Paul plans to stump for Booker's opponent in New Jersey. | AP Photos Rand Paul mocks Cory Booker

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul took a dim view of Newark Mayor Cory Booker on the eve of a planned trip to New Jersey to stump against the Democratic Senate candidate.

Explaining his decision to campaign for Republican nominee Steve Lonegan on Friday, Paul jabbed at Booker as a politician with “an imaginary friend with imaginary problems” — an allusion to stories Booker has told about a Newark drug lord named “T-Bone,” whom he has said he befriended.


Booker has described “T-Bone” as an “archetype” of Newark, and according to the conservative National Review the Democrat has told at least one associate that “T-Bone” is a composite figure.

“If Cory will introduce me to T-Bone when I get there, I’d love to meet T-Bone. If T-Bone’s not real, maybe we need to get Mr. Booker to talk about real problems,” Paul told POLITICO in an interview.

( QUIZ: Do you know Cory Booker?)

The senator described Lonegan, who is far behind Booker in the polls for next month’s special election, as a solid conservative and “defender of the Fourth Amendment” who impressed Paul during a visit to Washington over the summer.

Booker spokesman Kevin Griffis responded to Paul’s comments with a broadside at Lonegan, saying that the former Bogota mayor would “raise taxes on the working and middle classes and privatize Social Security, and he even opposed Hurricane Sandy aid.

“As mayor and as a leader of the Tea Party in New Jersey, Mr. Lonegan has only proven that he cares about the plight of the ultra-wealthy and big corporations,” Griffis said.

POLITICO reported Paul’s plans to campaign for Lonegan earlier this month: His trip will make Paul one of precious few national GOP figures to get involved in the lopsided New Jersey Senate race. Booker and Lonegan are vying to succeed the late Frank Lautenberg.

Paul’s intended trip comes only days after President Barack Obama addressed the nation about the situation in Syria, embracing the prospect of a diplomatic solution but arguing that the United States must be prepared to act with military force — an option the Republican has vociferously opposed.

( QUIZ: Do you know Rand Paul?)

The former Bowling Green ophthalmologist said he’s hopeful that military force is a “dead letter” at this point, since the various countries involved — including Syrian-ally Russia — have an interest in resolving the uproar of Bashar Assad’s use of chemical weapons without a “cataclysmic overthrow” of the Syrian dictator.

“I think the thing that [Obama] did make a good case for is that it is horrific,” Paul said of the slaughter in Syria. “I don’t think he’s making the case that there’s an American interest there or that the bombing will do anything.”

According to Paul, even the president acknowledged the uphill persuasion battle he faces, during a meeting with senators: “Even when he had lunch with us, he said he didn’t think, as good a public speaker as he was, that he could get the public with him.”

The New Jersey campaign swing will bring Paul onto the home turf of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a fellow GOP rock star with whom Paul has clashed on issues of national security. Paul invited Christie to join him at Lonegan’s side but Christie declined, citing his wife’s birthday.

Paul joked that he was disappointed by Christie’s absence: “I really, really, really want to have a beer with him. … No, we just thought since I was going up there, we’d ask him.”

“We’ll break bread at some point in time,” Paul added. “I’m a big believer in trying to defuse a situation rather than make it worse.”

Speaking to POLITICO by phone on the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Paul said he drew two lessons from the memory of Sept. 11, 2001.

He described one lesson as an “external” one: “The lesson from 9/11 is that we are a big and powerful country that is reluctant to go to war, but if you attack us, if you decide to attack our soldiers, our American interests anywhere in the world … we will respond with overwhelming force.”

“The internal lesson, I think, is a little more complicated,” he said. “We have to try to defend ourselves, but we have to defend ourselves in a way that’s consistent with our Constitution and our individual liberties.”