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You won't be seeing Sen. Rand Paul, a bottle of fine Kentucky bourbon under his arm, paying a social call on President Donald Trump at the White House anytime soon.

"You know I don't think I'm going to be invited to their Christmas party next year," Paul told me on Wednesday during an interview for "The Chicago Way," my podcast on WGN radio. "But it's sort of been that way from the very beginning."

We talked of Trump and bourbon but also about the Constitution and the need for originalist, conservative justices on the Supreme Court to check the power of this and every other president, something liberals trapped in partisan hysteria seem unable to understand.

But we also talked of Paul's war with the neoconservatives the brains behind the Republican War Party wing that drove us into the Iraq War that broke open this week.

You declared war on the neocons, I said.

"You interpreted that pretty well correctly," the libertarian-leaning Republican from Kentucky said.

Paul, a former candidate for president, has kept Trump at arm's length, supporting Trump's talk of tax cuts and cutting government regulations, but breaking with him loudly this week over reports that the president was considering bringing leading neoconservative Elliott Abrams onto his team as deputy secretary of state.

Abrams worked for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. He was convicted of two counts of "withholding" information from Congress in the Iran-Contra scandal and was pardoned by Bush. The neoconservatives despised Trump for his criticisms of the Iraq War and for their failed "nation building" policy. Many neocons joined the #NeverTrump movement and sought refuge with Hillary Clinton.

Reports of Abrams being considered for a top Trump administration post baffled and angered Paul, and he publicly went nuclear.

"One of Elliott Abrams' statements during the campaign was that the chair that Washington and Lincoln both sat in, Trump was not fit to sit in," Paul said on "The Chicago Way." "He was very anti-Trump, but he was also very anti what Trump was saying. Trump would say the Iraq War was a mistake. Elliott Abrams, (who) was one of the key architects of Iraq, would disagree.

"And I hope (Abrams' appointment) won't happen. But it is somewhat unnerving that he would be considered for a post when he was viscerally and loudly opposed to most of what Trump brought that was a change in regards to foreign policy," Paul said.

What's odd about all this was that at the beginning of the Republican presidential primaries, it was Paul who was condemned by the GOP establishment and neocons as something of a dangerous "isolationist." Democrats aren't the only ones who try to shut down debate about what threatens them by demonizing their opponents with alleged sins. But there is another word for isolationist: noninterventionist.

The American people don't want another war, not in the Middle East, not with Russia, not with anyone. The people aren't crazy about intervening, because they know who bleeds, and it isn't the careerist war architects in Washington. Members of our armed forces are the ones who bleed.

"I've been unafraid to say that we need to have a foreign policy that's constitutional," Paul said, "that separates the powers, that understands that our Founding Fathers said that Congress shall declare war. One of my biggest pet peeves right now is that we're at war in Yemen and nobody's even talking about it.

"So I will support Trump when he's against regulations and when he's for balancing the budget or lower taxes, but when he strays and he's for a foreign policy that endangers or threatens to get us involved in more war in the Middle East, I'll have to oppose him," Paul said.

And so he has.

But there was no way I would spend time talking with Paul and not talk about the Constitution. I had written a recent column about why originalist justices are needed on the Supreme Court to check the political appetites and impulses of a growing Imperial Presidency and that Trump's most vocal critics should understand this. Paul read it and reached out to say he liked it.

"I appreciated the article I believe you wrote talking about how believing in separation of powers should be exactly what (Trump critics are) for, because that means that the executive branch doesn't get to act unilaterally on its own, if you have justices that actually believe in separation of powers," Paul said.

Paul said he doesn't think his criticisms of Abrams represent a total break with Trump.

"I'm a glass-is-half-full kind of guy, so I don't purposely set out to challenge the president of my own party."

So what kind of Kentucky bourbon do you pour into that half-full glass?

"You will get me impeached from office if I chose one bourbon over the other, but I will make sure your listeners know that all bourbon has to come from Kentucky if it wants to be called bourbon. And so we're very proud of our bourbon trade. We welcome people from Chicago to come on down and sample our bourbon."

And you're welcome to come up here and watch Mayor Rahm Emanuel begin to self-destruct.

"That's bad enough from a distance," he said. "I don't think I want to see that from up close."

Listen to "The Chicago Way" podcast with John Kass and WGN's Jeff Carlin here: http://www.wgnradio.com/category/wgn-plus/thechicagoway.

jskass@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @John_Kass

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Sen. Rand Paul's war with the neocons - Chicago Tribune

Rare.us

Rand Paul: It would be a really rotten, no good, bad idea to have ground troops in Syria Rare.us In 2015, I asked, Why is Rand Paul the only Republican who knows our foreign policy is crazy? Among the crazy characteristics is the U.S.'s constant habit of intervening militarily in other nation's civil wars. It was precisely this sort of ...

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Rand Paul: It would be a really rotten, no good, bad idea to have ground troops in Syria - Rare.us

Sen. Rand PaulRand PaulOvernight Healthcare: Freedom Caucus open to new ObamaCare replacement plan Freedom Caucus members open to Sanford's ObamaCare replacement Rand Paul urges Trump not to open State Department to neocons MORE (R-Ky.) is urging President Trump not to choose prominent neoconservative Elliott Abrams to serve in the No. 2 spot at the State Department.

In an op-ed published in the libertarian website Rare, Paul argues that Abrams would not promote the same foreign policy agenda that Trump described throughout his campaign and since taking office.

Elliott Abrams is a neoconservative too long in the tooth to change his spots, and the president should have no reason to trust that he would carry out a Trump agenda rather than a neocon agenda, Paul wrote.

A report emerged on Monday that Trump, along with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, would meet with Abrams on Tuesday in the presidents final step in the decision-making process. Tillerson reportedly prefers Abrams to serve as his deputy.

Paul added that Abramss "neocon agenda trumps his fidelity to the rule of law.

Trump broke with neoconservatives during his presidential campaign, arguing for an end to nation building and suggesting he was open to warmer relations with Russia.

He is a loud voice for nation building and when asked about the presidentsopposition to nation building, Abrams said that Trump wasabsolutely wrong; and during the election he was unequivocal in his opposition to Donald TrumpDonald TrumpSeven celebs who could headline WHCA dinner Why Trump must act against Iran in Syria Trump: 'Politics threatening national security MORE, going so far as to say, the chair in which Washington and Lincoln sat, he is not fit to sit, Paul wrote.

Abrams previously served in the State Department under President Ronald Reagan and on the National Security Council during President George W. Bushs administration. He is currently a senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Paul, who during his own presidential campaign criticized fellow candidate Sen. Marco RubioMarco RubioSenate GOP votes to silence Warren after speech against Sessions Rand Paul urges Trump not to open State Department to neocons Wife of hospitalized Putin critic: My husband was poisoned MORE (R-Fla.), for his neoconservative foreign policy, said he hopes Tillerson will continue the search for expert assistance from experienced, non-convicted diplomats who understand the mistakes of the past and the challenges ahead.

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Pauls decision to come out against Abrams strikes a damaging blow againsthis chances of ever receiving Senate confirmation should he be nominated, outside of bipartisan support that hes unlikely to receive or a full-court press by Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

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With 21 members11 Republicans and 10 Democratsif the Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hold strong against Abrams should Trump select him, Pauls vote would be the deciding vote and he would fail in Committee. His decision to oppose Abrams per a senior aide puts the kibosh on Abrams chances once and for all, unless a Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee comes out for himor unless McConnell and Corker try to bring him up straight on the Senate floor despite failing in Committee, something a senior Senate aide tells Breitbart News is not usually done.

Given how difficult Pauls decision here would make it to get Abrams through the Senate to confirmation should he be nominated, its unclear if Trump and his White House would want to go to such lengths to fight for someone who disagrees with the president on so many corepolicy visions. Abrams does not believe in an America First foreign policy vision, is from a wing of the GOP that Trump regularly criticizes, and has significant disagreements with Trumps stated vision on core matters like the Middle East and the Arab Spring.

Pauls efforts, a senior aide adds, are meant to be constructive. Since Abrams policy viewpoints dont match Trumps vision for foreign policy, Paul believes that Trump should turn to someone else.Paul will make this argument, and officially make his announcement against Abrams, in an op-ed that will be published on Tuesday.

In a country of 300 million people, surely there are reasonable foreign policy experts who have not been convicted of deceiving Congress and actually share the Presidents foreign policy views, Paul writes in an excerpt of the op-ed that will run in Rare, obtained by Breitbart News ahead of its release.

The fact Abrams is even being considered for the slot is baffling to many Trump supporters, given that he was aiding the Never Trump movement inside the Republican Partyand that he has a foreign policy worldview much more in line with the political dynasties Trump crushed on his way to the White House, the Bushes and the Clintons.

Elliott Abrams, a neoconservative who has long argued for an activist foreign policy that spreads American values around the world, was advising Republicans just last spring to keep your distance from Donald J. Trump and offering advice about what the party should do after the Trump collapse, the New York Times Gardiner Harris and David E. Sanger wrote on Monday night.

Nonetheless, Abrams has a meeting scheduled on Tuesday at the White House with President Trump to interview for the number two position in the State Department.

The Times reports that Abrams is known in foreign policy circles as controversial, but his conviction over misleading Congress in connection with the Iran-Contra scandal from the Ronald Reagan administration deeply understates the case. Abrams was later pardoned by Reagans successor in the White House.

He is remembered best for the days when he was an assistant secretary of state during the Reagan administration, and his conviction in 1991 on two misdemeanor counts of withholding information from Congress during the Iran-contra affair, Harris and Sanger wrote. He was later pardoned by President George Bush, and that moment has largely receded from memory although if he is nominated, there is little question that Democrats will bring it up again.

Before the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July, the National Interests Daniel DePetris noted in a recent piece, Abrams pushed for Republicans to challenge Trump head on at the convention where he would be chosenas the GOP nominee for president.

Do not allow the Republican convention to be a coronation wherein Trump and Trumpism are unchallenged, Abrams said, urging the Never Trump movement to challenge him on the floor of the convention. Theres no reason others who won many delegates, from Rubio to Cruz to Kasich, should not have their names put in nomination. The party needs to be reminded that there are deep divisions, and Trump needs to be reminded of how many in the party oppose and even fear his nomination.

Abrams also called for Republicans to seize the party machinery back from conservatives and grassroots Trump supporters immediately after the Trump defeat by Hillary Rodham Clinton, something the man President Trump is now considering for the second highest diplomatic post in his administration said was inevitable, but which turned out not to happen.

P.J. Medias David Goldman writes that selecting Abrams would be like picking an arsonist to serve as a towns fire chief. While Goldman understands that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson may need an experienced diplomat to help run the State Department and has few good choices, picking Abrams would be a mistake.

Bringing the Bush Utopians back into the picture, though, would be a cure far worse than the disease, Goldman wrote. During the campaign, Abrams made clear that he would rather see his party fail than see Donald Trump succeed. Inside the administration, Abrams would have the opportunity to make this happen. Arsonists may have great experience with fires, but that doesnt qualify them to become the captain of the fire brigade.

Now, with Rand Paul coming out against Abrams preemptivelybefore Abrams even meets with the president on Tuesdayhe may be saving the movement the trouble of a fight.

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Exclusive Rand Paul to Oppose Elliott Abrams for State Department Slot - Breitbart News