Paul on McConnell: ‘We’re going to be best friends now’
May 19, 2010 | Accountability Editor | Comments 20
MORE COVERAGE: Paul thumps Grayson; Conway edges Mongiardo
In an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe program Wednesday morning, Republican U.S. Senate nominee Rand Paul said he expects to be on friendly terms with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“We’re going to be best friends now. I’m putting him on my short list on my cell phone,” Paul said.
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Filed Under: Elections • Federal Government • Mitch McConnell • Rand Paul • Republican Party • US Senate Race
About the Author: John Stamper is the accountability editor for the Lexington Herald-Leader. A native of Monticello, Ky., he has been with the Herald-Leader in a variety of roles since graduating from Western Kentucky University in 2000. Reach him at jstamper@herald-leader.com
McConnell is toast;; McConnell is all about the Party and not Kentucky and America. He’s as much of the problem as Obama is on the other side. Rand Paul better not get to friendly with the man who opposed him. That would be the type of politics that the Tea Party is against. Say one thing and do another? Paul has a formible challenger in Jack Conway; this Tea Party win may be just a blip on the national stage come Novemeber.
NORA: “How will you reach compromise to bring down the size of the debt and reduce spending? Would you be for raising taxes to raise revenues in order to do that?”
PAUL: “No, but I think there are things we can have bi-partisan support for. I consider the Tea Party Platform to include calls for things like term limits. If you poll term limits with Democrats & Independents you’ll find 70% – 80% are in favor of term limits.”
NORA: On the Debt & Deficit how will you find compromise?
PAUL: “I think you find compromise by finding issues that …”
JOE (Noticing that Paul is NOT answering the question & Nora will keep pressing)”guys, guys, we have a delay here.”
NORA: How will he find compromise on bringing down the size of the debt.”
PAUL: “I think you find compromise by looking for rules. I don’t think they’ll ever balance the budget unless they are forced to by law.”
Ok Rand … so what you’re saying is YOU HAVE NO SOLUTIONS
Friends with McConnel, just lost my vote
Lets hope that we don’t get what a lot of people believed they voted against and that is simply ‘more of the same’ regardless of who gets into office. Where exactly are Paul’s solutions to the many problem areas we are facing in this nation. Don’t simply ‘talk’, SHOW us what you are going to do IF elected into office. Don’t use the excuse, ‘well, if I tell you now, someone else will steal my ideas’. IF any of your ideas are good for the country, then it doesn’t matter who offers them. I can recall a certain Republican candidate for President, who had ‘this secret plan’ for getting us out of Vietnam. However, once in office, all he offered was more of the same. Nixon ring any bells to anyone? If Paul is going to be the ‘so-called darling’ of the Tea Party and/or the Republican party; ‘Talk the talk’, but then also ‘walk the walk’, or Paul will be no different than McConnell or the rest of the GOP currently holding offices across this nation. I might add, my comments apply equally to ALL the Democrats either running or currently in office. It is way past time to clean up your acts and actually DO the job you were or are going to be elected to do. If this means you have to vote against the ‘party line’ and perhaps lost your seat doing so, then so be it. At least you have taken a stand for the AMERICAN PEOPLE.
I hate the fact that it will take losing the KY senate race for the stupidity-mongering Tea Party to be discredited and flushed out of the Republican ranks. Go form your own party, take all the idiots and whack jobs with you, and leave our party alone. For too long, the republicans have been hijacked by the lowest common denominator-inspired Palinites and their christian coalition parents.
Enough of this garbage. Reasonable, moderate, intelligent, and focused on personal responsibility–that is Republican party I miss…
Hahahahah Buster………He clearly insinuated we need rules (constitutional amendment) to balance the budget just like Kentucky.
I laugh at all these ignorant Liberal Comments. He’ll win hands down in November when Mongiardo’s conservative democrats join his cause. I am one of the thousands of Conservative Democrats in Kentucky who LIKE the Tea Party Movement.
Rich: You’re dreaming. As a Conservative Democrat, I will not be jumping on a tea party bandwagon. Thanks, but no thanks!
As a “new Kentuckian,” a lifelong liberal (usually a Democrat) and a gay man who is seriously interested in preserving his own freedom and equality as well as that of his community, I applaud Dr. Paul’s victory.
Not that I hope to see him – or any other Tea Party enthusiast – win in November.
I have great faith in the sensibility of the overwhelming majority of the American people. I believe that as election day approaches, the anti-government and anti-incumbent crowd who manifest their anger toward Washington will come to their senses and support broadly moderate to liberal candidates for office.
In contrast to most observers, I believe that a Democratic majority will be maintained in both Houses of Congress notwithstanding the primary successes of the Tea-Partiers. Why?
Because while their frustration is understandable, its objects are not. It was eight years of the quasi-criminal Bush/Cheney nightmare regime that involved the country and its citizens in two inestimably costly, pointless and un-winable wars, dragged the country’s once sterling reputation through the mud of global repugnance and all but destroyed the country’s economy.
If that economy has been brought onto the right track to recovery, it is owing to the foresight, fortitude and persistence of Barack Obama and his administration team.
If we all are not today unemployed, dispossessed, evicted and vending apples on the street corners of our nation, it is – in very large measure – to this man and his efforts that y’all need to give thanks.
So Tea-partiers, “birthers,” and Glen-Beck-o-philes: its time to wake up and smell the coffee. Stop being jerks and act like real Americans.
Paul can’t win no matter if McConnell backs hime. He was simply the best of the worst on the Republican ticket. His shortsightedness, lack of experience, underestimation of the intelligence of Kentucky voters, etc. etc. spells doom for the Republican choice. keepcalm
typo acknowledged: him not hime. keepcalm
He is saying that making a law that requires a balanced budget is the only way to fix the problem. When dealing with a substance abuse problem you don’t compromise with the addict you lay out rules and ensure that they stop trying to kill themselves and others. The big government spendaholics are trying to kill this country and its time we put a stop to it.
Most recent Rasmussen poll says that Rand Paul leads Jack Conway by 9%.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections2/election_2010/election_2010_senate_elections/kentucky/election_2010_kentucky_senate
Paul wants to get rid of the department of agriculture whose subsidies keep many KY tobacco farmers going. Wants to get rid of the Department of Education ( not important to the tea party I guess lol)which means KY schools will be even worse off than they are now. And claims to be an outsider yet is the son of a congressman. On top of that he wants to cut the deficit without raising taxes or making cuts to SS or Medicare? How does that work? Oh and need I say PALIN! All Conway has to do is have a strong showing by moderate/liberal democrats statewide, flex the muscle of Louisville and Lexington, and just not do anything stupid and he should win.
uh, Bill, hate to let you in on the news, but the democrats voted to go to war, and keep voting to fund the wars, even after they took over in 2006.
Josh, what makes you think that abolishing the dept of education will hurt actual learning? Since 1980, when Dept of Ed became a cabinet level dept, has education improved? have test scores increased per dollar spent? What other measures can you cite that justifies keeping this monstrous organization?
Where were all the McConnell bashers in 2008? It was a great chance to end his political career. Another 4 years now. Every one will have forgotten by then.
I thought the reason that he won the primary was due to him NOT being like McConnell?? I may just vote Lib Dem this time around….
Rand Paul shouldn’t become ‘best friends’ with Mitch McConnell. Rand Paul should stick to his principles, win a seat in the U.S. Senate, and fight for his principles even though in doing so he will be fighting against McConnell’s reckless, profligate borrow-and-spend ways and devotion to wasteful pork barrel spending. Then in 2014 Paul should return the favor and support a primary opponent against McConnell in order to help bring positive change to Washington and the country.
Mitch McConnell is a proponent and practitioner of wasteful spending and reckless borrowing. Mitch McConnell is part of the problem and has been for years. I do not like seeing Rand Paul cozy up to McConnell, and it doesn’t match the principles Paul has championed.
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