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Mr. Pauls rivals portray him as trying to be too many things to too many different people. And his efforts to sell himself as a new kind of Republican may be complicated by his views on foreign aid: He supported abolishing it altogether, but then, under pressure from the right, carved out an exception for Israel though Jewish conservatives remain wary of him. Mr. Paul has tried to explain away such inconsistencies by insisting that the news media or his critics were twisting his words, when in fact they were not. His occasional testiness, indeed, suggests a temperament that may not wear well under the hot glare of a long campaign. But his biggest problem could be Republican foreign-policy hawks, like John Bolton, the former United Nations ambassador, who are mobilizing to make sure that Mr. Paul, whom they see as dangerously isolationist, does not get very far.

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What Rand Paul Would Need to Do to Win - The New York Times

Bowling Green, Ky. Sen. Rand Paul has been awarded more than $580,000 in damages and medical expenses Wednesday in his lawsuit against the neighbor who tackled him and broke several of his ribs. The surprise attack by Rene Boucher occurred in 2017 while the Republican lawmaker was doing yard work at his Kentucky home.

On Wednesday, a Kentucky jury awarded $375,000 in punitive damages and $200,000 for pain and suffering, plus $7,834 for medical expenses. They had deliberated for less than two hours.

Paul had testified during the three-day trial he feared for his life as he struggled to breathe after Boucher slammed into him in their upscale Bowling Green neighborhood.

Paul said afterward he hopes the jury's verdict sends a "clear message that violence is not the answer."

"This lawsuit wasn't about me. It was about all of us and what we find acceptable as a society. We need to send a clear message that violence is not the answer anytime, anywhere," Paul said. "We can hold different views, whether it's politics, religion or day to day matters."

Boucher's lawyer, Matt Baker, said they will appeal.

"We all expected that Sen. Paul would get a verdict in his favor," Baker said. "This far exceeds anything that we were expecting."

The trial included testimony from doctors as well as other neighbors, but the most riveting testimony came from Paul and Boucher. Paul, a former GOP presidential candidate, told the jury Monday that immediately after the attack, "the thought crossed my mind that I may never get up from this lawn again."

An apologetic Boucher acknowledged he wasn't thinking rationally and called it "two minutes of my life I wish I could take back." Paul showed no outward emotion, sitting between his lawyer and his wife in the courtroom, as Boucher recounted the attack.

In his lawsuit, Paul sought up to $500,000 in compensatory damages and up to $1 million in punitive damages. Baker conceded during the trial that a "reasonable award" might be in order for Paul's pain and suffering but said no punitive damages should be awarded. Baker said that Paul had resumed his "customary lifestyle" that includes golf and a skiing excursion.

After the verdict, Baker said "multiple issues" will come up during their appeal. Asked if Boucher has the financial resources to pay the damages, the attorney replied: "We're going to talk about that."

Boucher has already served a 30-day prison sentence after pleading guilty to assaulting a member of Congress. Federal prosecutors have appealed, saying 21 months would have been appropriate. Boucher also paid a $10,000 fine and served 100 hours of community service in the criminal case.

Both Paul and Boucher recounted with great detail their accounts of the attack.

Paul testified he got off his riding mower to pick up a stick and was straightening up when Boucher hit him from behind with such force both flew through the air 5 or 10 feet. He said he was wearing noise-canceling headphones and didn't hear Boucher coming toward him.

For a moment, Paul said, he had a flashback to the 2017 shooting at a baseball field when members of Congress were practicing for a game. Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana suffered serious injuries in that shooting.

The attack in Paul's yard was motivated by lawn care, not politics.

Boucher told the jury he attacked Paul after watching the senator begin forming a brush pile near their property line.

The day before the attack, Boucher said, he had burned another brush pile Paul had created near the boundary. He doused that pile with gasoline and set it on fire, Boucher said. An explosion burned his face, neck and arms, and Boucher said he was still in severe pain when he attacked Paul the next day. Boucher testified he had hauled away previous brush piles accumulated by Paul without asking the senator.

Boucher testified he tried to talk to Paul about his lawn maintenance concerns, but was rebuffed. Paul maintained in his testimony he kept any brush pile on his own property.

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Jury awards Rand Paul more than $580K after attack by ...

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Jan. 31, 2019, 2:20 AM GMT

By Associated Press

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul was awarded more than $580,000 in damages and medical expenses on Wednesday in his lawsuit against the neighbor who tackled him and broke several of his ribs in a dispute over lawn maintenance.

A jury in Bowling Green, Kentucky, deliberated less than two hours before delivering the award to the Republican lawmaker who had been attacked while doing yard work at his Kentucky home.

Paul had testified during the three-day trial that he feared for his life as he struggled to breathe after Rene Boucher slammed into him in their upscale Bowling Green neighborhood in late 2017.

The jury awarded $375,000 in punitive damages and $200,000 for pain and suffering, plus $7,834 for medical expenses.

Afterward, Paul said in a statement that he hoped the verdict would send a "clear message that violence is not the answer anytime, anywhere."

Boucher's attorney, Matt Baker, said they would appeal.

"We all expected that Sen. Paul would get a verdict in his favor," Baker said. "This far exceeds anything that we were expecting."

The trial included testimony from doctors as well as other neighbors, but the most riveting testimony came from Paul and Boucher. Paul, a former GOP presidential candidate, told the jury Monday that immediately after the attack, "the thought crossed my mind that I may never get up from this lawn again."

An apologetic Boucher acknowledged he wasn't thinking rationally and called it "two minutes of my life I wish I could take back." Paul showed no outward emotion, sitting between his lawyer and his wife in the courtroom, as Boucher recounted the attack.

In his lawsuit, Paul sought up to $500,000 in compensatory damages and up to $1 million in punitive damages. Baker had conceded a "reasonable award" might be in order for Paul's pain and suffering but said no punitive damages should be awarded. Baker said that Paul had resumed his "customary lifestyle" that includes golf and a skiing vacation.

Boucher has already served a 30-day prison sentence after pleading guilty to assaulting a member of Congress. Federal prosecutors have appealed, saying 21 months would have been appropriate. Boucher also was fined $10,000 and served 100 hours of community service in the criminal case.

Both Paul and Boucher recounted with great detail their accounts of the attack.

Paul testified that he got off his riding mower to pick up a stick and was straightening up when Boucher hit him with such force that both flew through the air 5 or 10 feet.

For a moment, Paul said, he had a flashback to the 2017 shooting at a baseball field when members of Congress were practicing for a game. Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana suffered serious injuries in the shooting.

The attack in Paul's yard was motivated by lawn care, not politics.

Boucher told the jury that he attacked Paul after watching the senator start forming a brush pile near their property line.

The day before the attack, Boucher said he had burned another brush pile that Paul had created near the boundary. He doused that pile with gasoline and set it on fire, Boucher said. An explosion burned his face, neck and arms, and Boucher said he was still in severe pain when he attacked Paul the next day. Boucher testified he had hauled away previous brush piles accumulated by Paul without asking the senator.

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Sen. Rand Paul awarded more than $580,000 in suit over ...

WASHINGTON A jury in Kentucky awarded Senator Rand Paul more than $580,000 in damages on Wednesday in a lawsuit that he filed against a neighbor who assaulted him as he did yardwork.

The neighbor, Rene A. Boucher, pleaded guilty last spring to felony assault after tackling Mr. Paul in November 2017. Mr. Boucher, who was sentenced in June to 30 days in prison, will appeal the verdict, said his lawyer, Matthew J. Baker.

We can hold different views, whether its politics, religion or day to day matters, Mr. Paul, Republican of Kentucky, wrote Wednesday on Twitter after the damages were announced. Its never ok to turn those disagreements into violent, aggressive anger. I hope thats the message from today.

Mr. Boucher, 60, who had lived next door to Mr. Paul for 17 years at the time of the assault, claimed in court documents that he had festering irritation over the senators habit of stacking debris near the line that divides their properties. One day, when he saw Mr. Paul using a lawn mower to blow leaves onto his yard, Mr. Boucher approached him and tackled him.

The attack left Mr. Paul with broken ribs and caused a case of pneumonia, which kept the senator out of Washington for nearly two weeks.

Mr. Boucher, a retired anesthesiologist who once invented a rice-filled vest used for back pain, claimed that he simply lost his temper, and that it was not a political attack an accusation that Mr. Paul and his aides have made.

Any description of this attack that implies a yard dispute justifies such violence and misses the point, Sergio Gor, a spokesman for Mr. Paul, said in a statement last year.

The assault occurred in an otherwise peaceful, well-to-do neighborhood. But Mr. Paul, 56, was known for his quirks as a homeowner, including growing pumpkins on his property and fertilizing them with fish emulsion.

The decision on Wednesday came on the third day of a trial in Bowling Green, Ky., where Mr. Paul lives and where the attack occurred. Mr. Paul and Mr. Boucher testified during the trial.

The total compensation was split into categories: $375,000 in punitive damages, $200,000 for pain and suffering and almost $8,000 for medical expenses.

In his lawsuit, Mr. Paul had sought up to $500,000 in compensatory damages and up to $1 million in punitive damages.

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Jury Awards Rand Paul Over $580,000 in Damages From Attack ...

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., talks with his attorney Tom Kerrick Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2019, during the second day of a civil trial involving Paul and his neighbor Rene Boucher in Warren Circuit Court in Bowling Green, Ky.(Photo: Bac Totrong, AP)

Whew, buddy.

Im betting Rand Paul has never been happier to have Democrats around than he was Wednesday afternoon.

Thats when a jury in Bowling Green ordered his neighbor and archenemy to pay him $580,000 for the blindside tackle that broke six of his ribs and collapsed his lung.

If not for those litigious, leftist, liberal lawmakers who have for years kept Kentucky from passing legislation that would limit how much money peoplecan collect when theysue somebody, Rene Boucher might owe Paula heck of a lot less.

Paul, the junior senator from Kentucky and an eye surgeon, has long favored laws that limit how much a jury can award peoplein noneconomic damages.

Doctors seem to like these laws because, well, if they make a bad mistake, such laws can save them and their insurance companies a lot of money. And I mean a lot.

Background: Rand Paul awarded more than $580,000 in trial after neighbor's attack

If a doctor messes up and does something that leaves you badly injured like if an eye doctor slips and blinds you with a laser these laws limit what you could recover in punitive damages and damages for pain and suffering.

A lot of states cap those noneconomic damages at $250,000, which in the whole scheme of things, isnt that much. Some of the caps apply only to medical malpractice cases, but some states cap other types of lawsuits.

Were sorry Mr. Johnson, but Dr. Smith was drunk when he tried to repair the hole in your sons heart. Heres $250,000 to say were sorry and another $25,000 to bury him.

While no amount of money could ever replace ones child, it seems just wrong to cap awards like that.

On some level, you haveto think Paul would agree.

He sued Boucher for $1.5 million in noneconomic damages plus the $7,834 he rang up in medicalfees.

Kelsey Cooper, Paul's spokeswoman, said in an email that the sorts of reforms Paul supports wouldn't affect cases like his.

"The Senator, as a physician is supportive of MEDICAL tort reform, not stopping the restitution from and punishment of violent criminals. To confound the two would be inaccurate," she wrote.

Read this: Rand Paul spends majority of PAC money on travel, food and drink

Not to make light of Pauls injuries I cant imagine there are too many things more painful than broken ribs that ache every time you turn or laugh or even roll over in bed but there are a lot of people with more significant injuriesand many who have lost loved oneswho would argue their suffering is worth at least as much as his.

If Kentucky had a law with a $250,000 limit, the most Paul could hope to collect would be $257,834. Without the law, he stands to collect $582,834 including $375,000 in punitive damages and $200,000 for pain and suffering.

When the General Assembly resumes next week, it could take up Senate Bill 11, which was filed by state Sen. Ralph Alvarado. It is a constitutional amendment that would allow the state legislature to limit jury awards in Kentucky.

The legislation, as filed, doesn't specify what jury awards could be limited. That would be left up to future legislatures.

Proponents of such laws claim they significantly reduce health care costs, but a 2014 study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association found that is not true.

Alvarado, who Gov. Matt Bevin has tapped as his new running mate, is a doctor. So, you can understand why he would want such legislation to pass. It could one day save him a lot of money.

See also: Rand Paul says the free market pushed him to Canada for surgery

In the past, Paul has said repeatedly that state limits on jury verdicts throughout the country should be part of the plan to replace Obamacare.

He really ought to explain why he thinks his neighbor should pay him more than half a million dollars while he favors legislation that could mean your doctor would pay you much less if he or she makes a terrible mistake.

For now, at least, we can only assume that Paul will quietly thank heavenfor Kentucky Democrats while he laughs all the way to the bank.

And laughing shouldnt hurt that badly because those ribs are surelyhealed by now.

Joseph Gerth's opinion column runs on most Sundays and at various times throughout the week. He can be reached at 502-582-4702 or by email at jgerth@courierjournal.com. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today:courier-journal.com/josephg.

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Rand Paul thinks you shouldn't win big like he did in court