated a Tea Party candidate in the primary; Tom Coburn of Oklahoma; John Ensign of Nevada; and again, in a surprise move, making him ever inscrutable, John McCain of Arizona, who seemed to be moving back to the mainstream for a while after his election victory in November.

It is interesting that two other Tea Party backed candidates for the Senate who won–Marco Rubio of Florida and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania–chose not to sign the obstruction pledge.

Constitutional scholars point out that it is the Supreme Court which determines whether or not legislation passed by Congress is unconstitutional, not the US Senate.

So again, the Senate minority, even a small part of it, are determined to obstruct and block action and progress and continue the reputation of the Senate as a legislative body out of control and in need of basic reform!

The Hypocrisy Of Mitch McConnell And Rand Paul! :(

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Rand Paul, both from the Commonwealth of Kentucky, represent one of the poorest states in the Union, and yet both are believers in limited government and talk about balancing the budget no matter how much it hurts their own constituents.

But in actual fact, despite their rhetoric, Kentucky is a leading “welfare” state!

According to the conservative Tax Foundation, Kentucky gains back $1.51 for every dollar they send to the US government! Other so called “conservative” states also receive much more back than they contribute.

Imagine this: it is the “blue” states, that are accused of reckless budgets, who actually are cheated by the US government!

For instance, California gets back only 81 cents for every dollar sent to the national government, while Illinois gets 75 cents, New York gets 79 cents, and Connecticut even less with only 69 cents!

So the ‘blue” states are cheated in favor of the “red” states, even though they claim to be against welfare and handouts!

If it was not for the wealthier states contributing to Kentucky and other Southern and Western states that are poorer, those “red” states would be even worse off than they are!

But at the least, could we not expect Senators McConnell and Paul to be more honest and admit that they do truly believe in welfare and handouts, as long as their residents are not paying for it?

Anything less is HYPOCRISY! So what is new? 🙁

The Conflict Among Conservatives And Within The Conservative Movement

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Conservatives argue that they are for smaller government, lower taxes, less regulation, freedom and liberty.

They don’t like any type of economic regulation or redistribution of wealth.

And yet when push comes to shove, they are very willing to raise taxes on the average person and redistribute wealth to the top two percent, and destroy the middle class by their policies! 🙁

They are for freedom and liberty, and yet believe in a security state which can bug and wiretap everyone through the Patriot Act, and deny people privacy as to their library borrowing and bookstore purchases! 🙁

They are very willing to interfere in people’s social lives, including denying gays the basic freedom to serve in the military and marry the person they love; deny a woman the right to control her own body, even if a pregnancy is dangerous to her health; and impose religion on the population through promotion of a sectarian Christian prayer in public schools! 🙁

Even libertarian conservatives such as Rand Paul claim to want smaller government, and yet want to outlaw abortions from conception of the fetus, which is certainly government intrusion in private lives! 🙁

Conservatism claims to believe in individual rights, and yet constantly interferes with such rights in so many ways.

Conservatives wish to destroy the social safety net which has been with us since the New Deal of the 1930s, and this would create more poverty and deprivation and redistribute wealth further to the elite rich, and they have no conscience at all in doing this!

The Conservative Political Action Conference this Thursday to Saturday will showcase many of the potential GOP Presidential candidates, many of which conflict with each other about these different, competing and contradictory strands of the conservative movement.

With one year to go to the Iowa caucuses next February 6, most of the Republican aspirants for the White House shall appear and make speeches at CPAC, including Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, John Thune, Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour and Ron Paul.

But because of supposed scheduling conflicts, Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin are not attending, which is very odd, as if they really wanted to attend this event in Washington, DC, they would find a way!

The competition among the attendees to win the straw poll vote and to appeal to the conflicting wings of the conservative movement should be very fascinating to watch this weekend! 🙂

Senator Rand Paul Of Kentucky: Center Of Controversy And Nightmare For The Republican Party! :(

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has had to learn to live with fellow Kentucky Senate colleagues that have both embarrassed him and made his life miserable! If only one could read his mind, as his body language regarding past Senator Jim Bunning and his successor Rand Paul reveals discomfort, it would be an interesting analysis of how a party leader must survive both fools and loons! 🙁

Rand Paul may only have been in the Senate now for one month, but he is like a hurricane in his promotion of ideas that almost no one will accept, even in his own party, but yet saluted by the Tea Party movement!

Rand Paul seems to love introducing legislation that will never pass, just to draw attention to his looniness and his weird libertarian ideas which will never go anywhere, except into the minds of those who believe that government is a total evil and that we must isolate ourselves from the outside world! 🙁

Rand Paul, in association with Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, is promoting a Life at Conception Act, which he believes would overrule Roe V. Wade, and in the process take a woman’s right over her own body totally away! 🙁

He is also sponsoring legislation to prevent the children of illegal immigrants born in America from being citizens, thereby introducing a new interpretation of the 14th Amendment, which grants birthright citizenship!

Additionally, Rand Paul wants all foreign aid to our ally, Israel, ended, as part of his proposal to cut $500 billion from the present year’s national budget with only eight months left in the fiscal year. He wants the $3 billion aid to Israel ended, along with massive cuts in education, housing and energy programs, the most extreme idea of cuts proposed by any Republican, with the party shooting for only $100 billion cuts this fiscal year, with no cut in aid to Israel and other foreign aid, which he wants cut by $20 billion!

Republican leaders such as House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia and House Foreign Affairs Chairwoman Ilena Ros-Lehtinen of Florida have condemned a cutoff of aid to Israel, and Jewish groups in both major political parties, and both conservatives and liberals have made clear their opposition to such a cutoff, so Rand Paul’s advocacy has no chance of success, anymore than his other ideas mentioned above!

And get this: this past week, the Senate unanimously, except for Paul, adopted a measure making it a federal crime to aim a laser point at an aircraft, with the Kentucky senator feeling that should be an issue for states to handle individually, even though aviation is interstate, and there has been a growing problem of such incidents, thankfully without a disaster occurring!

It is clear that Rand Paul will be a center of attention over the next six years with his outrageous statements and actions, and imagine this. It is rumored that his father, Congressman Ron Paul of Texas, may run for the soon to be open seat in that state after Kay Bailey Hutchison decided not to run for re-election in 2012!

If Ron Paul were to win that seat, he would be the oldest first time freshman at age 77 to take a seat in the US Senate!

Can one imagine having two Senators Paul at the same time? 🙁

The only worse scenario is the nightmare of either Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann as President of the United States in 2013!

If both scenarios were to occur, the nation would be in a living hell of its own making, due to stupidity, ignorance, and lack of common sense of the American people! 🙁

The Senate Tea Party Caucus: A Trio Avoided By Other Republicans!

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The Senate Tea Party Caucus, a newly formed group, recently had its first meeting, one attended more by activists and media people than members of the Republican caucus in the Senate!

The membership consists of three Senators, none of whom cause a reaction more than that of rolling one’s eyes and shaking one’s head in a negative fashion!

So who are the illustrious members of this “distinguished” group?

Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, arguably the leading “flame thrower” in the Republican Senate caucus, has no problem bad mouthing other Republicans who wish to avoid being as outrageous and disgraceful as he has been! Rumor has it that he is considering a run for President, as he seems to admire himself in the mirror! LOL

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky makes one wonder how Congressman Ron Paul might not wish to disown him as his son, as he is proving to be a true headline hunter, with his nutty libertarian views that one wonders about his sanity and stability. More about this will be explained in a future entry on this blog!

Senator Mike Lee of Utah, also new to the Senate as Rand Paul is, has no problem being seen in the extreme. It is a sad point of fact that Senator Robert Bennett, a mainstream conservative, lost his seat in the Utah primary to this character, who wishes to be noticed for how outrageous he can be!

What is more interesting is how other Republicans elected to the Senate, who were considered Tea Party favorites, chose to find excuses rather than attend the Tea Party Caucus meeting.

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, and Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin apparently had second thoughts about joining this group of three, as they realized the bad image it would present for them as they begin their careers in the Senate. At least, they have some common sense and rational nature, which cannot be said about DeMint, Paul, and Lee!

Meanwhile, the Tea Party Movement seems bent on defeating Indiana Senator Richard Lugar, Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, and Utah Senator Orrin Hatch in the 2012 Republican Senate primaries. In so doing, they are setting out to destroy the Republican Party and just might succeed at that venture!

The Senate “Tea Party” Caucus: Jim DeMint, Rand Paul, And Mike Lee

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A “glorious” day is coming on January 27, when the so called Senate Tea Party Caucus is meeting with local Tea Party activists to consider making government smaller, and how to deal with the budgets, spending, and the deficit.

Three Republican Senators will be present at these meetings: Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Mike Lee of Utah.

All three are the most right wing members of the GOP, and by being involved with the Tea Party, they label themselves as the most extreme and loony members of the Republican Party! 🙁

What is fascinating though is that the other 44 GOP senators are NOT scheduled to be involved in this meeting, and realize that 13 new Republican Senators were elected to the 112th Congress, but only two of them, Paul and Lee, are willing to associate directly with Jim DeMint, who has become the worst of the worst in the party, so this move will label them as extremists who cannot be taken as rational and reasonable in their views! 🙁

Effect Of Tea Party Movement And New Membership On The 112th Congress

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As the 112th Congress opened today, the statistics showed that 43 Tea Party favorites were elected to the House of Representatives, and five to the Senate.

That means about 10 percent of the House and 5 percent of the Senate is affected by the Tea Party Movement.

While it sounds impressive, is it really so? Only if the GOP leadership in both houses chooses to let the extremists in this movement gain control, and it seems highly unlikely in reality.

It is much more likely that there will be “civil war” in the GOP, and it will affect the 2012 Presidential Election, and weaken the Republican ability to keep the House of Representatives, and gain control of the Senate and the White House.

Will Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Marco Rubio of Florida, and Mike Lee of Utah gain a lot of influence and affect the direction of the GOP in the Senate? That will be one of the most interesting trends to follow in the new Senate!

At the same time, we also have more freshmen legislators than at any time since the late 1940s, with 87 new Republicans and 9 new Democrats in the House of Representatives, and 13 new Republicans and 3 new Democrats in the Senate.

There has never been so many new Republicans and so few new Democrats in a Congress since the 1920s! So this 112th Congress will be watched closely for the impact of the 20 percent new membership (108 out of 535)!

“Prima Donna” Senate Republicans: A Massive Headache For Mitch McConnell!

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It has often been said that the Democratic Party is not an organized party with any discipline, but it seems obvious that in the 112th Congress, that Mitch McConnell and John Boehner will have trouble controlling their membership!

This is particularly true in the US Senate, which can be said to have two distinct groups of “prima donnas”, people who are not good at working together and with others!

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post referred to a group of Senators, who complained bitterly about being “rushed” to do things, and feeling that the idea of having to work to just before Christmas was somehow an outrage!

Realize that it was because the Republicans asked for delays on many issues and procrastinated on them, that required the Senate to stay in session through yesterday, December 22. Also, these Senators seem to live in an unreal world, as if no one works to the day before Christmas. In other words, they are “petulant”, but also prima donnas, not an image designed to win support of the American people!

For the record, who fits into the “petulant” group of Republican Senators? They include Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, John Thune of South Dakota, Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Orrin Hatch of Utah, and Jon Kyl and John McCain of Arizona.

Now in the new Congress, McConnell must work with the five new “Tea Party” Senators–Marco Rubio of Florida, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Mike Lee of Utah.

This sounds like a massive undertaking, to gain their cooperation and willingness to do what needs to be done, not always what they want to be done.

Let’s just say that no one should envy the challenge facing Mitch McConnell, as well as John Boehner, now that their party has more seats in the Senate and controls the House of Representatives.

It is not just how the GOP relates to President Obama, but also how they relate to each other, that will be the biggest political news story of 2011!

Kentucky’s US Senators: Not Good For Kentucky! :(

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Kentucky, the Bluegrass State, somehow has managed to have elected US Senators who are not good for the state’s population! 🙁

Not only did they have Senator Jim Bunning, the Baseball Hall of Famer, who was considered by many observers, to be one of the absolutely worst Senators the chamber has ever had, who was always hard to work with, and who constantly seemed angry when he was not seen as loony!

But now they have Senator elect Rand Paul, a Tea Party favorite, who is a libertarian all the way, and will likely over time make Kentuckians wish that Jim Bunning was back! Paul has led the move against earmarks, the bringing of projects to a state that is one of the poorest in the nation, and shows no concern about the conditions of coal miners in his state, despite recent coal mine disasters in West Virginia!

And now Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has looked like a genius when compared to Bunning and Paul, has shown himself to be a hypocrite (actually nothing new) as he was a champion ear marker, bringing nearly a billion dollars to his home state over the years, but now switching gears and agreeing to prevent earmarks over the next two years, and therefore undermining his state’s ability to improve its poor economic conditions!

And why has McConnell done this? It is because of pressure from conservative and Tea Party favorite Jim DeMint of South Carolina, who was seen as a rival of McConnell for the leadership of the Senate Republicans!

So in order to keep his job and look in sync with other Republicans, Mitch McConnell shows a lack of courage and principle, except for one thing!

He has made it clear that the Republicans will do everything to undermine President Obama and assure that he is a one term President! And this is already showing by the fact that the scheduled meeting of House and Senate Republicans with Obama at the White House that was due for Thursday has been postponed by McConnell and Speaker to be John Boehner due to “scheduling” problems!

What is that supposed to mean? Why would anyone after arranging an appointment at the White House with the President of the United States suddenly change it? The only good reasons would be death or illness, but neither is the case!

It is simply pure rudeness and disrespect for the President, and a sign that there will be no attempt by the Republicans in Congress to cooperate at all with the President over the next two years!

So what else is new? 🙁

Do The Republicans Really Want The Tea Party To Become Their Image?

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There already is evidence that mainstream Republican conservatives are not very happy with the influence of the Tea Party Movement on them in Congress.

Does the Republican Party really think that a party with the public image of Michele Bachmann, Jim DeMint, Rand Paul, and Sarah Palin, among others, is a good omen for their future success?

Why is it so much attention is being paid to these Tea Party favorites, and others like them, and focus is not being placed on more mainstream conservatives, such as newly elected Senators Roy Blunt of Missouri, Dan Coats of Indiana, and Rob Portman of Ohio, and veteran Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Olympia Snowe of Maine, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and Richard Lugar of Indiana, among others?

If the Republican Party really expects to gain control of the Senate and retain the House of Representatives in future elections, would it not make more sense to focus and promote the more mainstream, respectable conservatives and moderates in the party?

Extremism and loony behavior are not the road to long range success and respectability for any political party, and it can be expected that the struggle within the Republican Party over the next two years will have a long range effect on the party’s fortunes in Congress, as well as in the Presidential race of 2012!