Rand Paul: Civil Rights Act brouhaha clouds Senate campaign

Kentucky’s Rand Paul, the darling of the conservative “tea party” movement, has started his general election campaign for the Senate with a bang. But not the kind of bang the Republican Party wants.

First, Dr. Paul held his post-primary victory party Tuesday night at a private country club – which didn’t exactly promote the kind of populist, outsider image tea partyers are trying to cultivate. In interviews, he defended the choice by arguing that country clubs and golf aren’t as exclusive as they used to be, citing Tiger Woods as an example.

Now Paul is having trouble giving a straight answer to the question of whether he would have voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed segregation. On MSNBC’s "Rachel Maddow Show" Wednesday night, the host and Paul had this exchange:

Ms. Maddow: “Should Woolworth’s lunch counter ... have been allowed to stay segregated? Sir, just yes or no.”

Paul: “What I think would happen – what I’m saying is, is that I don’t believe in any discrimination. I don’t believe in any private property should discriminate, either. And I wouldn’t attend, wouldn’t support, wouldn’t go to. But what you have to answer when you answer this point of view, which is an abstract, obscure conversation from 1964 that you want to bring up. But if you want to answer, you have to say then that you decide the rules for all restaurants and then you decide that you want to allow them to carry weapons into restaurants.”

'He needs to come up with an answer'

Thursday morning, on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program, host and former Republican Rep. Joe Scarborough sees the potential for the issue to blow up: ”He needs to come up with an answer today, or Kentucky will be Arizona: a battleground for ugly, racial politics. He has 24 hours.”

Paul, a libertarian – or as he puts it, a “constitutional conservative” – is having a hard time squaring two strains of thought: an objection to government telling private businesses what they may or may not do and the right of government to regulate the practices of private businesses, such as discrimination based on race or allowing customers to carry weapons inside the business.

1 | 2

Next