GOP Must Throw Rand Paul Under the Bus

If Republicans are smart, they'll kick Rand Paul to the curb so fast he won't know what hit him. Paul's statements opposing the public accommodations provision of the Civil Rights Act make him absolutely radioactive, argues David Bernstein of the Boston Phoenix . “I think that Dr. Paul truly does come to his view from a purely libertarian perspective,” but that hardly helps. It would almost be more manageable for Republicans if he really was racist.

“This, frankly, sounds like a natural extension of the new libertarian conservatism, and thus something that people will easily be able to imagine Jim DeMint or Mike Pence or Pat Toomey nodding their heads to,” Bernstein explains. Which means conservatives across the country will be asked about it—and some will fumble the question. It'll be a disaster not just among minorities but among mainstream white Americans, who feel "really, really good about the fact that their government stopped all of that discrimination."