GOP Congressman: “I Now Understand Where Rand Paul’s Neighbor Was Coming From”

As anybody who followed last night’s debate over an ostensibly “bipartisan” budget agreement will tell you, Rand Paul is not the most popular person on Capitol Hill right now…

Lawmakers, lobbyists, journalists and all other denizens of the capitol breathed a collective sigh of relief Wednesday afternoon when Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell emerged from a closed meeting to announced that they had struck a deal to keep the government funded while once again ignoring spending caps for domestic and military spending.

Though Nancy Pelosi still had some reservations – mostly pertaining to Paul Ryan’s priggish insistence that he wouldn’t bring an immigration bill to the floor without the president’s support – it was widely believed that these issues would be ironed out, and the agreement would be passed a little after dinner time.

Then along came Rand Paul…

Perhaps inspired by Pelosi’s eight hour floor speech demanding action on DACA, perhaps Paul realized that this was a fantastic opportunity to make one of those “political points” and “grand gestures” that he’s famous for.

And what a point it was.

What followed was an all-night debate over the agreement, which heavily featured Paul exhorting his colleagues to cut funding for “war” and for domestic programs. On Twitter, he said that, when both the parties agree on something, “you know they’re looking the Treasury”. It’s always interesting to listen to lawmakers argue in favor of Washington gridlock.

By refusing to end debate, Paul managed to delay a Senate vote on the bill to around 3 am. The House didn’t pass the bill until five, when exhausted lawmakers could finally file out of the capitol and take their badly needed power naps. 

Afterward, Politico deemed the brief closure “the dumbest shutdown ever” largely because of Paul.

The antipathy toward Paul is understandable, prompting one of the lawmakers fellow Republicans to complain that he could understand where Paul’s Greensboro neighbor – who famously tackled the Senator while he was doing yardwork, breaking a few of his ribs and causing internal bleeding – was coming from when he bum rushed the senator.

“When Rand Paul pulls a stunt like this, it easy to understand why it’s difficult to be Rand Paul’s next door neighbor,” Dent told Politico via the Hill. “The whole delay and filibuster exercise on the budget agreement is utterly pointless.”

Boucher pleaded not guilty to a fourth-degree assault charge and faces up to a year in jail if convicted.

Rand Paul is well-known for his principled stands – including his famous filibuster in 2013 of CIA Director John Brennan.

But as the old saying goes: Actions speak louder than words.

Or, as another one of Paul’s colleagues put it: “There aren’t a lot of books written about the great political points of history.”