Rand Paul = Democrats’ Enemy #1

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The senator’s broad appeal threatens to weaken Democrats for 2016, and they are going on offense—sending out no less than 10 press releases on his latest trip to Iowa.

Democrats fundraiser and campaign by exploiting concerns about right-wing extremism. But at least at the moment, what they apparently fear most is the rise of a candidate who could potentially poach enough of their supporters to beat them in 2016. -

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Democrats began hitting Paul on Monday morning, first for fundraising with Iowa Rep. Steve King, who has entertained the idea of exploring impeachment (something Paul has said he would not consider); next for claiming he never proposed ending foreign aid to Israel (which he openly supported doing for years); and then for saying Republicans don’t want to ban birth control and that he is “in favor of the concept” of a federal ban on gay marriage.

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The most fun the DNC had, understandably, was with an incident that took place at a Monday-night fundraiser with King, when Paul was caught on video getting up—mid-bite into his hamburger—and practically running away from two immigration activists. (He gets an everyman point for taking his drink with him.)

The DNC snarked that the senator’s swift exit was a “profile in courage” and later sent out an email detailing some of the best headlines the moment generated, including “Rand Paul Flees in Terror from Mexican Immigrant,” and “Watch Rand Paul Run for His Life Before Steve King Insults an Immigrant in Iowa.”

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“He’s working not to get out of the conservative box but to redefine it,” Simon Rosenberg, president of the New Democrat Network, told The Daily Beast. If Paul gets the nomination, he becomes the effective leader of his party—meaning his redefinition of that conservative box could become the definition, a problem for Democrats, as Paul has a tendency to stake out atypical positions for a conservative and reach across party lines.

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The Democrats’ strategy to defeat Paul seems to be to engage him as he tries to gain experience, with the hope that he’ll misspeak his candidacy to death before it gets off the ground. “This is smart politics for the Democrats,” Rosenberg told The Daily Beast. “What you want to do as opposition is you want to go after the candidates when they’re inexperienced…We saw a deeply inexperienced candidate [in Iowa]...and a lot of early scrutiny could really weaken him.” Or so the left is hoping.

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