Sen. Rand Paul opens his PAC Austin office at the Capitol Factory
In the middle of SXSW 2015 Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) opens the office for his Political Action Committee at the Capitol Factory in downtown Austin, TX.
By: TravisCountyPolitics
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Sen. Rand Paul opens his PAC Austin office at the Capitol Factory - Video
More Than a Flip-Flop
03.20.15
Theyve accused the senator of shape-shifting before, but now theyre positively apoplectic he signed the GOPs Iran letterand one of his biggest defenders says its the last straw.
On a Saturday afternoon in mid-January, Brett H. Pojunis, the chairman of the Nevada Libertarian Party, stood outside his office on Flamingo Road in Las Vegas, ashing a cigarette and dissing Rand Paul. Were the Libertarian Party, he told me, dramatically stretching out the word in his New York accent. Paul, a member of the Republican Party, was in town for a visit ahead of formally launching his bid for the White House, and Pojunis didnt particularly care.
Libertarian, he said, is now just a buzzword for Republicans like the Kentucky senator. If Paul was really so libertarian, Pojunis had some advice for him: Well, OK thenjoin the Libertarian Party!
Pojunis led me inside past some staffers hunched over a computer trying to select a new party logo. Is this too swastika-y? he asked, pointing to an image closely resembling the Nazi insignia. We walked past a room cluttered with memorabilia from Baywatch, the 1990s TV show featuring bikini-clad lifeguards, and Pojunis explained that it was the personal office of Michael Burke, the creator of the show and a possible Libertarian Party candidate. He literally has a key to the Playboy Mansion, Pojunis said.
Anecdotally, when Ive talked to Libertarians who identify as Paul supportersparticularly those who campaigned for his father, former congressman and two-time presidential candidate Ron Paulthey acknowledge the reality that Rand Paul may be the best ambassador to the mainstream political world they will ever get. In other words, the senator is not the ideal libertarian (an oxymoronic phrase, given the amount of infighting among libertarians about what exactly that is), but he comes close enough, and certainly closer than any other likely presidential candidate.
But Pojunis and his aides said those Paul supporters were fools. Libertarians who back Paul, he said, are getting all the downside of compromise and none of the upside.
Two months ago, there was little reason to think that Nevadas Libertarian Party, which is considered slightly off the rails even among fellow libertarians, represented anyone other than its own 12,000 members. But some of Pauls recent foreign policy pronouncements have some libertarians, especially those who gravitated to his father for his steadfast opposition to the war in Iraq and George W. Bushs hyper-hawkishness, sounding like Pojunis and his fellow Nevada radicals.
The breaking point came on March 9, when Paul was faced with one of the most challenging decisions of his political career.
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Why Real Libertarians Hate Rand Paul - The Daily Beast
This post has been updated.
HAMPSTEAD, N.H. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) called for a boycott of Saudi Arabia on Saturday, saying Americansshould shun the kingdom as it did the apartheid regime in South Africa.
Paul's comments came as he intensified his attack against Hillary Rodham Clinton, again calling on herto return gifts given to her family foundation by foreign countries, including Saudi Arabia. Paul singled out the kingdom for its treatment of women, citing the case of a woman who was gang-raped and later lashed for being in a car with a man who was not her husband.
"This is something that we shouldnt tolerate. This is something we should be organizing a boycott of," the senatorsaid.
[Sweden stood up for human rights in Saudi Arabia. This is how Saudi Arabia is punishing Sweden.]
Paulsaid Saudi Arabia should be shunned as South Africa was during apartheid.
"Remember when South Africa was misbehaving? We organized a boycott of South Africa. We should be boycotting Saudi Arabia and not taking money from Saudi Arabias government," Paul said.
Campaigning in New Hampshire, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a likely GOP presidential candidate, said it was unconscionable that Hillary Clinton took donations from foreign governments that exhibit a "horrific" rejection of women's rights. (AP)
At that time international sanctions were levied against the nation, along with a divestment campaign.
While the senator in his statements did not differentiate a government boycott from one by individuals, a spokesperson later said in a statement that Paul was "not calling for a governmental boycott, but rather options for private citizens and investors."
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Sen. Rand Paul calls for Americans to boycott Saudi Arabia
EXETER - Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is demanding Hillary Clinton return Clinton Foundation donations from Saudi Arabia and other foreign countries with poor human rights records.
The likely Republican presidential hopeful lit into the likely Democratic candidate in an interview Saturday.
"I think she needs to return the money to the country she took it from," Paul said. "I think it sends a very bad statement to the world and to the American public that she's willing to take money from countries that have such really poor human rights and women's rights records."
Paul cited Saudi Arabia and Brunei, a country in Southeast Asia, where he said a woman accused of adultery risks death by stoning.
"In Saudi Arabia, a woman was gang-raped by seven men and the woman was then, when she went to the police, arrested and given 90 lashes - the victim of a rape," Paul said. "I think it's unconscionable that Hillary Clinton would accept money from a country that treats women that way."
Paul is on a two-day visit to New Hampshire as he explores a run for President. An announcement is anticipated in early April.
Phil Nazzaro, a 2014 state Senate GOP nominee from Newmarket, hosted a breakfast gathering for Paul at Epoch Restaurant in Exeter on Saturday. Paul began the day greeting people at the Pink Cadillac Diner in Rochester. His schedule included stops in Hampstead and Hollis, where he was to appear with state Sens. Regina Birdsell, R-Hampstead, and Sen. Kevin Avard, R-Nashua.
Nazzaro was on the veterans committee for Ron Paul in 2012. He is not endorsing anyone at this point, but he spoke highly of the buzz around Rand Paul.
"He has a message that appeals to a broad group," Nazzaro said.
In Exeter, Paul said Congress must take bigger steps to curb federal largess and get real with the debt, which puts America "closer to the day of reckoning."
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Paul calls out Clinton on women's rights
HOLLIS U.S. Sen. Rand Paul completed a two-day swing through New Hampshire on Saturday as he prepares for a likely presidential run, sharpening his foreign policy language while at the same time intensifying his criticism of former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The Kentucky Republican stopped in Rochester, Exeter and Hampstead before speaking in a crowded tasting room at Fulchino Vineyard in Hollis. Paul used his latest visit to the first-in-the-nation primary to make the case he is best suited to reclaim the White House on the Republican ticket. ... Subscribe or log in to read more
HOLLIS U.S. Sen. Rand Paul completed a two-day swing through New Hampshire on Saturday as he prepares for a likely presidential run, sharpening his foreign policy language while at the same time intensifying his criticism of former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The Kentucky Republican stopped in Rochester, Exeter and Hampstead before speaking in a crowded tasting room at Fulchino Vineyard in Hollis. Paul used his latest visit to the first-in-the-nation primary to make the case he is best suited to reclaim the White House on the Republican ticket.
I think Im one of the most fiscally conservative members of the Senate, but Im also one of the members who my belief in liberty issues, I think, allows me to reach out to new constituencies, he said.
The next generation of voters, for example, are not excited about having their phone records scarfed up by government, and Paul said his view on privacy has resonated with them. He also teamed up with two liberal senators from the Northeast to introduce a bill to end the federal ban on medical marijuana.
With regard to reaching out to new constituencies, its pretty much been me talking about things like the Fifth Amendment and the Sixth Amendment; that your property shouldnt be taken without due process, without a conviction, that you should get a speedy trial and that many people who are the poorest among us are the ones that are having difficulty getting justice in our criminal justice system, he added.
Although tight-lipped on when he may announce his intentions to seek the presidency in 2016, his campaign has scheduled a New Hampshire stop on April 8 in Milford. It is the first stop after a special announcement slated for April 7 in Kentucky where it is widely speculated he will officially make his presidential bid.
The senator has planned visits to South Carolina, Iowa and Nevada all early voting states in the three days following his Milford stop.
New Hampshire is very encouraging its got that Live Free or Die spirit, its got a lot of the I would call it the Leave me alone coalition that just wants government to mind its own business in many ways, so I think there is an audience up here and were looking forward to figuring it out in the next couple of weeks probably, he said in a one-on-one interview with The Telegraph.
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Rand Paul completes 2-day NH swing, expects announcement soon