Rand Paul's Political Genius

Here's Charles Krauthammer's comments from the Fox News All Star panel:

Also, from Ross Kaminsky, at the American Spectator, "A Political Earthquake":

Senator Paul’s filibuster was dramatic and historic. Indeed, while CSPAN2 is normally less interesting than a 3 AM half-hour long infomercial for Facelift in a Flash, not once from the time I started hearing Senator Paul, before 10 AM here in the Rocky Mountains, through at least 10 hours later as I write this note, did I consider changing the channel.

To give you a sense of Paul’s intensity and seriousness, he gave every one of the following remarks within a five-minute span just after 7:35 PM Eastern Time:

* Can the president have the power to decide when the Bill of Rights applies?
Someone in the media should ask the president…“Do you plan on killing Americans who are not in combat…people he might be accusing of some kind of crime but who are not actually engaged in combat?” It should be an easy question.
* We’ll take a telegram. We’ll even take a tweet…if they let us know that they acknowledge that their power is not unlimited.
* If you have a war that has no end, if you have a war that has no geographic limit, and then if you have strikes that have no constitutional bounds, basically what you have is an unlimited imperial presidency.
* But even under George Bush, nobody ever maintained they could kill Americans at home. I can’t imagine that the president, when he comes forward and says that he hasn’t killed Americans yet and he doesn’t intend to do it, but he might, that somehow we’re supposed to be placated by that.
* The president who ran for office and said we’re not going to tap phones without a warrant, the president who ran for office and said we’re not going to torture people now says we’re going to kill people with no due process. I find that incredibly hypocritical and incredibly ironic.

I repeat: that was in one five-minute span.

Continue reading.

Yesterday was a big day for Senate Republicans, and I mean the New Guard Senate Republicans. The Old Guard? Not so much.

More coming up shortly.

And also at Memeorandum.