Rand Paul says the controversy over his views on one portion of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a "red herring" perpetuated to score "cheap political points."
Whether the political points are cheap or noteworthy is in the eye of the beholder. And, the Democratic National Committee's "Rapid Response" team was on hyperdrive Thursday, distributing to media no fewer than two dozen e-mail blasts within nine hours. The DNC cited media and punditry reaction in an effort to keep the story fresh and spill over into subsequent news cycles.
Democrats may be hopeful that the story will doom Paul's fall campaign before it even starts. On radio's Laura Ingraham show, Paul acknowledged on Thursday that it did not make political sense to appear on a liberal talk show the day after the primary. Later, on CNN with Wolf Blitzer, Paul stated "yes," that he would have voted for the Civil Rights Act. If Paul had said "Yes" 24 hours earlier, the flap might have been contained.
Why did this become an issue now? The Courier-Journal editiorial board interview with Paul was weeks ago.
As Democratic Senate nominee Jack Conway tells it, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow picked up on Paul's Civil Rights Act comments after Conway referred to them during a Wednesday appearance on MSNBC's Hardball. While host Chris Matthews expressed shock, it is also clear that Matthews had been briefed on that specific issue. Watch the exchange:
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