Rand Paul spoke at Howard University in Washington D.C. yesterday, and while it may not have been a total success, yes, you do have to give something up to him for going out and speaking at one of the top historic black colleges in America. Don't you?
Press reports indicate that it was a bit bumpy, but the larger issue is this: the dude was making an attempt at speaking to a particular group – blacks – that traditionally have shut out the Republican Party. It's something that the Republican National Committee says must stop in their now infamous "autopsy," but as former RNC Chair Michael Steel has attested to, often the party says they want to make inroads with that constituency, but then failed to follow up.
Paul's central thesis was that the current GOP hasn't lost its Lincolnesque-roots, but that didn't convince some of the crowd at Howard. One audience member asked him if he identifies with the party pre-or post-1968? You might recall that as being when Richard Nixon's "Southern Strategy" was unveiled. Paul said he didn't see "an abrupt difference" between the party of Lincoln and the party of Nixon, but apparently, that message didn't seem all that convincing for those in attendance. Nor did it to the New York Times' Charles Blow, who delivers a withering rebuke to Paul's question of how the GOP has lost the black vote since the late 60's.
Speaking of 2016, another Republican Senator with Tea Party roots and big ambitions, Marco Rubio, is still on board unless things have changed with wanting to filibuster any gun-control bills coming before the Senate. But as we noted yesterday, how viable is it to be a national candidate for the whole country when you're against something (like universal background checks) that 90 percent of the public favors?
A bid to have Florida join over a third of the nation that have laws on the books supporting medicinal marijuana have gone nowhere over the past decade, but that may finally change now that a big-time fundraiser, Orlando attorney John Morgan, has joined the cause. The "For the people" TV commercial star tells CL that he needs lots of volunteers to make this happen.
There was a bit of a buzz in the air in St. Pete yesterday when Rick Kriseman announced he had raised $51,000 since officially becoming a candidate for mayor yesterday, an impressive start for the Democratic challenger to Bill Foster. Meanwhile, City Council candidate David McKalip says he'll go before the Council today and demand that they stop spending anymore money to fund the Lens design for a new Pier.
This article appears in Apr 11-17, 2013.