Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)
Question: Who do you even root for in
a battle of ideas between Republican senators like John Cornyn and Orrin Hatch and Republican presidential candidates like Rand Paul and Ted Cruz? (The latter are also senators, of course, but their ideas are all from loony stump-speech land.)
Answer: You don't root for anyone, you just sit back and roll your eyes.
Rand Paul took the stage in Louisville this month for his presidential campaign kickoff and delivered a thunderous pronouncement to cheering supporters. “We limit the president to two terms. It’s about time we limit the terms of Congress!” he blared.
Says the guy who's pushed Kentucky into
all sorts of contortions so he can run for president and Senate at the same time. But I digress: Point is, his fellow Republicans aren't fans of the idea, and it's
not the only one:
The skepticism covers more than just term-limit pledges. GOP senators have poured cold water on Paul’s vow to repeal the Patriot Act, with Kelly Ayotte even warning such a move would endanger Americans. Marco Rubio’s promise to reverse President Barack Obama’s effort to normalize relations with Cuba “would not fly,” in the estimation of Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake.
And Ted Cruz’s promise to abolish the IRS “I’ve been hearing that since the Coolidge administration!” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said with a big laugh.
Well, pshaw to all those stick-in-the-muds, say Cruz and Paul's fellow members of the vandal caucus:
“That’s part of the problem: New ideas are not going to come from within Washington,” said Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho), a supporter of Paul’s. “The new ideas are going to come from the outside. They are going to come with new blood, new people, and people who have been recently in the private sector — not people who have been in Washington, D.C. for a long time.”
Psst, Raul: Term limits and abolishing the IRS aren't new ideas—hence McCain's Coolidge administration crack.
So that's the big Republican battle of ideas: "Old idea that's never happened for a reason but sounds rebellious!" "Yeah, no."