Even More Rand Paul Nonsense

This is not a new Rand Paul slip-of-the-lip but it's just too insane not to talk about. It's just another reminder of why Paul's handlers are saying he'll only answer questions that are submitted in writing. They know if they continue to allow him to do on-the-spot interviews, he'll continue to talk without engaging his brain. This way they can check his answers before the media gets them and hopefully head off further embarrassment.

A few years ago the Republican governor of Kentucky, Ernie Fletcher, was charged with devising "a scheme to illegally award state jobs to political contributors." After a two-year investigation by the state's attorney general, Fletcher signed an agreement admitting there was "wrongdoing by his administration. In return all charges were dropped.

But that wasn't good enough for the kooky Rand Paul. He wrote an op-ed piece for the Kentucky Post (in 2006) where he took the governor to task for mishandling the whole situation. Paul then relates how he would have handled the situation if he had been the governor. He said:

"What would I do if I were governor?

First, I’d have pardoned myself and everyone included nearly a year ago.Without a pardon the case goes on and on. Fletcher has gotten no kudos whatsoever for not pardoning himself."

What a ridiculous idea. Paul is not worried at all about one of his Republican brothers breaking the law (and admitting it). For him, breaking the law is not nearly as important as finding a way out of the trouble -- even if it would up making the governor look even worse than he already did. You can imagine what voters would think of someone who pardoned himself.

And I have to wonder if it is even legal for a governor to give himself a pardon. Could he pardon himself for an even more serious crime like theft, rape, child sexual abuse or murder? How about serial murder? This would be an interesting question for the Supreme Court to answer. I suspect that there is only one person in the state that the governor cannot pardon -- himself. It would violate all the tenets of justice to allow anyone to pardon himself (or herself).

But then Rand Paul seldom thinks things through before he sounds off (or even writes something). His handlers have a massive job in front of them, because they must check everything he says or writes for the next four months. Failure to do that will surely lead to further embarrassments.