Rand Paul Speaking LIVE from the #MRLC Tonight

[Jackie Moon]

Coming into this mid-speech, so unsure what led to the start of a conversation on slavery.

He was telling the story about how he has Henry Clay's desk in the Senate, and that when he first arrived people told him that Clay was famous for being "The Great Compromiser" and asked if he would be also.

Rand said that compromise sounds nice but that Clay compromised on things like allowing slavery and that he hadn't freed his own slaves.

Rand said he is willing to compromise and meet in the middle on the numbers but not on issues of principle the way Clay did.

He said he wants to be more like Henry Clay's cousin Cassius Clay who was an abolitionist.

He told the story in his first Senate speech too:

Standing at Clay’s old Senate desk, Paul dedicated his first Senate speech Wednesday to explain why Henry Clay is not his role model. Rand Paul wants to be a True Believer, not a Great Compromiser. “Henry Clay’s life story is, at best, a mixed message,” Paul said.

“Henry Clay’s great compromise was over slavery. One could argue that he rose above sectional strife to carve out compromise after compromise trying to ward off civil war. Or one could argue that his compromises were morally wrong and may have even encouraged war, that his compromises meant the acceptance during his 50 years of public life of not only slavery, but the slave trade itself.”

Paul said his role model is not the man who was willing to compromise on the issue of slavery; it is the abolitionists who refused to compromise, especially Henry Clay’s cousin Cassius Clay. “Cassius Clay was an unapologetic abolitionist who called out the slave traders,” Paul said.

“Are we fascinated and enthralled by the Great Compromiser or his cousin Cassius Clay?”

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/02/rand-paul-no-compromise/