Politics

Rand Paul sweats the details

Matt K. Lewis Senior Contributor
Font Size:

There’s a fine line between being a detail-oriented legislator and a pain-in-the-ass obstructionist. Rand Paul has been known to walk that line.

It’s not that he isn’t friendly. He is. But pleasantness is cold comfort when someone’s holding up your bill. “I think one of the things that gets overlooked too often,” says Doug Stafford, a top Paul aide, “is Rand working to make legislation better.”

A good example of this, Stafford believes, took place when Paul voted against the Ukraine aid bill. While Paul’s “no” vote made the headlines, on principle, he agreed with sanctions. The vote against the aid, Stafford says, reflected serious concerns about the loan guarantees (which he argued would largely end up in Putin’s hands).

As Stafford points out, Paul didn’t just vote “no” on final passage, either. He tried to strip funding in committee, supported lifting the energy export ban, and called for restarting the Eastern Europe missile defense. (What is more, in voting “no” on the aid bill, Paul was joined by Nevada Sen. Dean Heller — hardly some sort of fringe paleocon.)

Of course, none of this will matter to Paul’s critics, who are sure his “concerns” about lining Putin’s pockets were just a convenient excuse to vote “no” (while disguising his deep-seated isolationist tendencies.)

And maybe they’re right. Or maybe, as Stafford argues, Paul was simply being fastidious. Were it not for Paul’s history of holding up projects until his concerns are met, I would be more skeptical. But consider this example:

In October of 2011, California Senators Feinstein and Boxer called on Paul to “stop blocking legislation to strengthen safety regulations for underground pipelines…” (This was seen as an urgent bill — meant to address concerns after an explosion killed eight people in California.) Paul was blocking the rushed legislation — however, it was based on what he believed to be flaws in the hurriedly-crafted legislation. And so, on October 17, Paul announced an amendment to “fix the bill and its pipeline testing requirements…”

And you know what? It turns out that Paul wasn’t trying to kill the bill — he was trying to fix it. Here’s an excerpt the Los Angeles Times story that ran the next day:

The Senate unanimously approved a pipeline safety bill Monday that stemmed from a spate of incidents, including last year’s deadly explosion in San Bruno that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes.

The measure had been held up by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who lifted his hold after reaching agreement with Democrats to add a key recommendation from the National Transportation Safety Board.

At least some of what Paul’s critics take to be evidence of his foreign policy apostasy is probably just proof of his penchant for making the perfect the enemy of the good.

Regardless, Paul’s team is well aware that he is in danger of being cast as outside the mainstream of conservative foreign policy. And they strongly reject the notion.

“Often his foreign policy ends up defying labeling, which is what makes some of the reporting on it tricky for people,” says Stafford. “He is neither a hawk nor an isolationist. He believes in a strong defense and engagement in the world. But he also doesn’t think every idea or bill is a good one. He works to make them better and supports them when that works.”

He’s also, it seems, a stickler for the details.

Tags : rand paul
Matt K. Lewis

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel