Specifically Not Feelin' Randy, Part 9

Now that Rand Paul has made the jump from outsides primary hopeful to GOP candidate, he's breaking a lot of promises in order to get elected.  Don't think the people of Kentucky haven't noticed, either.

Last year, with the primary election still months away, Paul pledged not to accept contributions from any senator who voted for a federal bailout of the banking industry.

That was in response to plans by Paul's main opponent, Secretary of State Trey Grayson, to attend a Washington fund-raiser hosted by Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell and others who voted to shore up giant banks with taxpayer money.

Paul has been sharply critical of the bailout, citing it as a reason he got into the race.
After trouncing Grayson, however, Paul benefited from a $1,000-a-person fund-raiser June 24 in Washington hosted by McConnell and attended by senators who voted for the bailout.

Attorney General Jack Conway, Paul's Democratic opponent, said the move showed Paul had become part of the very thing he railed against in the primary, and Conway accused him of hypocrisy.

Paul's camp disagreed with Conway's assessment.

The GOP primary was a battle for the direction of the party, and Paul won it with his platform of requiring balanced budgets and complete opposition to bailouts, said his campaign manager, Jesse Benton.

"Dr. Paul accepts financial support from anyone who wants to support his ideas of limited government, term limits, balanced budgets and real reform but makes it clear to them that money will not influence his votes or positions," Benton said.

It's difficult this early in the general election to gauge how Paul's decision to get cozier with the establishment he criticized in the primary will affect voters Nov. 2.

David Roos, a retired minister in Murray who has been active in the Tea Party movement, said it didn't escape notice in his circle that Paul had, as he put it, "capitulated to the establishment."

That makes sense, because if you remove all the libertarian window-dressing, Rand Paul's nothing more than your standard GOP Wingnut and always has been.  That's not any advantage for Jack Conway however:  Tea Party voters are also nothing more than standard Republicans with a fresh coat of paint.

Conway's real problem however is that the biggest thing going for him right now is that he's not Rand Paul.  He needs to stop trying to be Paul.