After watching the video we posted of Rand Paul in 2009, Kilgore is ready to write him off:

Paul doesn’t just suggest the two-term Republican vice president was influenced by his tenure at Halliburton. He all but attributes the entire change in Bush 41 and Bush 43 policies towards the invasion and occupation of Iraq to Cheney’s personal enrichment by Halliburton. Had he gone ahead and accused Cheney of treason, it would have been entirely logical.

Cottle calls the video Rand’s “Michael Moore moment”:

Make no mistake: As someone who opposed the Iraq War, I enjoy watching Cheney get slapped around on the issue as much as the next gal. But it’s one thing to accuse the former veep of ideologically driven Machiavellianism; ’tis quite another to suggest that he did what he did out of loyalty to his Halliburton cronies. That is a far darker charge that, while already generating glee on the left, is also the kind of right-on-the-knife’s-edge-of-nuttiness conspiracy-spinning likely to bite Paul on the butt as he tries to capture his party’s nomination. …

As Paul moves closer and closer to the presidential trail, however, legions of journalists, oppo researchers, and even garden-variety voters will be rooting around in his past like hogs digging for truffles. These two speeches swiping at Cheney are unlikely to be the only colorful nuggets unearthed. Paul is a passionate, quirky pol who, until very recently, didn’t see much need to watch his tongue. Whatever else it’s doing to prep for 2016, Team Rand had better be bracing for Americans to learn about some of the senator’s fringier thoughts and theories.