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Filibuster Time

05.15.155:15 AM ET

The NSA reform. Jebs Iraq fumbling. Even Stephanopouloss donations to the Clinton Foundation. This news cycle seems tailor-made for Randbut will he do anything more than criticize?

Praise Aqua Buddha! Rand Paul, the United States senator from Kentucky and Republican presidential candidate, has been gifted a news cycle that feels designedby a certain false idol, perhapsto flatter him.

First, the House of Representatives passed the USA Freedom Act, which, while ending mass phone data collection, extends much of the 2001 Patriot Act that Paul vehemently opposes. That position puts Paul at odds with exactly the sort of people he wants to be at odds with: more moderate primary hopefuls Jeb Bush and Chris Christie, both of whom support NSA surveillance on American citizens.

Pauls preparing to milk that contrast for all its worth by threatening to filibuster. I have until May 19th to mobilize the grassroots for this fight and Im counting on your immediate support, he told donors via e-mail Thursday. I need to know right now if I can count on you to stand with me as I filibuster the so-called PATRIOT Act.

Then Paul was handed another opportunity.

As Bush campaigned on the West Coast, he was asked a fairly obvious question: Knowing what he knows now, would he have supported his brother, George W. Bush, in his decision to invade Iraq in 2003? Yes or I dont know were his stammering answers.

Talking about the future is more than fair, Bush said. Talking about the past and saying how you would have done something after the fact is a little tougher and it doesnt necessarily change things. He dismissed such hypothetical questions.

Paul, who has consistently said throughout his political career that he opposed the war in Iraq, responded in an interview with Politico: I dont think its hypothetical whether or not its a good idea to topple secular dictators in the Middle East and hope to get a good outcome and hope that stability comes thereafter. Iraq, Paul said, was an example of such a strategy failing.

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