by Mike Memoli
An extraordinary denial in an extraordinary political year.
Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul of Kentucky appeared on Fox News Channel today to reject an outsourced allegation that, while in college, he "kidnapped" a woman and forced her to smoke marijuana.
"This stuff is just outrageous and ridiculous," he told Neil Cavuto. "No, I never was involved with kidnapping. No, I was never involved with forcibly drugging people."
The source of the allegation was an unnamed woman quoted by GQ magazine (you can read the relevant passage after the jump).
Paul did not rule out suing the magazine, and criticized a media environment in which he would be forced to defend himself against an unsourced claim.
"Do we live in an era where people can come forward anonymously and accuse you of things and then all of a sudden I'm supposed to spend the rest of the campaign defending myself against anonymous accusers who say I kidnapped them?" he said. Of a lawsuit, he said: "The problem is, in our country they make it almost impossible for politicians to win anything."
Though Paul strenuously denied "kidnapping someone," he would not definitively say that he was not involved in a prank similar to the one described by GQ.
"I'm not going to really try to go back 27 years and remember everything in college," he said. "But I will categorically deny that I ever kidnapped anyone, or forced anyone to use drugs."
Paul faces state Attorney General Jack Conway this November in the race to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Jim Bunning. Polls have shown Paul with a consistent lead.
Here's the relevant portion of GQ's article:
The strangest episode of Paul's time at Baylor occurred one afternoon in 1983 (although memories about all of these events are understandably a bit hazy, so the date might be slightly off), when he and a NoZe brother paid a visit to a female student who was one of Paul's teammates on the Baylor swim team. According to this woman, who requested anonymity because of her current job as a clinical psychologist, "He and Randy came to my house, they knocked on my door, and then they blindfolded me, tied me up, and put me in their car. They took me to their apartment and tried to force me to take bong hits. They'd been smoking pot." After the woman refused to smoke with them, Paul and his friend put her back in their car and drove to the countryside outside of Waco, where they stopped near a creek. "They told me their god was 'Aqua Buddha' and that I needed to bow down and worship him," the woman recalls. "They blindfolded me and made me bow down to 'Aqua Buddha' in the creek. I had to say, 'I worship you Aqua Buddha, I worship you.' At Baylor, there were people actively going around trying to save you and we had to go to chapel, so worshiping idols was a big no-no."
Comments
Hopefully the media will start following Crazy Randy around asking about this.
Not only does he have no answer, he's got no answer for almost all of his whackjob right wing policy proposals. Ala Sharron Angle, he's depending on the conservative loving corporate media not questioning him on anything so that he can sail to a victory in red Kentucky.
But Hey! What's a little kidnapping and bong use between friends? Isn't kidnapping a female student and forcing her to use drugs a part of everyone's college experience? ;)
Posted by: Rob | August 10, 2010 6:34 PM
"Drive-by journalism"? Crazy Randy's campaign was given the opportunity to comment on and refute this article before it went to press.
That's pretty much the opposite of drive-by journalism.
I guess we can now redefine "drive-by" journalism as "stuff that is true but which we are embarrassed by, and so we wish it wouldn't have been accurately reported."
"Drive-by"....pfft..,sounds like Randy is pre-kissing Druggy Rush's ring just in case this issue breaks bad for him.
Posted by: Rob | August 10, 2010 6:42 PM
Typical left-wing whackjob character assassination. Par for the course when libs are losing the real debate.
Posted by: Sucks to be a Dem in 2010 | August 11, 2010 8:34 AM
Sounds like the typical pampered rich kid with nothing else to do except have what he thought was a good time. He seems to still be at it, spinning off silly solutions to current national problems. Daddy should have given him a good spanking, some time ago. Maybe the voting public will do it instead. If we're lucky.
Posted by: irene | August 11, 2010 8:46 AM
Irene
What did you read in this article that led you to the conclusion that he was a pampered rich kid? Sounds like he was a college kid, just like the thousands of others out there today, who was doing something stupid. I guess if you had went to college you might have recognized that part of the story. Maybe you should re-enter the 3rd grade to refresh your reading comprehension skills.
Posted by: Lost in Space Donny from Plainfield | August 11, 2010 9:09 AM
It is a pathetic statement about American politics, that a nincompoop, such as Randy Paul can be considered playing with a full deck, let alone, a viable candidate for serious elected office. He is a clown, of the worst kind. That is all that is to him, period. Trying to make him out as anything more, is a cynical, despicable attempt by his promoters to foist more incompetency on our nation!! I give you classic examples, without hesitation and supported by a general consensus, that they are indeed, the poster children for the promotion of clowns as politicians!! Of whom do I speak, you guessed it: Bush&Cheney. Now, the promoters of that political scheme, are actually the handlers. They manipulate the strings, that send these puppets out and have them mimic, informative speeches, but in fact, they are just mouthing over and over again, Republican-Libertarian-T.Baggers' vicious propaganda. All across America, in this election cycle, we are seeing these Republican handlers, running interference, protecting their products, their " candidates ", from exposure, to most media, because they don't want their product to look stupid, e.g. Sarah Palin. The handlers are afraid that the electorate will find out how vacuous these personages actually are. The handlers are only concerned with selling their product, " candidates ", forget America. They don't care if they visit more incompetence and malfeasance on our country. Cheney&Bush weren't enough!! So, now, in this up-coming election cycle, we can look forward to the Republican-Libertarian-T.Baggers' circus act, with all of the clowns, out on the hustings, making sure they don't get their puppet strings tangled. In the meantime, America is in serious need of more capable and competent leadership, like the kind President Obama and Vice-President Biden have been providing for the last 18 months. Come on America, don't send in the clowns!! Vote for President Obama and his Democratic agenda. It really is America's last and best hope.
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, IL | August 11, 2010 10:10 AM
Even by drive-by, one-party, JournoList media standards, this is despicable.
Has the Left no shame?
Posted by: Equal time | August 11, 2010 10:34 AM
While the right wingnuts who hang around in the Swamp see that he's denying the kidnap part of the story, they refuse to see that he hasn't denied anything else in the story.
'
What a whackjob!
Posted by: BC | August 11, 2010 12:16 PM
Rand, you have to remember that only the funk will set you free.
Aqua Buddha, get up for the downstroke. Rand, forget Sir Nose, as he is devoid of the funk. But I got ants in my pants, and I am ready to dance, all around the world for the funk. Underwater boogie, baby.
Got to love this nutjob. Wish I had that much fun in college.
Posted by: ugggh | August 11, 2010 3:39 PM
And the lamestream media continues to become more irrelvelent and lose influence with most clear-minded Americans. This alleged journalism is at its worst.
Meanwhile, where is the Swamp item on the racist Harry "Illegal Land Deals" Reid and his slur against Hispanics?
Posted by: John D | August 11, 2010 4:25 PM
Come on, " John D ", for once, try not to lie. Senator Reid didn't slur anybody, particularly, Hispanics. For one who posts often enough, with very little to add to the political dialogue, it is too bad that your reading comprehension is so lacking. To save you the efforts, what Senator Reid said was: " I don't know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican." Given the hysteria the Republican-Libertarian-T.Baggers are trying to generate, from lying about Senator Reid's innocuous remark, to the gestopo-style tactics, the State of Arizona is proposing against Hispanics, Senator Reid's remark makes very good sense. Now, they are even scaring the nation withe a proposal to re-write the Constitution. You know, that document that came down, from on high, until it doesn't serve their political purposes. Then, it is time to carve it up!! Fear and smear is the name of their reprehensible strategy. It failed against President Obama, in 2008, and it will fail in the fall !!
It is the Republican-Liberarian-T.Baggers' usual tactic, to scream, holler, whine and lie, when they have nothing constructive to offer. They hope they will distract us from remembering that they tried to kill an extension of Unemployment Benefits, for our neediest. Obstruct the passage of a Small Business Loan bill, that would help create much needed jobs. Delaying the funding of thousands of teacher's jobs, as well as firefighter's and policemen's jobs. That is what all of their's and Fox Noise, is all about. They don't want America to remember they were MIA for the last 18 months of this session of Congress. They chose to try and stymy President Obama and his policies and, of course they failed miserably at that, as well!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, IL | August 11, 2010 11:26 PM
This just in - Rand Paul played a college prank on a WILLING teammate.
Coming next - tale from 3rd grade.
Seriously? It was a college prank, sort of like Obama in that limo w/ Larry what's his name.
Posted by: Aqua Buddha | August 12, 2010 9:26 AM