Rand Paul Cancels His Meet The Press Interview
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on May 22nd, 2010 4:37 am by HL
Rand Paul Cancels His Meet The Press Interview
Kentucky Republican Senate nominee Rand Paul has been lampooned in recent days for his radical anti-government views. First, he expressed opposition to parts of the Civil Rights Act and the Americans With Disabilities Act. Today, he attacked President Obama’s criticism of BP as “un-American,” and refused to say whether or not the minimum wage is […]
Kentucky Republican Senate nominee Rand Paul has been lampooned in recent days for his radical anti-government views. First, he expressed opposition to parts of the Civil Rights Act and the Americans With Disabilities Act. Today, he attacked President Obama’s criticism of BP as “un-American,” and refused to say whether or not the minimum wage is legal. MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell joked that Paul is the “gift that keeps on giving.”
But he is giving no more. He “simply does not want to answer direct questions about the proper role of the Federal government in regulating the private sector,” the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent noted. “He visibly bristles when asked to clarify his views on these matters,” Sargent added.
After his upset victory Tuesday night, Paul agreed to appear on NBC’s Meet The Press Sunday for what would surely be wide ranging interview that would delve into these issues:
But Meet The Press’ executive producer Betsy Fischer revealed an hour ago that Paul was “trying to cancel” his big interview:
The Washington Post reports that Paul has indeed canceled because “he’s had a long week.” A Paul spokesperson explained, “Rand did Good Morning America today, set the record straight, and now we are done talking about it. … No more national interviews on the topic.” Paul joins Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and Saudi Arabia’s Prince Bandar as the only guests to cancel a Meet the Press interview in recent history.
As MSNBC host Joe Scarborough told ThinkProgress today, referring to Paul’s embarrassing interview with fellow host Rachel Maddow, “if a politician can’t handle an interview, they can’t handle the Senate.”
Texas Board Of Education: Jefferson Davis And Obama?s Middle Name Are Essential For Students To Learn
Today, the right-wing Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) will give final approval of content for state social studies curriculum. The standards will “dictate what is taught in all Texas schools and provide the basis for textbooks and student achievement tests over the next decade.” Yesterday, this unqualified board — which includes a woman who […]
Today, the right-wing Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) will give final approval of content for state social studies curriculum. The standards will “dictate what is taught in all Texas schools and provide the basis for textbooks and student achievement tests over the next decade.” Yesterday, this unqualified board — which includes a woman who thinks public education is a “tool of perversion” and a chairman whose real profession is a dentist — continued to inject their right-wing ideology into the state’s standards, pushing for inclusion of more conservatives, more Confederate glorification, and more distortion of progressive viewpoints.
Whether To Require Students To Learn Obama’s Middle Name: Republican David Bradley is one of the leaders of the SBOE’s far-right faction. Yesterday, he suggested that if students were going to learn about Barack Obama as the first African-American president, they should also learn his middle name — Hussein. However, fellow Republican Bob Craig objected, saying, “The intent of what you’re doing is pretty obvious, but I don’t think it is necessarily correct,” pointing out that other presidents like Kennedy and Reagan don’t have their middle names in the standards. Bradley eventually withdrew his amendment, and the board decided to list Obama as he is on the White House website: Barack H. Obama.
Elevating Confederate Leader Jefferson Davis To The Level Of Abraham Lincoln: There was “prolonged debate” yesterday over whether to “include Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ inaugural address with a lesson on Abraham Lincoln’s philosophical views.” Far-right Republican Cynthia Dunbar said that excluding Jefferson would be an attempt to “whitewash” history. (TFN Insider adds, “But that’s what Davis’s address does! The address doesn’t even mention the reason southern states seceded: slavery.”) Eventually, the SBOE votes to keep in Davis and require students to “contrast” his speech to Lincoln’s speeches.
Requiring That Historical Figures — Except Conservative Ones — Must Be Dead For Students To Study Them: Yesterday, SBOE voted to strip United Farm Workers of America co-founder Dolores Huerta from a third-grade list of “historical and contemporary figures who have exemplified good citizenship.” Several officials argued that she is a socialist and therefore should be excluded. But perhaps the most blatantly biased objection came from Bradley, who said:
I am very reluctant to include persons who are still alive. By definition of “history,” you must be dead, because you never know when you might embarrass us later.
Watch the debate here:
Of course, the board has had no problem including Wallace Jefferson, the Republican chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court, or right-wing figure Phyllis Schlafly.
This week, ThinkProgress spoke with Judy Jennings and Rebecca Bell-Metereau, two progressives who are running for seats on the SBOE. They both promised to try to undo any textbook changes the right-wing board approves.
