Well You Knew This Was Coming

More Rand Paul trying to have it both ways, more digging himself into a hole, this time on the Cordoba House project.

Rand Paul -- whose belief in the absolute preeminence of private property rights has put him in hot water before -- appears to be attempting to thread the needle when it comes to the Cordoba House project in lower Manhattan. He says the project is a local issue that should be left to local authorities to handle -- but he also says that the Islamic community center shouldn't be built in the controversial lower Manhattan site.

What's more, he says, if Muslims really want to do right by the 9/11 families who Republicans say are offended by the Cordoba House project, they should do something else with their money besides building a cultural center.

"While this is a local matter that should be decided by the people of New York, Dr. Paul does not support a mosque being built two blocks from Ground Zero," Paul spokesperson Gary Howard told TPMDC. "In Dr. Paul's opinion, the Muslim community would better serve the healing process by making a donation to the memorial fund for the victims of September 11th."

Right.  So the "libertarian small government" Rand Paul says it's up to local Manhattan officials and they've decided it should be built...but then he says that it shouldn't be built and they should give all that money to the 9/11 victims' families.  You can do what you want with your local land use and you have the freedom to worship where you want...unless it's a national controversy because you're Muslim and government should get involved and people in Kentucky should be making the decisions for you.

This is what I don't get about the whole "Well you can but you shouldn't" argument.  You're still telling them they can't build there even though you're insisting they have the right to build there.  That means you're saying they don't have the right to build there now doesn't it?

In Rand's case the hypocrisy is even more extreme, on one hand taking the local libertarian view that the 1st Amendment and local decision-making should be respected and on the other saying that the Constitution means nothing and that the Park 51 people should be compelled to stop by the 99.99% of America that doesn't live anywhere near the site.

In the end, Rand has no idea what he's talking about.