Politics

Rand Paul Breaks Three Hour Mark on Filibuster of Brennan Nomination

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Everyone should be enjoying the mellow tones of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) from the Senate floor as he gives props to Lysander Spooner, slams Oliver Wendell Holmes and Herbert Croly, praises Obama for saying he believed in curbing executive power and slams him, and his CIA nominee John Brennan, for believing in the power of summary execution of Americans. Sen. Paul is asserting boldly that the U.S. is not a battlefield worthy of martial law.

See it on C-SPAN2 now.

He will have to go on for nearly nine hours to beat a Bernie Sanders speaking-filibuster record for this century, though. Can he do it?

Paul admits, as he speaks to an empty floor and a nation in front of their computers and TV sets, that he's almost certainly not going to beat the Brennan nomination. But he's unique, alas, among modern politicians in believing that standing up for the rights of Americans to not be summarily murdered is worth doing, at whatever political cost.

UPDATE: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) tweets in apparent support of Paul's point, and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) plans to join him on Senate floor–and in fact has as I type.

UPDATE II: Ted Cruz from Texas is also saying some great things about our natural rights, posed as questions for Rand Paul, right now.

UPDATE III: Reason 24/7 is now livetweeting the ongoing filibuster.

Also: israndpaulstilltalking.com? Yes!