The Louisville Courier-Journal has both an editorial and one of their columnists excoriating Senator Rand Paul’s actions with regards to him catching the coronavirus. I wish more Kentuckians paid attention to the Courier-Journal though, but I will take any of the state newspapers taking a Republican politician to task. Most of the time, the local and state media only cares about “If it bleeds, it leads” and sports. Seems a pandemic that can kill focuses the collective minds of our local and state media outlets. And Rand Paul is coming up short when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic.

First up, Joseph Gerth goes into the selfishness that undergirds all of Rand Paul’s actions: libertarianism. After describing Rand Paul’s reckless disregard for others while he awaited his coronavirus test results, Gerth basically explains that Paul is just a selfish SOB with a political “philisophy” covering up this vice.

This really shouldn’t surprise any of us. It falls right in line with the second-rate political philosophy he ripped off from second-rate author Ayn Rand — a philosophy that puts one’s own personal desires and individual wants above all else… Spreading the potentially deadly virus among a population that is most at risk of dying from it. According to the Congressional Research Service, the average U.S. senator is 62.9 years old. It’s the oldest U.S. Senate in history, and it puts the average senator well over the age of 60, at which point the coronavirus becomes much more lethal. It’s hard to imagine a U.S. Senate headed by Mitch McConnell being more toxic than it already was, but congratulations Rand. You did it. Now, you’ve got two other Republican members of the Senate in self-quarantine, one of whom is 73-year-old Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah. Romney’s wife, Ann, is 70 and has multiple sclerosis, which could put her at even greater risk. And Paul subjected Romney and the others to this after he was worried enough about himself to get the test, but not worried enough about others to warn them? Who does that? Obviously, someone who is more worried about their individual right to do whatever the hell they want and doesn't give a damn about the people they might harm.

Emboldened is mine.

This is why Rand Paul is receiving so much attention. He epitomizes the worst in humans, next to Donald Trump that is. And it is also why it is hard to work up much sympathy for his present plight.

Gerth rightly points out that Paul has been an asshole on the other coronavirus bills passed by Congress.

It’s the same type of person who would block funding after national disasters in an attempt to make some lame point about deficit spending, and then would vote for tax cuts for the wealthy that would put the country into even greater deficit spending. It’s the same type of person who looks up to Ayn Rand's objectivism philosophy — a philosophy Paul ascribes to — that says a person’s “own happiness" is "the moral purpose of his life.”

And when Rand Paul got heat for his selfishness and recklessness, he whined that he deserved “compassion.” This earned him an editoral rebuke from the Courier-Journal.

Editorial: Rand Paul's actions after coronavirus test were unacceptable and disgraceful

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Shame on you, Rand Paul. What you did — no, what you didn’t do — was irresponsible. Even reprehensible. You were concerned enough about your own health to get tested for the coronavirus, but you didn’t care enough about other people to self-quarantine until you got the results. Instead, you carried on business as usual, cavorting with fellow senators over lunch and reportedly working out in the Senate gym and swimming in the Senate pool. When the story erupted Sunday, minutes after you told everyone on Twitter that you tested positive, you didn’t respond to tough questions that surfaced among your colleagues in Washington and your constituents here in Kentucky. On Monday, you begged for compassion. “The broader the testing and the less finger-pointing we have, the better,” you said. “Perhaps it is too much to ask that we simply have compassion for our fellow Americans who are sick or fearful of becoming so,” you said. No apologies. No acknowledgement that you made a mistake. This isn’t leadership, Rand Paul.

And the editorial points out that Paul has not apologized to the others he exposed to the coronavirus, and Rand Paul knew better because he is supposedly a doctor. Yeah, but he is one selfish doctor though.