With one floor speech, Rand Paul singlehandedly did more to bring shame and disgrace upon the Senate and upon the Commonwealth of Kentucky than Mitch McConnell has done in four decades in Washington. In case you missed it, Paul took to the floor of the Senate and crassly repeated the question he’d tried to ask the House managers—one that Chief Justice Roberts refused to read because it named the alleged whistleblower.
In so doing, Paul not only openly flouted longstanding laws that are in place to protect whistleblowers, but violated something much more fundamental. He breached one of the most sacred trusts in any democracy—that government will not willfully put innocent citizens in harm’s way.
It cannot be stated enough. A United States Senator used the power of his office to bully and intimidate a citizen who was exercising his right to demand the righting of a wrong. And in so doing, he exposed that person to trolling, harassment, and worse. There is only one remedy for this. The Senate needs to begin expulsion proceedings against Paul.
This is many, many, many times worse than Cory Booker releasing confidential documents that suggested Brett Kavanaugh supported racial profiling. Booker did not put Kavanaugh’s safety, and that of his family, at risk by releasing those documents. What Paul did yesterday, and several times before, did.
Granted, it takes a two-thirds majority to expel a Senator. But the signal must go out that if you engage in this sort of behavior, you will be held to account for it. That’s the same reason why Trump was impeached.
Somebody in the Senate needs to grow a set and introduce the following resolution:
Resolved, that pursuant to Article I, Section 5, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution, Senator Randal Howard Paul be, and hereby is, expelled from the Senate.
In the meantime, let’s get the hashtags #ExpelRand and #ExpelRandPaul trending. Sorry, but this really has my dander up. There are few things that make me madder than those who bully and attack the vulnerable. And that’s exactly what Ayn Rand Paul is doing.