WASHINGTON – The late, great Molly Ivins, the doyenne of Texas journalism, was talking about Clayton Williams some years back, an individual no one took seriously but who somehow managed to snare the Republican nomination for governor of the Lone Star State in 1990.
Claytie was one of those politicians who fired the editor who already was working overtime from an office between the candidate’s brain and his mouth. Speaking about the terrible crime of rape, Williams was quoted as saying, “If it’s inevitable, just relax and enjoy it.” And he longingly recalled heading south of the border down Mexico way as a youth to visit establishments that provided him with an education in what might delicately be called the sexual arts.
It goes without saying that a presidential candidate has to demonstrate that he or she can take a punch. Paul, in the parlance of the sweet science, has a glass jaw. He likes to throw haymakers but stick him with a jab and he gets rubbery-legged. That can’t be good for the long haul.
Williams’ constant flow of gaffes ultimately led to his defeat despite outspending his Democratic opponent, Ann Richards, by more than 2-to-1 and blowing what had been a double-digit lead.
Surveying the wreckage of the Williams campaign, Ivins asserted (and I’m forced to paraphrase here) Claytie proved that in Texas politics you can step on your own tail but you can’t jump up and down and stomp on it.
Only she didn’t say tail. The rest is left to your imagination.
Now cometh U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, who as expected offered himself up this week to become the next president of these United States. Certainly a tempting offer. But it appears poor Rand already is beginning the process of stomping on his own tail. And before long, given many of his past statements, others will be joining him as if they were in a mosh pit at an Anthrax concert.
Paul has uttered some things, both recent and distant, that are sure to raise everyone’s antennae. Journalist Josh Marshall, who ably runs the website Talking Points Memo, recently cited just a few.
In 2008, while campaigning for his father, former congressman Ron Paul, who was seeking the GOP presidential nomination, Rand Paul went on at length about an alleged “NAFTA Superhighway’’ connecting Mexico, the U.S. and Canada, thus endangering American sovereignty.
“It’s gonna go up through Texas, I guess, all the way to Montana,” Paul said. “So, it’s a real thing and when you talk about it, the thing you just have to be aware of is that, if you talk about it like it’s a conspiracy, they’ll paint you as a nut.”
The superhighway doesn’t exist and was never contemplated.
He also, as Marshall noted, has mentioned the potential threat of the “Amero” — a mythical North American currency that Washington “elites’’ want to use to replace the dollar. No such plans have been proffered.
There’s much more. In 2013, during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Paul confronted then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about an alleged covert CIA operation, citing “news reports that ships have been leaving from Libya and that they may have weapons, and what I’d like to know is the annex that was close by, were they involved with procuring, buying, selling, obtaining weapons and were any of these weapons being transferred to other countries, Turkey included.’’
There was no such incident. The CIA was not shipping arms from Libya. There weren’t even any news reports. He got the idea from a website run by conspiracy theorist and right-wing agitator Alex Jones.
In 2011 he essentially said universal health care is tantamount to, well read on:
“It means you believe in slavery. It means that you’re going to enslave not only me, but the janitor at my hospital, the person who cleans my office, the assistants who work in my office, the nurses.’’
He continued: “I’m a physician in your community and you say you have a right to health care. You have a right to beat down my door with the police, escort me away and force me to take care of you? That’s ultimately what the right to free health care would be.’’
And in 2012, in remembrance of the recent tete-a-tete over Indiana’s so-called religious freedom bill, there was this golden hit:
“Call me cynical, but I didn’t think his (President Obama’s) views on marriage could get any gayer.’’
Space limitations require us to prematurely end this list of provocative comments. But rest assured there are plenty more scattered like seeds throughout the Internet. But let’s be fair and rationalize this for a moment – there are better than two dozen Republicans looking at the party’s presidential nomination in 2016 and they’ve all said stupid things at one time or another. Heck, former Sen. Rick Santorum is probably running again and he long ago entered the goofy statements hall of fame.
But the difference involves how Paul reacts when questioned about the statements that, as a presidential candidate, might come back to haunt him. Surly would be a polite term. Denial would be another. You can throw short-term memory loss in there as well.
In the hours after his official announcement, Paul has tussled with at least two reporters confronting him with questionable statements in his past. On Wednesday during an appearance on NBC’s “Today’’ show, correspondent Savannah Guthrie began to ask the candidate about claims that he flip-flopped on a number of issues like aid to Israel and defense spending.
“Why don’t you let me explain instead of talking over me, OK?” Paul whined, interrupting Guthrie’s question. “Before we go through a litany of things you say I’ve changed on, why don’t you ask me a question? Have I changed my opinion?’ That would be sort of a better way to approach an interview.”
Guthrie played along. “OK,” she asked, “is Iran still not a threat?”
“No, no, no, no, no, listen,” Paul replied. “You’ve editorialized. Let me answer a question. You ask a question and you say, ‘Have your views changed?’ Instead of editorializing and saying my views have changed.”
Paul has, of course changed his views. He once proposed shutting down all U.S. foreign aid – including dollars to Israel – and wanted to cut defense spending. Those statements, as Ron Zeigler, former press secretary to President Richard Nixon, once famously put it, are no longer operative.
Later, Phillip Elliot of the Associated Press reported Paul “grew testy’’ when he asked him to explain his position on abortion, noting that Paul has in the past supported legislation that would permit abortions in cases of rape, incest and danger to the woman’s life while also supporting legislation that did not grant any exemptions.
“I gave you about a five-minute answer — put in my five-minute answer,’’ Paul instructed at one point before adding, “In general, I am pro-life. So I will support legislation that advances and shows that life is special and deserves protection.”
That is what those in the journalism profession refer to as a non-answer answer.
The incidents seem to be the rule rather than the exception for Paul’s dealings with the press – he attempted to “shush’’ a CNBC correspondent on air not too long ago. And such incidents are unlikely to hurt him with Republican primary voters who believe attacking the media is a sacrament.
But the events place on full display would likely will prove to be Paul’s Achilles heel – his skin is so thin you can witness his veins and internal organs operating. He would be a very popular fellow in an anatomy class.
It goes without saying that a presidential candidate has to demonstrate that he or she can take a punch. Paul, in the parlance of the sweet science, has a glass jaw. He likes to throw haymakers but stick him with a jab and he gets rubbery-legged. That can’t be good for the long haul.
His attacks on the media will play well for a while but the routine is bound to get old. And it can only get worse when he starts taking barbs from the other candidates. It’s not like he hasn’t provided them with plenty of fodder.
Washington correspondent Bill Straub served 11 years as the Frankfort Bureau chief for The Kentucky Post. He also is the former White House/political correspondent for Scripps Howard News Service. He currently resides in Silver Spring, Maryland, and writes frequently about the federal government and politics. Email him at williamgstraub@gmail.com.