Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) “won the straw poll at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference — his third such victory in a row,” Politico reports.
“But Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker came in a strong second, reflecting his rising popularity among the grassroots of the Republican Party.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) repeatedly slammed Jeb Bush for his “hypocritical” stance on marijuana, Business Insider reports.
Said Paul: “I think if you talk to young people, they’re not very tolerant of hypocrisy. Jeb Bush admits that — when he was at an elite prep school, where very wealthy kids went to school — that he smoked pot. But he’s still willing to put someone in jail for medical marijuana in Florida. … When Jeb was a very wealthy kid at a very elite school, he used marijuana but didn’t get caught [and] didn’t have to go to prison. I think it shows some hypocrisy.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told Katie Couric that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is to blame for the 2012 terror attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi and that her failure to “defend our ambassador,” should “preclude her from even being considered for the higher office.”
Said Paul: “The biggest mistake Hillary Clinton made, and think this will be an albatross over her neck for the rest of the campaign, I don’t think she’ll be able to overcome this, is that when she was asked to provide security for Benghazi, she didn’t do it.”
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Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson has told associates that he is open to underwriting an effort to stopping Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) in the 2016 GOP presidential race should he gain traction in the primaries, the New York Times reports.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell endorsed Sen. Rand Paul’s “push for a Republican presidential caucus in Kentucky, lending heavy weight Tuesday to a proposal that had raised concerns among some members of the state GOP’s executive committee,” the Lexington Herald Leader reports.
“Paul’s push for a caucus in early 2016 would allow him to run for two offices in the same year despite a Kentucky law that prohibits a candidate from appearing on the same ballot twice.”
“I don’t question his motives. And I try not to question the president’s motives as being a good American or a bad American.”
— Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), quoted by CNN, on whether President Obama loves America.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) “is eyeing April 7 as the day he will announce his plans to run for president, people close to him said, a step that would position him ahead of his potential Republican rivals as a declared candidate and allow him to begin raising money directly for his campaign 10 months before the Iowa caucuses,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Paul, the junior senator from Kentucky and the heir to the robust Ron Paul grass-roots network, will take the next month to continue talking with members of his family about whether they are comfortable moving forward with the exhausting and, at times, agonizing rigors of a modern presidential campaign.”
Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-KY) “bash-the-Fed routine” “is political gold with libertarian voters suspicious of all federal authority, especially a central bank with a $4.5 trillion balance sheet,” Politico reports.
“But Paul could face a significant challenge if he emerges from Iowa with a legitimate shot at the Republican nomination. Because experts say he gets many of his arguments about the Fed flat wrong. And the establishment wing of the GOP — backed by piles of Wall Street money — views Paul’s approach to the Fed as dangerous and irresponsible.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), “seeking a way to run for re-election to the Senate at the same time he pursues a presidential bid, has formally asked the Kentucky GOP to clear the way for him by changing the state’s presidential nominating contest from a primary to a caucus in 2016,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“In a letter sent earlier this month to members of the Kentucky GOP Central Committee, Mr. Paul said the change would ‘help me get an equal chance at the nomination’ by allowing him to circumvent a state law barring candidates from appearing twice on the same ballot.”
As Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) “moves closer to a 2016 bid, he is betting that in a field of big personalities, his low-key style and atypical pitch — mixing snarky asides, dovish takes on foreign policy and a compassionate plea for criminal-justice reform — will set his candidacy apart,” the Washington Post reports.
“The challenge for Paul is whether his approach, which has echoes of his father, former Texas congressman Ron Paul, will enable him to do better than the elder Paul’s third-place finish in the 2012 GOP presidential caucuses in Iowa.”
Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-KY) “plan to get himself elected president relies on two long-shot bets coming true. So far, neither one seems to be going well,” the Washington Post reports.
“Paul’s first wager is that his ‘libertarian-ish’ ideas will manage to attract both Republicans mad about regulation and Democrats mad about government spying into an entirely new American voting bloc… The second bet is a bet on Paul himself — a wager that he’s an unusually talented politician persuasive enough to build a coalition out of groups that have never viewed themselves as allies.”
Politico: How Rand Paul trolls his rivals
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) “opens 2015 with an enviable base of support in Iowa from his father’s two presidential bids. But as he tries to broaden his appeal beyond the hard-core liberty activists who lifted Ron Paul to a third place finish in 2012, the senator is encountering an unlikely roadblock: his own campaign team,” National Journal reports.
“One of Paul’s two top Iowa operatives, A.J. Spiker, is so deeply disliked and mistrusted by so much of the Iowa Republican establishment that party activists, officials, and strategists say he is damaging Paul’s credibility in the state.”
“Some of the most influential players in big-money conservative politics gathered late last month to discuss government’s role in society, but their focus kept shifting to a less weighty topic: Rand Paul’s outfit,” Politico reports.
Paul “appeared at the annual winter meeting of the Koch donor network wearing a boxy blue blazer, faded jeans and cowboy boots.”
Said one attendee: “This is an older crowd and much more establishment crowd. They are used to a Romney. They are used to a Jeb Bush. Jeans might work for a younger audience, but these are old bulls who put on a tie every day to go to the office.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is standing by his statement that most vaccinations should be “voluntary,” telling CNBC that a parent’s choice not to vaccinate a child is “an issue of freedom,” NBC News reports.
Said Paul: “I have heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines.”
“You would think he’d have a little more understanding then. I think that’s the real hypocrisy, is that people on our side, which include a lot of people who made mistakes growing up, admit their mistakes but now still want to put people in jail for that. Had he been caught at Andover, he’d have never been governor, he’d probably never have a chance to run for the presidency.”
— Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), quoted by The Hill, on Jeb Bush’s reported use of marijuana while in high school.
Politico: Is pot the new gay marriage for the GOP?
Texas GOP Chairman Steve Munisteri is set to announce that he is resigning his party post in early March and joining Sen. Rand Paul’s team of advisers for a possible 2016 presidential campaign, the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Mr. Munisteri, in throwing in with Mr. Paul, is giving a cold shoulder to Texas Republicans thinking about presidential bids, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry… He gives a boost to Mr. Paul in a crowded field of potential GOP candidates in a state that will loom much larger in the GOP nominating process in 2016 than in the past. The state is expected to hold its primary March 1, which could make it one the first big, vote-rich states in the presidential calendar.”
“This weekend was a crucial one for Rand Paul, the Republican senator from Kentucky and undeclared candidate for the presidency. He was in California, trying to line up donors at an opulent retreat organized by the billionaire Koch brothers,” the Washington Post reports.
“At the same time, his father — retired after 12 terms in Congress and three presidential runs — was in the ballroom of an airport hotel here, the final speaker at ‘a one-day seminar in breaking away from the central state.’ He followed a series of speakers who said that the U.S. economy and political establishment were tottering and that the best response might be for states, counties or even individuals to break away.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) “is in full-blown campaign mode,” The Hill reports.
“While most potential GOP contenders’ early efforts are taking place behind closed doors with donors and top strategists, the Kentucky senator is engaged in the kind of retail politicking that won’t become commonplace until the candidates officially announce their intentions later this year.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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