Rand Paul Has Been Carousing With Bill Maher

Good to hear. I cannot say I am a huge fan of Bill Maher, but he is an intelligent, popular man. Paul would definitely benefit from having him on his side.

This is the wrong route the conservative movement is taking. We need law, order, and strength.

I see this as a Rand vs Jeb matchup taking form.

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I see this as a Rand vs Jeb matchup taking form

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pretty clear choice

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Do you think that Rand's effort to broaden the GOP base is all just a waste of time?

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Nope, not at all. Someone should have done it sooner.

good

I would def consider voting for Rand

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This is the wrong route the conservative movement is taking. We need law, order, and strength.

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That's just vague enough, and emotionally appealing, to be a good campaign slogan. The RNC will be contacting your forthwith.

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Bill Maher, but he is an intelligent, popular man. Paul would definitely benefit from having him on his side

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A Republican candidate having Bill Maher "on his side" is never a good thing for that candidate.

If Bill Maher had said he kind of likes Chris Christie, would you say that Christie would benefit in the Republican primaries from that?

Of course he wouldn't. And neither will Rand.

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in the primaries, no

in the general, yes

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But Maher will NEVER, under any circumstances, support Rand Paul (or anyone else the GOP nominates) in the general election, no matter who the Democratic candidate is.


The full portion of the interview:

"To stay on what’s going on in American politics right now, I wanted to ask you about your feelings about Sen. Rand Paul. I know there’s been some exaggeration in terms of the degree to which you’re fond of him —

I never used those words. I said I was considering him and he was the first Republican I would even consider in a very long time.

And that’s because of his views on foreign policy?

Absolutely, yes. He’s great on ending the empire, not getting into any more foreign entanglements — I’m even to the left of him on the bombing [of ISIS]; he wants to keep bombing ISIS, I want us to stop bombing altogether.

Do you think he actually does, or do you think he’s positioning himself for 2016?

Well, he said that. He said he’s OK with air attacks. Because he’s not like his father, he’s much more…political, y’know. His father never gave an inch and [Rand Paul] really wants to be president.

I had drinks with him about two weeks ago. He’s a nice guy, he’s a smart guy. My big problem is I asked him about the environment, which is my big issue — because he had made a comment that was very similar to what Dick Cheney said about a month or two ago, which was basically, “Why are we talking the environment when ISIS is out there?”

I said, “Senator, y’know, you sounded just like Dick Cheney…”

How’d he take that?

Well, his answer on the environment was wholly unsatisfactory to me. Unless he comes around, big time, on that issue… I mean, I won’t even quote what he said to me, I’ll give him the chance to gather a better answer [laughs], but that would be a deal-breaker, right there, because Hillary Clinton said something awesome about [environmental issues] and I assume she’s going to be the other candidate. So, right on that issue, he would lose my vote.

I’m imagining a pained look on his face in response to you saying he’s like Dick Cheney. He doesn’t talk like this as much as he used to, but I think it’s pretty well understood that he’s not Cheney’s biggest fan.

Right. They’re diametrically opposed on a lot of that foreign policy stuff. But it’s very unfortunate that even he, who I consider, in the Republican Party, the most viable [presidential candidate], is apparently so far in the bubble on their environmental denial that he just doesn’t have an answer that sounds like it should come out of the mouth of any politician in the 21st century.

And coming from Kentucky — can you think of a worse circumstance for a politician in terms of being right on environmental issues?

Right, because we have to save those awesome jobs in coal-mining…

Which are dwindling, no matter what.

Yes, we have to save the worst job ever that is giving people black lung again.

Yeah, and he’s also said some stuff on mountaintop removal, which is just a horrible practice, that would probably make you retch.

[Laughs] It indeed would and, like I say, this is the deal-breaker issue with me. You’ve got to be good on this or, I’m sorry, not going to happen. But we’ll see."

Hillary Clinton vs. Rand Paul in the general, Mr. Maher? = see above.


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