Jack Hunter Resigns From Rand Paul Staff, Returns to Punditry

Faced fire over comments about the Confederacy, Lincoln; says he wants to defend himself from racist charges

The man who for years called himself the "Southern Avenger" says he now seeks to avenge his own honor.

Jack Hunter, the aide to Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul who has been under fire for comments critical of Abraham Lincoln and sympathetic to the Confederacy, has left the senator's office to resume his career as a political pundit.

Hunter told The Daily Caller News Foundation that he wanted to avoid being a distraction for Paul and to clear his own name, which he argues is now unfairly associated with racism.