What's to lose? My poll numbers suck!
Per breaking news on MSNBC with Richard Wolfe, Rand Paul formally announced that he will filibuster the bipartisan budget deal from coming to the floor for debate. This sets up an interesting spectacle in the Senate. If Harry Reid can hold his caucus together, Mitch McConnell (R-Obstructionville) will need to cobble together about 16 or so votes to break the filibuster. With 20+ Rethugnicant Senators running for reelection in 2016, several of them already on the hot seat, and with the general public antipathy towards the constant drama and hostage taking, even His Yertylness should be able to cobble together that kind of coalition to move this thing along. But it IS interesting to see Rand Paul trying to jump the shark on Ted Cruz with the angry RWNJ base by getting the first word in on the budget deal. Will it lead to increased poll numbers for him? I live in Vegas, but I'm not rushing off to the book at the casino on this one.
4:22 PM PT: There have been several questions in the comments about whether or not Paul and or Cruz will need to be present to filibuster and thereby end up missing the debate...It is not likely that it will come to that, McConnell can short circuit the filibuster before it even starts, per the Wikipedia entry on the filibuster;
The perceived threat of a filibuster has tremendously increased since the 1960s, as suggested by the increase in cloture motions filed.[26] A motion for cloture is filed not only to overcome filibusters in progress, but also to pre-empt ones that are only anticipated
So, McConnell can call a vote for cloture before the filibuster even begins, and if he gets the 60 needed votes, then it proceeds to debate and the filibuster is busted...