Rand Paul (pictured), darling of the Tea Party, didn’t help Republican’s in general with his grandstanding filibuster.
Tea Partiers were energized by the filibuster saying it was a “victory and a blow for freedom.”
Senator McCain reflected the view of many Senate Republicans when he said,“The country needs more senators who care about liberty, but if Mr. Paul wants to be taken seriously he needs to do more than pull political stunts that fire up impressionable Libertarian kids in their college dorms.”
Emboldened by their help in gaining back the House in the 2010 mid-term election, Tea Partiers are trying to push the Republican Party farther right.
In doing so, they are causing a rift in the Party which will make it more difficult than ever to put a Republican in the White House in the foreseeable future.
Republicans need to have a 'wide tent’ to include the center-right as well as those on the far-right such as Rand Paul and his Tea Party following.
About the filibuster itself: how could Rand Paul keep it up for nearly 13 hours?
It has been suggested that the filibuster was ended by Mr. Paul’s bladder. It has also been suggested that he could have worn Depends.
He also could have used a trick employed by Senator Strom Thurmond during his record 24 hour filibuster in 1957 when aides helped him avoid defeat by the toilet by setting up a bucket in the cloakroom where Thurmond could pee, keeping one foot on the Senate floor while doing so.
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