The guy who hates government intervention so much that he’d prefer it if the Civil Rights Act and the Federal Housing Act didn’t force businesses to treat black people like people may face a challenge by a Libertarian candidate in the Kentucky Senate race this fall, according to Libertarian Vice-Chairman Joshua Koch. “He had gone from being an outsider candidate to a tea party candidate to an establishment candidate in the past nine months,” Koch says. “It’s a complete identity crisis. I’ve never seen anything like it.” We would hardly call Paul an establishment candidate, but we guess everything’s relative.

Koch highlights Paul’s support for a constitutional ban on abortion, and his opposition to gay marriage, as evidence that he’s not actually as libertarian as he seems — which makes sense. Strange, how Paul’s beliefs just can’t allow him to support government-mandated equal treatment of racial minorities, as painful as that is for him, but it’s cool if the government decides which individuals can marry. “America can prosper, preserve personal liberty, and repel national security threats without intruding into the personal lives of its citizens,” the “Privacy and Liberty” section of his website reads. Except gays!

Rand Paul faces possible challenge, staff shake-up [AP via Yahoo]