Fox is obviously searching (more desperately than it will admit I think) for a knight in shining armor to come galloping out of the mist, sword aflame, and rally the people to save America from the commie dragon in the White House. Last month, after his prayer-breakfast speech, Dr. Ben Carson was the chief candidate for the shining armor. Then, this week, Senator Rand Paul spent 13 hours filibustering on the Senate floor (with maybe a few minutes’ time out for bathroom breaks) trying to get Attorney General Eric Holder to say that Obama administration wouldn’t use drones against US citizens on American soil. Thanks to this publicity stunt selfless service to America, Paul may be the new Top Knight, to judge by all the air time Fox News devoted to oohing and aahing over him in the following days.
Item: On Thursday night’s Hannity, Newt Gingrich called the filibuster “a terrific performance of leadership, of courage, stamina, of determination… we need more Rand Pauls, we need more people willing to get up and do what they think is right. And I think that we would be a lot further down the road towards hemming in this president if we had more people willing to do that. After which Hannity revelled in the “young, dynamic block of conservatives (along with Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and a few others) that are showing not only that they will stand up for what's good for the country, but it seems to me that that's good for them politically as well.” He also had a similar discussion with Charles Krauthammer, who agreed that the filibuster could help give the Republican Party some extra momentum - handy at time when the White House is in some trouble.
Item: Friday on Happening Now, Jon Scott and guests took on Senator John McCain and the “establishment” media who either dismissed the filibuster as a stunt or ignored it. Kirsten Powers said yeah, it was a bit of a stunt but it was also a principled position but he had to do this in order to get attention to a serious issue. She also thought it was “deplorable” that the New York Times had relatively little coverage of the filibuster.
Item: on Thursday afternoon the Five raved about Paul and the other cool members of the GOP's New Guard, predicting they might attract young people to the cause. Greg Gutfeld said Paul had managed to change the perception of President Obama from “caped crusader for justice” to “petulant hypocrite” and in the process had become suddenly “cooler than the coolest of the cool.” “We found ourselves and got our mojo back,” jubilated Andrea Tantaros.
Dr. Carson is a nice guy but does he have mojo, gentle reader? And since Paul himself tells us his filibuster is just the beginning ("Americans are looking for someone to really stand up and fight for them. And I’m prepared to do just that"), Fox News may have landed itself another would-be dragon slayer.
(h/t Mediaite for all the videos)
:D
Of fundraising …
It Turns Out Rand Paul’s Filibuster Was a Pre-Planned Scam for Cash
By: Jason Easley Mar. 8th, 2013
The true story behind Rand Paul’s filibuster is starting to come out. According to the National Journal, Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans knew the filibuster was coming, “But the day wasn’t entirely unplanned. Paul, often accused of being a lone wolf on Capitol Hill, had laid some of the groundwork to win over the GOP establishment. McConnell and Co. knew the filibuster was coming, even if they did not know when precisely or what exactly it would look like.”
This fact contradicts the myth that Paul floated that he decided to come to the Senate floor and start speaking. Sen. Paul has been suggesting that everybody just showed up, “We probably had 15 congressmen come over to the Senate floor,” he said this morning in a radio interview with Glenn Beck. Paul pointed out that House members are allowed to come to the Senate floor but are barred from speaking or coming forward, so they were presumably there just to lend support with their presence. “I’ve never seen that happen before. And they came spontaneously. Nobody called them. They just showed up.”
Sen. Paul’s claims of spontaneity are dubious at best. Now we have come to learn that Paul is trying to cash in on his planned stunt.
Paul sent out this fundraising letter,
Dear Patriot, My 13-hour filibuster yesterday is being called one of the longest in U.S. history. I had been trying for more than a week to get a straight answer on whether or not the Obama administration believed it had the authority to use drones to target and kill American citizens on American soil – without due process. And after receiving a letter from Attorney General Eric Holder claiming they DO have that authority, I could no longer sit silently at my desk in the U.S. Senate. So I stood for thirteen-straight hours to send a message to the Obama administration, I will do everything in my power to fight their attempts to ignore the Constitution! Millions of Americans chose to stand with me and put President Obama, Attorney General Holder, and Congress in the spotlight… And the good news is, it worked! Just hours ago, I received a letter from Attorney General Holder declaring the President DOES NOT have the authority to use drones to kill Americans on U.S. soil. Patriot, this shows what we can do when stand together and fight. So won’t you help me continue the fight to protect our Constitutional liberties today?
http://www.politicususa.com/turns-rand-pauls-filibuster-pre-planned-scam-cash.html
.
After all the tantrums being thrown by GOP Senators about Chuck Hagel and John Brennan, both men were quickly confirmed and are of course in their Cabinet positions today. So these tantrums accomplished nothing of substance.
Rand Paul’s tantrum was interesting in that he decided to champion a cause actually held by the left. But as another poster listed, such protests during the George W. presidency were described as treasonous on the Fox channel.
It’s hilarious to hear people like Hannity yell about how the left isn’t holding President Obama accountable for things like the drone strikes, when you can hear exactly that left criticism from Pacifica and Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now every day.