Rand Paul

After Rapping Rand Paul for Shushing Reporter, Scarborough Shuts Down Guest
By Mark Finkelstein | February 3, 2015 | 8:31 AM EST

Rand Paul to reporter: "Calm down a bit here, Kelly. Let me answer the question." Joe Scarborough to guest: 'Let me finish my sentence and then you can be a condescending liberal Emanuel." The two responses sound similar, don't they? Two guys getting frustrated by their interlocutors' interruptions. 

The irony is that Joe Scarborough devoted a segment on today's Morning Joe to rapping Rand Paul for "shushing" that reporter, whereas a bit later in the show, Scarborough himself shut down a guest with such similar language.

MSNBC's Matthews Fails to Mention Obama Skeptical of Vaccines in 2008
By Ken Shepherd | February 2, 2015 | 9:22 PM EST

MSNBC host Chris Matthews took Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) to task on his February 2 Hardball program for statements which he argued gave succor to so-called anti-vaxxers, parents who refuse to vaccinate their children out of unfounded or overblown safety concerns, often related to the development of autism. Matthews suggested both politicians were cynically angling for anti-vaxxer votes in the 2016 primaries at the cost of public health. But left out of his segment was any acknowledgement that in 2008, then-Sen. Barack Obama stated at a campaign event that the science on a vaccine link to autism was inconclusive.

Merry Christmas, Hopelessly Split GOP! NY Times Somehow Spins Crime Issue as Republican Problem
By Clay Waters | December 25, 2014 | 7:06 PM EST

A Christmas Day article in the New York Times left no doubt which party they would leave a lump of coal for. The paper impressively managed to spin a current controversy into a problem solely for the Republican side -- as if crime has not long been a losing election issue for the Democrats -- by portraying the GOP as making knee-jerk, stiff-necked appeals to white fear.

GQ: Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Joni Ernst Among ‘America’s 20 Craziest Politicians’; Only Three Are Democrats
By Curtis Houck | December 17, 2014 | 1:21 AM EST

The magazine GQ released its list of the “20 craziest politicians” in the U.S. on Tuesday and, not surprisingly, the liberal publication selected 17 Republicans for the list compared to only three Democrats. 

Among the more prominent Republicans included Senators and possible presidential candidates Rand Paul (Ky.) and Ted Cruz (Texas) as well as incoming Senator Joni Ernst (Iowa). The only three Democrats named to the list were Congressman Hank Johnson (Ga.), Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (Texas), and Vice President Joe Biden.

Only NBC Notices Rand Paul's Midterm Meme #HillarysLosers
By Kyle Drennen | November 6, 2014 | 3:29 PM EST

Of the three network morning shows on Thursday, only NBC's Today highlighted Kentucky Senator Rand Paul's viral social media meme, #HillarysLosers, which pointed out that every Democratic candidate that would-be 2016 presidential contender Hillary Clinton campaigned for in 2014 lost in Tuesday's midterm election.   
 

Meet The Press Insists Repealing ObamaCare Is ‘So Retro’
By Jeffrey Meyer | November 2, 2014 | 2:25 PM EST

On Sunday, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) spoke with Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd to discuss the future of the Republican Party. Following the conclusion of the interview, the MTP panel eagerly criticized the Kentucky Republican for daring to call for a repeal of ObamaCare if the Republicans win control on the Senate. Andrea Mitchell, NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent, argued that repealing ObamaCare was “a waste of time, it contributes to gridlock…it’s so retro.” 

Guess Who's Losing? NY Times Scorns 'Bumpkinification' of the Midterms, Picks Palin as Bumpkin Queen
By Tim Graham | October 28, 2014 | 4:34 PM EDT

New York Times political writer Mark Leibovich employed the Full Sneer in a story for this weekend's New York Times Magazine entitled "The Bumpkinification of the Midterm Elections.” Leibovich began with Iowa Republican candidate Joni Ernst talking about castrating hogs, but he soon turned to the announcement that the “apotheosis” of bumpkin-hood was Sarah Palin, the mama grizzly with the brawling children.

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes Accuses GOP Senators of ‘Ebola Trutherism’
By Curtis Houck | October 17, 2014 | 4:07 PM EDT

On Thursday night, MSNBC host Chris Hayes took to bashing Republicans as the main culprits (and not the media) for causing fear in Americans over the current global Ebola outbreak during the first half of his show All In. Following an interview with Democratic Congresswoman Diane DeGette (Colo.) in which the two stated their oppositions to a ban on travel from West Africa and that DeGette was denied the request to have an Ebola hearing in early September, Hayes turned his attention to alleging Republicans of leading the emergence of “a kind-of Ebola trutherism” while “President Obama continues to resist Republicans’s calls for a travel band.”

GQ's Ana Marie Cox on MSNBC: Christian Value Voters Summit Wants 'What The Islamicists Want'
By Tim Graham | September 28, 2014 | 9:15 AM EDT

Leftists have an extreme difficulty in differentiating between conservative Christians in the United States and Islamo-fascists in the Middle East. Somehow, letting your traditional religious views affect (infect?) our democracy is akin to beheadings and terrorism.

It's not surprising that this view would come stumbling out of GQ Washington correspondent Ana Marie Cox, one of the flightiest pundits on the left. There it came on Saturday morning's Up With Steve Kornacki on MSNBC. Somehow, the politicians and activists at the Value Voters Summit in Washington sound a lot like ISIS in Syria:

Charlie Rose Fawned Over 'Friend' Hillary Clinton, Grills Rand Paul
By Scott Whitlock | September 15, 2014 | 5:01 PM EDT

Charlie Rose has repeatedly fawned over his "friend" Hillary Clinton, even reading a poem to her. But when Rand Paul appeared on CBS This Morning, Monday, Rose and his co-hosts grilled the possible 2016 presidential contender. Citing the Washington Post, Gayle King derided, " You were described yourself as an isolationist..." 

'Daily Beast' Puts Rand Paul In Big Red Bullseye
By Mark Finkelstein | August 7, 2014 | 9:31 AM EDT

It's different when the MSM puts a Republican inside a bullseye, because, uh . . . Remember when in 2011 voices on the left from Keith Olbermann to Paul Krugman to the Huffington Post among many others suggested that Sarah Palin was at least partially to blame for the shooting of Rep. Gabby Giffords because Palin had put out a map of House seats with bullseyes depicting districts, including Giffords',  that Republicans were targeting?  Krugman for example wrung his hands over the "climate of hate" that Palin and others on the right were supposedly fomenting, and predicted growing political violence in the years ahead.

Will those same leftists condemn the Daily Beast, which today featured a photo of Rand Paul inside a big red bullseye over a story headlined "Rand Paul = Democrats’ Enemy #1."  Enemy #1?  Bullseye?  Oh, the humanity! View the photo after the jump.

MSNBC’s Barro: Republicans ‘Come Off As Sort of Nasty’ On Immigration Issues
By Connor Williams | August 6, 2014 | 5:35 PM EDT

In a discussion about Rand Paul’s presidential chances on MSNBC’s The Last Word, a panel featuring Josh Barro and Richard Wolffe managed to hit Republicans for being anti-immigrant while also accusing Paul and conservatives – not the Obama administration – of misleading on Benghazi. Paul has received media criticism for supposedly fleeing a dinner with Rep. Steve King when the Iowa Republican was approached by two so-called “Dreamers” regarding his opposition to the President’s DACA program. Paul says he got up from lunch to conduct a pre-arranged interview with reporters a few feet away.

The New York Times’s Barro, who recently caused a stir for suggesting on Twitter that socially conservative attitudes need to be ruthlessly “stamped out,” had unkind things to say about those who support more border security as well. He whined that “so much of the Republican base...is just very strongly anti-immigration.” He elaborated further on the subject: “And when Republicans talk about these immigration issues, they come off as sort of nasty.” In Barroland,  it’s “nasty” to want the President to enforce the nation’s immigration laws, but perfectly civil to daydream about society blackballing social conservatives for their religious beliefs. [MP3 audio here; video below]