NOTE This was featured previously featured on The Urban Politico. The Blog consists of The Janitor, The Fed, Godson and TWiB’s Zerlina Maxwell as “Lady Z”. This is the first part of their discussion of Rand Paul –editor

Who is this Rand Paul character anyway? We all knew who Ron Paul was of course, but few Politicos had any idea that he had a son, let alone a super Tea Party vigilante disguised by day in true Clark Kent-like fashion as a 47 year-old ophthalmologist. One thing is for sure: the entire political world knows who Rand Paul is now. After he trounced the GOP establishment’s candidate in the Kentucky Republican Primary for the United States Senate seat, the Tea Party crowd exalted Paul from coast to coast as the proverbial second coming and perhaps as the answer they had all been looking for in order to solve their Obama problem. And for a second it all seemed possible…but then it happened. In a rather monumental “aha” moment, the likes of which had not been replicated since the infamous 2008 Katie Couric destruction interview of Sarah Palin, Rachel Maddow displayed her tiger-style investigative journalism skills and revealed the man behind the curtain last week to the world. The media, apparently encountering pure Libertarianism for the first time, has been buzzing about it ever since. So here’s our break down of the curious case of Rand Paul.

Lady Z’s take:

Rand Paul is my new favorite. His debut on the national scene last week was a complete and total train wreck (read: it made for very compelling teevee). It was very clear from his very first squirm on The Rachel Maddow Show when she asked whether he supports the Civil Rights Act of 1964, that Rand, was indeed not ready for prime time.

What could he have done differently to not come across as a bigot an intellectual with a Libertarian philosophy that while in theory seems to be a reasonable belief in smaller government involvement, actually works in the real world context to allow for discrimination of certain groups? Well for starters, Rand should never have gone on Rachel Maddow. I don’t know if he’s a frequent viewer, but his staff should know that if their candidate holds these crazy hard to explain and out of date beliefs, including being against the minimum wage, taking issue with certain provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, wanting to abolish the Department of Education, and being against the Americans With Disabilities Act just to name a few, that you should not put him in the cross hairs of one of the toughest and most well researched interviewers in cable news. By the end of the week, Rand was flailing so much that he had to cancel his scheduled appearance on Meet the Press, being only the third person to do so in 62 years. This was likely his only smart move this week, even considering that David Gregory is no Tim Russert.

The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson has an excellent op-ed out, where he poses a few questions for Rand who he says cannot stay in his cave and avoid answering until the November midterm elections. It should be required reading for spokesperson/communications flack so they can make sure they prepare Rand with adequate answers that would be acceptable to the general public of 2010 and not 1910. He absolutely needs to defend his beliefs between now and November, because many of his arguments were used by segregationists to justify their discriminatory practices (pictured left).

My parting advice to Rand: Stick to Faux News or Morning Joe. They are the only ones in cable news who won’t ask you why your ideas sound like they are being spoken by someone standing in front of a whites only water fountain.

Related posts:

1. A Bigger Problem Than Rand Paul
2. Rand Paul would prefer “Civil Rights Act-Lite”
3. Rand Paul has Jr Senator Syndrome
4. “How Not To Run For Senate” Featuring Rand Paul
5. Wise on: Rationalizing White Supremacy