Rand Paul Responds to 'Anti-Christian' Attack Ad

It seems eons ago, but back in May I wrote in defense of Rand Paul's comments on the meaning of the Civil Rights Act. Paul had just won his Senate primary race and he took a big gamble debating the nuances of states' rights and federal policy on the Rachel Maddow show. On principle, Rand Paul "won" that debate hands down. The problem is that we're past the point in America where it's even respectable to make states' rights arguments --- e.g., a business owner's right to serve whom they want without federal interference --- without appearing cold-hearted at least and out-an-out racist at worst. Rachel Maddow was having a field day, and Paul held off on public appearances for a week or two after that.

I haven't paid much attention to Paul since then, and I suspect that in the long run his ideas aren't all that different from his dad's, and thus pretty much unforgivable. So I'm interested in this new attack on Paul from his opponent Democrat Jack Conway. Left Coast Rebel's got the background: "After Debate, Rand Paul Refuses to Shake Hands with his Democratic Opponent Jack Conway." At issue is this Conway ad, which attacks Paul as anti-Christian:

That's a scorcher. And Rand Paul's not taking it lying down:

My good friend Tim is urging his readers to "Support Rand Paul." I'm not going that far. I'm still a bit agnostic on the Kentucky GOP Senate nominee. Paul's got big question marks on foreign policy. See Philip Klein, "Rand Paul and Israel," Jenn Q. Public, "Rand Paul: A Jeremiah Wright Republican," and especially Sultan Knish, "Rand Paul, Anti-War, Anti-Gitmo and Anti-American."

RELATED: From Melissa Clouthier, "Libertarians: Still In Search Of Their Perfect World. Practically Irrelevant."