Mitch McConnell Continues Legitimizing Rand Paul

Jacob Miller — June 17, 2013 – 1:31 pm | Israel | Rand Paul | Republicans Comments (0) Add a comment

Two year ago, Rand Paul emerged as the Republican nominee to become the junior Senator from Kentucky. Since then, Senator Paul (R-KY) has moved to the center of the Republican party, bringing his fringe polices into the Republican mainstream. The Republican base has wholeheartedly embraced these extreme policies and made Senator Paul a GOP celebrity. This acceptance can be viewed no more obviously than by Senate Minority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell’s blossoming relationship with Senator Paul. This week, the New York Times and The New Republic released in-depth articles outlining this relationship.

Julie Ioffe, writing for The New Republic chronicled how Senator McConnell has continued the trend of legitimizing Senator Paul:

And so lately, McConnell’s calculations have noticeably tilted toward keeping Paul happy. “McConnell has moved toward Rand Paul more than Rand Paul has moved toward McConnell,” says John David Dyche, McConnell’s biographer. McConnell has thrown his support behind Paul’s efforts to legalize hemp production, both in Kentucky and nationally. He joined Paul’s drone filibuster and threatened to vote against the nomination of John Brennan for CIA chief. And he has changed how he manages the factions within the Republican caucus.

Writing for The New York Times, Trip Gabriel also described how the two have become close following a rough introduction:

Today, the iciness has been replaced by a powerful force in politics: expedience. Mr. McConnell, 71, the embodiment of Washington establishment, and Mr. Paul, 50, a grass-roots insurgent who harbors a brightly burning presidential ambition for 2016, have formed an odd-couple, scratch-my-back alliance that stretches from Washington to Louisville.

With the increased discussion of Senator Paul’s Presidential aspiration and polls that have him at the front of the GOP field, it is disturbing that his harmful views could possibly be incorporated into mainstream politics-especially regarding Israel’s aid. After all, Senator Paul has repeatedly attacked American aid to Israel.    

Senator Paul was recently invited to speak to the Zionist Organization of America, despite his less than supportive views of foreign aid to Israel. As JTA’s Ron Kampeas noted:

More substantively, Paul is considering a 2016 run for the presidency. If he prevails, it could pose a real threat to defense assistance. Cover from the ZOA could potentially neutralize, to a degree anyway, the criticism his position on defense assistance will surely encounter from the pro-Israel community.

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