Hmmm..
So. Mark Levin has returned from vacation, and in his
characteristic low-key style has immediately announced he would not
ignore the elephant in the room that everyone else seems to be so
desperately trying to ignore.
The elephant in the room?
That would be?
That would be Congressman Ron Paul's refusal to rule out a
third party run for president if he loses the Republican
presidential nomination. And the not so coincidental relationship
Levin sees with Senator Rand Paul's future career.
Considering that Congressman Paul has already once left
the GOP -- with much fanfare in 1987 -- and then shown up as
the Libertarian Party candidate for president in 1988, he has
already amply demonstrated his willingness play hardball politics
and throw the GOP under the bus if he doesn't get his way. In the
December 16th debate with other GOP candidates
Paul was
asked the question directly and refused to rule it out. Wrote
Boston Globe reporter Michael Levenson of Paul's debate
refusal to rule out a third party run:
Paul has made similar comments in the past. On "Meet the Press,"
last Sunday, for example, he said he was not thinking about a
third-party run, but left the option open.
"I have enough on my plate right now," Paul said. "We have
a lot of campaigning to do. We're going to be very busy the next
couple of weeks. That's what I'm concentrating on, and we'll see
what happens."
Meaning, even as Iowans go to their Caucuses tonight Paul
refuses to say he will accept the verdict of the conservative
rank-and-file voting base of the party if he doesn't like the
verdict in Iowa and the succeeding primaries.
Two things.
First, in an
interview with ABC's Terry Moran, Paul admits to Moran that,
well, gee, no. Actually he -- Ron Paul -- doesn't really see Ron
Paul in the Oval Office. But in spite of this admission to Moran,
Paul is not ruling out a third party run, as he made in
1988.
Second. Mark Levin has raised a serious point of interest
here that didn't apply when Paul left the GOP the first time to run
third party. This time there is another Paul in the picture --
Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul, Ron Paul's son.
Taking his cue from Ron Paul's willingness to play hard
ball with the GOP, Levin played right back. Said
Levin:
Let me make myself clear. I love my country. I love the
Constitution. I love my family. And I believe with all my heart and
soul that four more years of Obama is a disaster to all three of
them.
And if some egomaniac who knows he cannot win chooses to
run as a third party, I will do everything in my power, as limited
as it is, to fight them every damn step of the way. And -- if Ron
Paul decides that he is going to go third party, which is
detrimental to this nation, and pulls a million votes -- which is
relatively insignificant in the big scheme of things -- I will do
everything in my power to defeat his son in Kentucky. I will do
everything in my power to defeat his son Rand Paul in
Kentucky.
Wow. Hardball indeed.
Mixing metaphors that's not only calling attention to the
elephant in the room, it's getting the elephant's attention with a
Louisville slugger right between the eyes.
Rand Paul, unlike father Ron, is a conservative favorite.
And displaying a superb sense of family values Senator Paul has
been out there working his heart out for his father in a standard
intra-party nomination skirmish. For that Rand Paul should be
applauded. No one should ever expect other than loyalty of a son to
a father, and Rand Paul has shown himself to be stellar in this
area.
The problem, though, is the obvious. If Ron Paul loses the
GOP nomination as all but one other as yet undetermined candidate
will do -- and leaves the GOP for a second time to run as a third
party nominee, re-electing Obama as a result -- this no longer
becomes a question of son/father loyalty in an intra-party primary
fight. It will in fact morph instantly into an issue of Ron Paul's
disloyalty to a GOP that took him back after he left the first time
-- and provided him with all the benefits of party membership as a
Member of Congress. And in that case -- if a Republican senator,
son or no son -- indicates he too will abandon the GOP for a third
party and that third party is seen as re-electing a socialist
president, Levin's point instantly kicks in.
The entire Kentucky electorate will be turned upside down
as Republicans and conservatives all around the country seek to do
in Senator Paul's re-election -- both as a Republican or anything
else. It would be decidedly un-pretty -- and a decided and entirely
purposeless waste of a promising Senate career that could in fact
lead to a later Rand Paul nomination for president.
So Levin has, in typical style, called Ron Paul
out.
What happens after all the caucus and primary ballots are
counted -- and Not Ron Paul is the GOP nominee?
We'll see, won't we?
In the meantime, kudos to Mark Levin for getting the
subject out there for discussion. For forthrightly tying the future
career of Rand Paul to the current post-nomination career of Ron
Paul.
This is why Mark Levin has such a loyal audience. He never
ducks.
