The brewing GOP civil war over national security

A day after Rand Paul spoke out against drones, two of his Republican colleagues smack him down

Sen. Rand Paul may have unknowingly put his party in an awkward position.
(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Rand Paul's marathon, talk-til-you-drop filibuster has thrown Congress for a loop. The Kentucky senator's impassioned defense of civil liberties has jumbled the customary partisan lines, earning him enemies and allies alike from unexpected quarters. Liberals are dismayed that only one Democrat — Ron Wyden of Oregon — joined Paul in condemning Attorney General Eric Holder's suggestion that the president could, in certain circumstances, use a drone to target an American citizen on U.S. soil. Conservatives, on the other hand, have taken Paul to task for being naive and soft on defense.

That even the most liberal Democrats would hesitate to join Paul can be easily rationalized on a political level. President Obama has been having a tough time getting his nominees confirmed, and Democrats would surely not want to lend any legitimacy to the types of Republican stalling tactics that turned Chuck Hagel's recent confirmation process into a seemingly endless nightmare. It's certainly true, too, that Democrats have toned down the robust civil liberties rhetoric that partly defined their opposition to President Bush, again out of deference to a Democratic president who has ramped up some of Bush's counterterrorism policies while phasing out others.

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Ryu Spaeth

Ryu Spaeth is deputy editor at TheWeek.com. Follow him on Twitter.