Mother Jones: Rand Paul Wins: What Does It Mean?

[marmar]

Tea party Republican candidate Rand Paul has won the Kentucky US Senate race. Throughout the campaign, Democrat Jack Conway occasionally seemed to come almost within striking distance, but ultimately Conway, the state attorney general, was unable to overcome a bad year for Democrats in an increasingly red state. The real nail-biter now is how politically extreme Paul will be once he's in the Senate.

Even at the end of this obsessively watched campaign, it remains unclear how Paul would legislate—or anti-legislate. Is he a libertarian with tea party tendencies, or a tea partier with libertarian impulses? It's hard to know, because Paul won this race virtually without talking to media. One of us went to Kentucky to try to get someone—anyone—on the Paul campaign to discuss Paul's positions on various issues and policies. We didn't have much luck.

If the hardcore libertarians who support Rand Paul get their way, he'll act much like his father, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), who is known as "Dr. No" for his practice of voting down almost every spending and tax bill to cross his desk. Ron Paul has referred with pride to the fact that he's often on the short end of 434-to-1 votes in the House. But when a House member casts a lone nay vote, it doesn't gain him much except credit with his followers. In the Senate, a single opposition vote—expressed via a hold, a filibuster, or some other parliamentary maneuver—can block legislation and bring the chamber to a standstill. Look at how Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), whose vacated seat Rand Paul is filling, held up unemployment benefits for millions earlier this year all on his own. In the Senate, Paul—or other incoming tea partiers—could do that again and again, freezing both legislation and appointments. If Rand becomes the "Son of Dr. No" in the Senate, that would further gum up the already dysfunctional chamber and ensure even greater gridlock in Washington. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/11/rand-paul-wins-what-does-it-mean

[BrklynLiberal]

1. I am going to be ill.....

[laconicsax]

2. It means there are a lot more fucking morons in Kentucky than most of us would like to believe. n/t

[tuckessee]

23. Correct. The biggest morons were those who nominated Conway. n/t

[leftstreet]

3. Reaching across the aisle on this one will be interesting n/t

[Hannah Bell]

4. it means kentucky is fucked, & the country as well.

[Naturyl]

5. It means Kentucky likes blatant Social Darwinism.

No huge surprise there, but still unfortunate.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Quixote1818]

7. Coming from Kentucky and the land of head stompers? Not much.

Not that there are not a lot of great people in Kentucky but lets face it, Kentucky has a lot of scary people.

[JustAmused]

8. And once again

a Southern state and all of its inhabitants gets slammed on DU. What a surprise.

[FiveGoodMen]

11. And it will keep happening as long as southern states keep doing really stupid things

Get used to it.

[beam me up scottie]

18. I don't want to "get used to" watching liberal residents of red states getting slammed on DU.

Obviously I have no choice.

[FiveGoodMen]

19. I don't think that liberal residents of red state ARE getting slammed on DU

Just the states they live in.

[beam me up scottie]

15. Yep. I'm done alerting, going to read a book and listen to some Springsteen.

Not interested in watching Kentuckians getting pissed on all night long on DU.

Like Paul's win doesn't hurt enough.

[AndrewP]

20. I know for a fact that I'm not doing that, nor will I

There are many good people in those States that are getting a bad rep because of what voters did last night and have done over the path of history.

It is a tougher uphill fight in those States though to get Progressive/Liberal politics idea across. That is unfortunate.

[Fire Walk With Me]

9. Hopefully it means that honest, hard-working people will eventually become exhausted

by those who childishly gum up the works just because they can, when in truth, it effect millions.

Send them home and replace them with those who will work for the greater good.

[SoCalDem]

10. Some people in KY can start seeing a BOARD certified ophthalmologist

:rofl:

[w8liftinglady]

14. lol!

[wuushew]

12. At least it is a guaranteed no vote on the Iran War Resolution

n/t

[Ikonoklast]

13. It means that either he succumbs to the GOP agenda,

or he will enjoy the only six years he ever spends in Washington.

[old mark]

16. Why is anyone surprised? Youu have to expect they win somewhere...

and it was pretty predictable.
Wait a few hours to get a better overall picture...we will do better than anyone in the MSM would like us to believe.


mark

[Lint Head]

17. This son of a bitch needs his feet held to the fire!

[MilesColtrane]

21. "What Does It Mean?"

It's a double shit-rainbow all the way across the sky.

[lame54]

22. That everything we thought about Kentucky was right

[EnlightenedOne]

24. Kentucky is a big bible belt state

I am not surprised it went for Rand, but was hopeful that it wouldn't. I certainly did my best to prevent it. There are areas of Kentucky close to Cincinnati, Ohio (as I live in) which are much more progressive, just not enough of us to outweigh the bible thumpers and the uneducated whites who are afraid of a black president and who only listen to Faux. Thank God West Virginia had more sense. I knew it would be us or them to put a Tea Partier in.