Rand Paul mocks Newt Gingrich's marriages and Fox News' stance on Libya

  A dinner that was supposed to be lighthearted and humorous turned a tad serious when freshman Sen. Rand Paul got a bit personal at the expense of former Speaker Newt Gingrich.

 "I was happy to see that Newt Gingrich has staked out a position on the war; a position or two, or maybe three," Paul said Wednesday at the Congressional Correspondents' Dinner. "I don't know. He may have more war positions than he's had wives."

The Republican from Kentucky didn't stop at Gingrich, who has been hinting at running for president. Paul even took a few jabs at GOP-friendly Fox News and their commentaries about the most recent military action in Libya led by President Obama.

"There's a big debate going on over at Fox News. It's really messed up, I mean they don't know what to do," said Paul, a "tea party" darling and the son of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). "They just really can't decide over at Fox News. It's like, what do they love more, bombing the Middle East or bashing the president? It's like, I was over there and there was an anchor going -- they were pleading, they were pleading -- 'please, please, please, can't we do both? Can't we bomb the Middle East and bash the president at the same time? How are we going to make this work?'"

With friends like these, who needs Democrats?

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Note: Andrew Malcolm is on vacation.

-- Tony Pierce
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Comments

[jacko]

Key phrase here - "supposed to be humorous".

Aren't his comments supposed to be funny? They are clearly jokes. Maybe not delivered with the polished celebrity teleprompter reading skills of the current Aspiring Entertainer in Chief, but hey at least the guy tried to make a couple jokes.

I have no problem with this.

[Se]

Rand Paul is starting to put his foot in his mouth, you can't tell where he stand. It sounds like he belongs on msnbc with hardball.

[Rev G. Trask]

Run, Rand, Run! Help re-elect the President.

[Bill Jenkins]

Libtards hate Rand Paul and that's good enough for me.

He's better than his old man.

[horsesforcourses]

"many a true word is spoken in jest"

[salvatore]

Those are the two most honest things I've ever heard Rand Paul say.

[Servillex]

I wish I had more clean pair of socks daily than war positions monthly..)

[ghhugh]

Thank you, Randy. The more you separate yourself from the slime pact the more 'real' you will become.

[don Fadden]

Thank you Senator Paul:

Nute The Destroyer needs to be remembered and called for what he is - A stain upon a Grand Old Party . This many faced mongrel is a walking and talking affront to the decency Republicans represented before this pathetic power possessed, Cherub faced fiend divined to made decency and gentlemanly conduct in the halls of our Government, something to be scorned, punished and cast out into the darkness.

[dee]

I'm not a fan of his, but I find his comments funny. If he had bashed the administration, you (the press--yes, bloggers, I mean you!) would say he's just another right wing hack job. So he does what comedians have done for centuries--bash his own--and you say he's hurting the republicans. Go see any good black comic and listen...I don't think all those African-Americans audience members are masochists waiting to get bashed. Who invented the Jewish joke? Even Sinatra loved it when comedian friends trashed him. Please. Can we have someone who understands something about comedy, not someone who just wants to write 'significant', write about this?

[Jim]

Rand can't run on his own merits like his dad, instead he adopted the Tea Party people. The GOP need to kick his you know what right of the Hill. Or give these new guys enough rope to hang their self .

[geo88a]

I don't approved of this man, but I'm afraid he's got this one right!

[Coda]

I'm glad no one laughed as his jokes - it shows he's not a part of the puppet-show where everyone fights with one another but behind the scenes they're all rubbing elbows and laughing at the rest of us. Keep pissing 'em off Rand and Ron, and you'll always have my vote!

[michael]

Paul told the truth for a change. Stop the presses! Now if the rest of the repubs start telling the truth...... Oh forget it, never going to happen.

[Talulah Bankhead]

I am from the Kentucky Bankheads and I must tell you Rand was unfortunately dropped on his head too many times as a baby. He still has that cute babyfaced dimpled smile that gets him elected but when he opens his mouth it all goes to crap. Sorry U.S.A. but kinfolk like to elect their own.

[Dave]

quote: "With friends like these, who needs Democrats?"

What did he say that wasn't true? I'll take as a "friend" someone who is for free market capitalism and limited government every day rather than a syncophant or a hack.

[JohnRJ08]

There will NEVER be anything funny about Rand Paul.

[Andrew Masset]

AHHH...the rats are turning on each other now...it's always a sign of a sinking ship. Real Americans are sick & tired of listening to politicians who do nothing but criticize, demean, lie and spew venom about and to everyone they want to destroy. Our country was and is the greatest place on the planet and you pathetic jerks do nothing but poison the land we love. GTH and let real Americans live our lives with class, honesty and dignity.

[Stacie]

:) I really like Rand Paul. I was a little concerned about him before he got elected, but it's obvious he's got what it takes to be a great Senator. It's time politicians stop sugar coating the financial crisis in this country.

[Harry]

It is too bad that Senator Paul is bound by the Libertarian cult mentality. If he could shake that, he obviously would be a very good politician.

[Kevin S]

When will someone stand up and tell Mr Gingrich to pull up his pants and go home? We, the people aren't interested in him physically, intellectually or metaphorically and we DON'T need a leader in the white house who hypocritically persecutes an effective leader in the office of President for doing the same things that he was doing in his personal life. We also don't need a leader who loses the speakers position of power and promptly quits like a small child who is angry when the game didn't go his way and stalks home crying to mama about those other mean kids.

Mr Gingrich has the appeal of a overweight, overly pale pasty hooker who can't face it that her appeal has dwindled along with her charms and instead of cutting her prices and lowering her aims starts trick rolling, only to find out any intelligent person with taste and money wouldn't be caught dead with her in the first place. Americans, beware- in this case it would be WISE to look a gift horse in the mouth!

[affableman]

Rand Paul is dangerous. Childish ideas and a nice little facist streak ain't exactly what America needs.

That said, Gingrich is a bad joke.

[BT]

Whats the problem? Its just fact, Newt was for the war until Obama was, then Newt Flipped Flopped. Its all on the record, on TV. And yes, Fox news loves bombing Arabs. So therein lies the problem, how to cheer for bombing Arabs without praising Obama for doing it.

[James]

Love it! People who only understand "left-right" don't get this. They think Paul is turning on his own. Not so at all...liberty isn't right or left. Paul spoke the truth and maybe that's why people didn't laugh, because the truth hit too close to home.

Gingrich and Fox are both dominated by neoconservative instincts; something Paul has nothing in common with.

[Trevor Lyman]

Lots of left/right paradigm comments here. Lets forget about left and right and get back to the constitution.

[Bill]

With friends like Newt Gingrich, Lindsay Graham, the Bushes, Linda Chavez, Bobby Jindal, Michael Steele, and the rest of the motley crew that makes up the "mainstream" (read: establishment-approved) Republicans, do conservatives need Democrats for enemies? And oh boy, noticing the truth that Fox News' major conflict over Libya has basically been "do we love bombing the middle east more than we hate Obama?" (I personally hate both) is such a crime.
Rand Paul is definitely not like Chris Matthews, or any of the MSNBC crowd for that matter. Paul actually manages to come up with scathing comments that stick, while Matthews just makes himself look infinitely more clownish.
But then again, I suppose we can count on the LA times (always a bastion of conservatism, of course) to tell us what Republicans ought to think and say.

[Bradley]

Everything Rand Paul said was 100% accurate. So what's the big fuss? What's wrong with calling it how it is?

[Ben]

affableman - Actually, fascism, certainly the corporate variety, is what we have currently. Rand is actually against fascism.

[Republicrat basher]

This reminds me of Steven Colbert roasting Bush--except Colbert probably wouldn't have the gall to attack a democrat in this way.

[RWW]

A single digit IQ and a Senator. Now thats lighthearted, however even as dim as he is he can spot Fox (Lie to Me) News and the dilemma they are in over Libya.

As for Gingrich and his multiple wives, that's SOP to be a GOP member isn't it?

The real question of recent months was not the President's birth certificate, but how many marriage certificates does Mitt the Mormon really have?