Rand Paul: GOP Should Reject Cheney for Defending "Torture"

[jct74]

Rand Paul: GOP Should Reject Cheney for Defending "Torture"

In 2009 interviews, Paul said the Bush administration had used "torture" and called on Republicans to disassociate their party from Cheney.

—By David Corn | Thu Apr. 10, 2014 3:00 AM PDT

As the intra-party feud between the Cheney/neocon crew of the GOP and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and his fellow intervention skeptics continues, here's another dicey matter for the warring parties to battle over: torture. The Cheney crowd fervently defends the Bush administration's use of harsh interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding, and fiercely rejects referring to these tactics as torture. But in a 2009 interview posted on YouTube, Rand Paul denounced such practices as torture and said, "Bush had given these orders that allowed torture to occur." Paul, though, noted that he was not in favor of prosecuting Bush or former vice president Dick Cheney, comparing the question of whether to put them on trial for torture to the case of President Gerald Ford pardoning the disgraced former President Richard Nixon. And in another 2009 interview, Paul called on the GOP to disassociate itself from Cheney because the ex-veep was defending his administration's use of torture.

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read more:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/04/rand-paul-bush-cheney-torture

 

[RonPaulFanInGA]

The feud that exists only on Mother Jones and MSNBC.

Why not just post a new article with some old Donald Trump quotes about Rosie O'Donnell, have a network repeat the story, and pretend there's this big feud currently going on between Trump and O'Donnell?

 

[specsaregood]

The feud that exists only on Mother Jones and MSNBC.

Although, I wouldn't be surprised if it was people associated with Cheney and Kristol that fed them the story to begin with. I'm not sure they realize how much American dislikes them at this point.

 

[limequat]

What, this guy condemns torture! What a sleeze!

 

[CPUd]

"intervention skeptic" sounds better than "isolationist".

 

[r3volution 3.0]

Obvious manufactured story is obvious.

 

[ObiRandKenobi]

cheney is a dick so i'm glad rand said it.

 

[boneyard bill]

Who fed these stories to Mother Jones? Did they dig them up themselves? That's possible, but Mother Jones isn't noted for injecting themselves into Republican politics. Was it the DNC? If they're worried that Rand might siphon off some liberal voters they would have a motive for trying to embarrass him. Was it the neocons? They surely have a motive for embarrassing Rand Paul, and this all comes on the heels of the Sheldon Adelson fundraiser where everyone was slamming Rand Paul and recognizing his political craftiness at the same time.

But I have another theory. I think these things could be coming from the Paul campaign itself. Who would know better than Rand Paul that these things are out there? Opposition research doesn't usually bare their attacks until the eve of an election or some other event that has electoral significance. But the Paul camp would have every reason for wanting to get these things out of the way before hand. You don't want them to surface at some crucial time. Remember the Ron Paul newsletter story? It broke just before the Iowa caucus. It really was a blunder by Ron Paul's campaign not to bring that out well before the caucus.

So Rand has every reason to bring these things out now and to gauge the Republican reaction. If he had attempted to disavow or modify his statements, I would have thought that these things were leaked by the opposition, but he hasn't done that. So it appears to me that Rand has thrown down the gauntlet to the Dick Cheney crowd. So far the reaction has been a big yawn. I think Rand understands that the neocons have little influence outside the beltway, and this may be a big test of that hypothesis.

 

[cajuncocoa]

Why all the angst over this? Am I the only one who is thrilled to hear that Rand said this stuff?

 

[CPUd]

I believe it was Mother Jones who got the Mitt 47% video.

 

[Tywysog Cymru]

Why all the angst over this? Am I the only one who is thrilled to hear that Rand said this stuff?

I'm thrilled to hear it as well!

 

[juleswin]

Why all the angst over this? Am I the only one who is thrilled to hear that Rand said this stuff?

You are not alone, I just hope he doesn't walk it back later when the establishment really start twisting his arm

 

[acptulsa]

The feud that exists only on Mother Jones and MSNBC.

Why not just post a new article with some old Donald Trump quotes about Rosie O'Donnell, have a network repeat the story, and pretend there's this big feud currently going on between Trump and O'Donnell?

Why all the angst over this? Am I the only one who is thrilled to hear that Rand said this stuff?

The powers that be realize that if Rand Paul gets the nomination, the swing and crossover voters go for him and he's president. They realize that he'll be a lot easier to beat in the primaries. And they're trying to appeal to the very thing that makes losers of the GOP when they succumb to it--the silly notion that they can shun any Republican that Democrats like and still win.

If that's not their strategy to defeat Paul, then they're sure investing a lot in it for a diversionary purpose.

 

[r3volution 3.0]

The powers that be realize that if Rand Paul gets the nomination, the swing and crossover voters go for him and he's president. They realize that he'll be a lot easier to beat in the primaries. And they're trying to appeal to the very thing that makes losers of the GOP when they succumb to it--the silly notion that they can shun any Republican that Democrats like and still win.

If that's not their strategy to defeat Paul, then they're sure investing a lot in it for a diversionary purpose.

I think that's right.

They saw their opportunity in Rand's recent outreach to traditionally Dem constituencies.

Rand faces toward the left for a chat, and the neocons give him a big shove from behind and shout "Look! He's with them!"

 

[cajuncocoa]

The powers that be realize that if Rand Paul gets the nomination, the swing and crossover voters go for him and he's president. They realize that he'll be a lot easier to beat in the primaries. And they're trying to appeal to the very thing that makes losers of the GOP when they succumb to it--the silly notion that they can shun any Republican that Democrats like and still win.

If that's not their strategy to defeat Paul, then they're sure investing a lot in it for a diversionary purpose.

I understand why TPTB are upset over Rand's comments, I was wondering why anyone here would be!