Last week, Rand Paul turned on Rachel Maddow. After Maddow invited him on her show, and painted his libertarian views as a proxy support for private sector segregation, Paul announced that he had been attacked by the “Looney Left.” So it goes. Politics ain’t T-ball. Yet we can all still hope that one day Maddow and Paul find a way to make up. They do have, after all, so much in common. Don’t believe me? Keep reading.
Back in 2007, Rand Paul headlined a rally at Faneuil Hall, an event for his father which could be called one of the first Tea Party rallies ever. The full video is below, but before that, let me highlight some of Rand Paul’s calls to the crowd. He said:
We live in a time of the imperial presidency. We live in a time when the president, the current president [George W. Bush], maintains that he needs no further authority to attack Iran. His legal team has written extensively that the powers of the commander and chief are virtually boundless. You would miss that there was some opposition party. But do the Democrats even have the guts to vote against the war? Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama continue to vote to fund the war. Rudy McRomney and the Republican gang—one war is not enough. Not only do they want the Iraq war to go on in perpetuity. They want to bomb Iran next.
He continued:
We live in a time when the President by imperial fiat adds signing statements to legislation. His attorneys write page after page of new legislation that wasn’t passed by Congress and they attach it to the bill. In one fail swoop, he becomes judge, jury and the legislature all combined. We’re gathered here today because we want to end this. We want an end to the imperial presidency.
Who says politics is not wonderful mishmash of interests? That Rand Paul, just two and a half years later, can be the Republican standard bearer in a state like Kentucky, taking election advice by Bush’s own strategist, Karl Rove, speaks to the raw chaos of a competitive Democracy. Who knows? In a few years, Maddow and Paul might be co-hosting a show together, or joining together on a ticket. The 2007 Rand Paul video after the jump.
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