Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 02:13 am
While talking about Rand Paul, Rush Limbaugh claimed that the TSA would be justified in detaining Ron Paul because he sounds like an Islamic terrorist.
Here is the audio from Media Matters:
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Limbaugh said, “Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has been detained by the TSA at the Nashville airport. He set off the alarms and refused a pat down, so they detained him. He sent his dad a note about it and it became a big story out there. Now if this had been Ron Paul, you couldn’t really blame the TSA. You have to admit Ron Paul almost sounds like an Islamic terrorist sometimes. But this wasn’t Ha-ha-ha, gotcha, this was Rand Paul.”
Ron Paul may be a lot of things, but he bears no resemblance to an Islamic terrorist. But in the Republican Party if a person disagrees with their position on anything, they get labeled an enemy of freedom. Rep. Paul may be a lot of things, but unlike Rush Limbaugh, he has actually served his country in the military. While Limbaugh has hidden behind his microphone, Ron Paul has repeatedly and successfully run for office.
I disagree with the majority of Ron Paul’s domestic policy positions, but to compare him to an Islamic terrorist is way over the top. (Even if Limbaugh pulled out his standard just kidding defense, comparing Ron Paul to terrorist is inappropriate). Rush Limbaugh’s joke is evidence of why the Paul clan will never be able to take over the Republican Party. The Pauls aren’t just viewed as outsiders. They are seen as a threat. The long term goal for the Paul movement has always seemed to be more about created a third party, a new Republican Party than overthrowing the existing order.
Rand Paul claims he was detained, but in reality he wasn’t, and the fact that this incident that Sen. Paul provoked in Nashville just so happened to occur on the same day as a huge Republican presidential debate that his father is participating in is I am sure irrelevant. (To put this into context, if you or I would have done what Sen. Paul did, we would not have been able to board a flight a few hours later, and head off to our destination. In fact, there is a chance that we really would have been detained, arrested, and found ourselves on the no fly list).
What Little Rand’s stunt did today was take some of the attention off of Gingrich and Romney before their big showdown in Florida tonight. Ron Paul needed something to get his campaign some attention and a new issue to rail on about, and he is certain to be asked about it at tonight’s debate.
Rand’s provoked TSA run in, which was provoked because he decided not to follow the rules that everyone who flies has to follow, proves that the Paul family are politicians not terrorists, and Limbaugh’s comments about Ron Paul prove that his douchiness knows no partisan affiliation.
