"They're precisely the same people who are unwilling to cut the spending, and their 'Gimme, gimme, gimme — give me all my Sandy money now.'" Paul said, referring to federal funding after the hurricane last year. "Those are the people who are bankrupting the government and not letting enough money be left over for national defense."

So Rand Paul is in a bit of an argument with Republicans like New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and and New York Congressman Peter King over warrantless surveillance. Paul says he's against it, and they say they're for it, which in theory would say something good about Rand Paul ... except that in order to defend his position, Paul found himself resorting to an inane ad hominem attack to defend his position:So in order to defend himself on privacy issues, Rand Paul picks the one thing on which neither Chris Christie nor Peter King deserve criticism—seeking aide for constituents who were devastated by Hurricane Sandy. And even worse, he says their "Gimme, gimme, gimme" attitude is stealing money from the defense establishment. I guess that's because everybody knows, the most important national security issue we face is an underfunded military.

It's a perfect microcosm of the GOP civil war. On the one hand, you've got guys like Christie and King saying that people who oppose warrantless surveillance are basically aiding and abetting terrorists. And then on the other side you've got guys like Rand Paul saying that the the Christie's and Paul's of the world are just money grubbers trying to rob the defense budget by asking for emergency aid from the Federal government.

Both sides end up looking terrible. And in the end, about the only good thing you can say about Rand Paul is that he's a complete hypocrite, because after storms hit Kentucky last year, he wrote a letter to President Obama asking for this:



U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Rand Paul sent a letter to President Obama on Monday morning supporting Governor Steve Beshear’s request for a major disaster declaration for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. In the letter to the President, the Senators wrote: “Timely and serious consideration of the Governor’s disaster declaration request on your part would aid Kentucky communities and families so severely affected by this most recent disaster.”

Gimme, gimme, gimme, indeed.