Are people really going to fall for this?

Rand Paul, the extreme right wing libertarian who has said more than once that he wouldn’t have voted for the 1964 Civil Rights Act and doesn’t believe the government should try to prevent discrimination, is now trying to dress himself up as that most rare of species, a “moderate Republican.”

He’s reaching out. Being more inclusive.

Sure he is.

But unfortunately, it’s beginning to look like our mainstream media are going to help him sell this snake oil. Today at an RNC event in Memphis, the libertarian Senator quoted Captain Kirk (because we all know the kids love Star Trek), and Politico churned out one of their usual context-free puff pieces:

“Sort of like what Captain Kirk used to say, we need to boldly go where no Republicans have gone before. So we need to go to Harlem, East L.A., Berkeley, maybe even Hollywood, though that may be dangerous.” […] He added that the GOP cannot target the same constituencies as it did in 2008 and 2012, when the party lost presidential elections to President Barack Obama. But he said that if Republicans can reach out to a more diverse group of people, “we’re going to be the dominant party again.”

“And then, all these liberals better watch out!” Sen. Paul didn’t add.

He explicitly mentioned the need to target the African-American community, a group that has overwhelmingly favored Democrats in recent years. Paul said that, when it comes to helping black Americans, “we’ve tried 50 years of the Democrats passing out money and it hasn’t worked.”

And here’s Sen. Paul, hard at work:

Spoke to African American pastors from all over Tennessee. GOP needs to be bigger, better & bolder to grow our party! pic.twitter.com/huG6cMLbJK — Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) May 9, 2014

Apparently, at his meeting with black pastors, the Senator actually told them Republicans need to stop trying to pass voter ID laws. That’s never going to happen, of course, but Paul will say anything.

Just sat down w @SenRandPaul after his meeting with black pastors. He says GOP needs to lay off voter ID. “It’s offending people.” — Jeremy W. Peters (@jwpetersNYT) May 9, 2014

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