As Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s filibuster of the nomination of John Brennan to be CIA director wound late into the night, he got the support of one unlikely media personality: Comedy Central “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart.
“Holy Howard Roark’s ghost — it looks like we got us a good old fashion actual talkie filibuster,” Stewart said. “The kind our grandparents tried to tell us about but never got through, because we were too busy playing jacks and tiddlywinks with our friends waiting for our turn to freebase in the shed. Ah, the ‘70s or ‘50s, or whatever timeframe I appear to be.”
“Rand Paul had sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder asking just a simple question: Can the president use a drone to take out an American citizen on U.S. soil?” Stewart continued. “You would think he would get a letter back like, ‘No, way.’ Holder writes him back a letter that never directingly addressing the question kind of, sort of implied that hypothetically in the right — yes, yes, we can do that. We can do that probably won’t, but yes. So, Sen. Rand Paul to draw attention to the issue of the execution of executive executions executed the classical old school filibuster. I mean he’s out there talking. This isn’t one of those — he’s using the filibuster the way it’s meant to be used.”
“[I] can’t say I agree with Rand Paul about everything,” Stewart added. “But as issues go, drone oversight is one certainly worth kicking up a fuss for.”