Rand Paul VI

Well . . . now we hear from the leader of the Kentucky Libertarian Party that Rand Paul has betrayed them, and they are thinking of running their own candidate in the November general election. They say Paul is not really a libertarian and has given the party a black eye because of some of the stands he has taken.

Mentioned were Paul's support for any government measure that would ban abortion, plus his opposition to gay marriage. True Libertarians would oppose any kind of governmental control of people's private lives.

Joshua Koch, Vice Chairman of the KY party, says "The reason why we would even consider running somebody in this race is because we're not going to let Rand determine what a Libertarian stands for. I'm here to say Rand does not have the Libertarian ideology."

University of Kentucky political scientist Stephen Voss pointed out that Libertarians typically side with Democrats on social issues and Republicans on fiscal issues, so a third party candidate would likely take votes from both the Democratic candidate (Conway) and the Republican (Paul).

Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell was quoted as saying Paul should spend more time talking to people in Kentucky and less on the national stage.

But -- all of this keeps his name in the news, and in politics that's what counts.

Ralph