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Rand Paul Threatens to Hold Federal Reserve Nominees Unless His Fed Audit Gets A Vote

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Photo Credit: Darren McCollester / Getty

Photo Credit: Darren McCollester / Getty

Sen. Rand Paul threatened Monday to place a hold on three nominees to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors unless his bill to subject the Fed to an audit gets a vote in the Senate.

It’s a replay of a maneuver the libertarian Republican and Fed critic attempted last year when current Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen’s nomination was under consideration.

In a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid, Paul wrote that “there is no more appropriate time to provide Congress with additional oversight and scrutiny of the actions and decisions of the central banks” than during the Senate’s consideration of the nominees, whom the Senate Banking Committee approved in late April. The candidates are Stanley Fischer, the former top Israeli central banker nominated to be the Fed’s vice chairman, former Obama Treasury official Lael Brainard, and Jerome Powell, a current member of the board seeking a second term.

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Ted Cruz Is Beating Rand Paul in the Tea Party Primary

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

Rand Paul has been methodically planning his run for president. Now Ted Cruz could come along and spoil the whole thing.

Both senators have a path to the Republican nomination that rests on the support of the Tea Party. And when forced to choose, that segment appears to prefer Cruz, whose speech to an activists’ gathering here over the weekend was the more enthusiastically received of the two.

Saturday’s Freedom Summit, billed as an early audition for potential 2016 candidates, provided a rare opportunity for right-wing activists to directly compare the Texan and the Kentuckian. The senators spoke practically back to back, and the crowd clearly loved them both. But Cruz’s theatrical delivery wowed them more than Paul’s comparatively cerebral appeal, and his rhetorical focus on conservative red meat found more favor than Paul’s detours into libertarian concerns.

“I like Rand Paul, I agree with a lot of what he says, but as far as charismatic leadership, I’ve got to go with Ted Cruz,” Robin Parkhurst, a state-government worker from Newbury, New Hampshire, said after hearing both men speak at the event. “Ted Cruz has the ability to deliver a message that resonates with people.”

Parkhurst was one of several at the summit to echo that sentiment. It was a dramatic demonstration of a dynamic political watchers have speculated about—Cruz’s ability to steal Paul’s thunder if both seek the 2016 GOP nomination.

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Rand Paul to California Republicans: Evolve, Adapt Or Die

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Photo Credit: Breitbart

Photo Credit: Breitbart

Evolve, adapt or die. That is the fate of our current Republican party. We must evolve as a party and find a way to attract millennials to the conservative movement or we will never succeed in realizing our ideals of individual freedom and freedom from government interference.

Initially, I received criticism from political pundits for speaking to non-traditional audiences. I was told it was a waste of time to reach out to these audiences, specifically students from both Howard University and University of California, Berkeley.

My response is this: I have never been one to watch the world go by without participating. I wake up each day hoping to make a difference.

You might be a Republican, Democrat or Independent. I speak before these audiences, not to preach or prescribe some special formula.

My intention is not to tell you what to be. You are more important than any political party or partisan pleadings. My intention is to motivate all Americans and defend their rights.

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Rand Paul Builds 50-State Network, Courts Mainstream Support for Presidential Bid

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Photo Credit: Ben Margot/AP

Photo Credit: Ben Margot/AP

Sen. Rand Paul has become the first Republican to assemble a network in all 50 states as a precursor to a 2016 presidential run, the latest sign that he is looking to build a more mainstream coalition than the largely ad hoc one that backed his father’s unsuccessful campaigns.

Paul’s move, which comes nearly two years before the primaries, also signals an effort to win the confidence of skeptical members of the Republican establishment, many of whom doubt that his appeal will translate beyond the libertarian base that was attracted to Ron Paul, a former Texas congressman.

The younger Paul’s nationwide organization, which counts more than 200 people, includes new supporters who have previously funded more traditional Republicans, along with longtime libertarian activists. Paul, 51, of Kentucky, has been courting Wall Street titans and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who donated to the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush and Mitt Romney, attending elite conclaves in Utah and elsewhere along with other GOP hopefuls.

For the rest of this year, his national team’s chief duties will be to take the lead in their respective states in planning fundraisers and meet-ups and helping Paul’s Washington-based advisers get a sense of where support is solid and where it’s not. This is essential in key early primary battlegrounds, such as Iowa and New Hampshire, and in areas rich in GOP donors, such as Dallas and Chicago.

“A national leadership team is an important step, and it’s a critical one for the movement going forward,” said Fritz Wenzel, Paul’s pollster. “Rand has tremendous momentum, and the formation of this team will guide him as he gets closer to a decision and [will] serve as a foundation for a campaign.”

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Rand Paul Slams Surveillance State: ‘Drunk With Power’

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Photo Credit: Win McNamee/Getty ImagesBy Shane Goldmacher.

Sen. Rand Paul delivered a blistering critique of America’s spy agencies on Wednesday, likening the surveillance state to the “dystopian nightmares” of literature and arguing that a growing number of his colleagues on Capitol Hill now fear an intelligence apparatus that is “drunk with power.”

“If you have a cellphone, you are under surveillance,” Paul warned an auditorium of more than 350 at the University of California at Berkeley, adding, “I believe what you do on your cellphone is none of their damned business.”

He demanded stronger oversight, calling for a new, bipartisan select committee to monitor the nation’s intelligence agencies. “It should watch the watchers,” he said.

Paul said the National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency have run amok. The intelligence world, he said, had wrongly interpreted that “equal protection means Americans should be spied upon equally.”

“I oppose this abuse of power with every ounce of energy I have,” Paul declared.

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Photo Credit: Aric Crabb/Bay Area News GroupRand Paul, Republican presidential hopeful, finds support in Berkeley, of all places

By Josh Richman.

Nobody should be surprised that Rand Paul got so warm a welcome Wednesday, even in a city whose name is often preceded in conversation by “The People’s Republic of…”

After all, the junior U.S. Senator from Kentucky and likely contender for 2016’s Republican presidential nomination is following in his father’s footsteps by drawing crowds of enthusiastic young followers, particularly on college campuses, wherever he goes.

And his policies — particularly criticizing government surveillance programs, avoiding military actions that aren’t vital to national security, and rethinking the war on drugs — draw voters from across the spectrum, including some of Berkeley’s famed lefties.

“He’s a serious contender,” said Bruce Cain, a political expert who directs Stanford University’s Bill Lane Center for the American West. “He can come to the Bay Area and plausibly look for money, which is not the case with Sarah Palin or some of the other people on the right.”

The younger Paul has found that money at a series of local fundraisers Tuesday and Wednesday, and tapped his young activist base with a speech Wednesday afternoon at UC-Berkeley’s International House.

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New Conservative Poll for Prez Surprises GOP Establishment

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When it comes to picking a presidential candidate for 2016, the GOP elite is having a hard time getting the grassroots to toe the establishment line.

Top Republican strategist Karl Rove, for example, has repeatedly praised Chris Christie, the Republican governor of New Jersey, as “a strong potential candidate in 2016,” whom Democrats fear will win the nomination.

And when other names gained popular attention, particularly attention among the so-called tea-party crowd, the man known as the “architect” was quick to criticize.

Rove, for example, blasted potential presidential hopeful Ted Cruz for not playing ball with the GOP establishment, just as the Texas senator’s name started to gain traction with Republican voters. Rove similarly opened fire on Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., for talking about Monica Lewinsky and potential Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the same breath…

But now a poll on one of the Internet’s top websites, the Drudge Report, reveals the ground troops just aren’t buying it.

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Rand Paul: GOP has ‘Real Opportunity’ to Attract Youth Voters

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Photo Credit: AP / Susan WalshSen. Rand Paul says his Republican Party is posed to attract more youth voters, a demographic the GOP has struggled to make inroads with in recent presidential elections.

The Kentucky lawmaker told “Fox News Sunday” that while President Obama won the youth vote by a 3-to-1 ratio, young Americans increasingly are disillusioned with the president.

Read more this story HERE.

Rand Paul Wins 2014 CPAC Straw Poll

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YouTubeBy Seth McLaughlin and Stephen Dinan

Sen. Rand Paul demolished his competition in the 2014 Washington Times/CPAC presidential preference straw poll on Saturday, winning 31 percent of the vote — nearly three times the total of second-place Sen. Ted Cruz.

The poll also found a strong plurality of attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference believe marijuana should be fully legalized, with 41 percent saying it’s time to change the law and tax it. Another 21 percent said it should be legalized only for medicinal purposes, while just 31 percent said it should remain illegal in all cases.

In the presidential poll, Mr. Cruz’s 11 percent was a big improvement for the freshman senator, who won just 4 percent in last year’s straw poll. Neurosurgeon Ben Carson was third with 9 percent and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was fourth with 8 percent in results that signal growing discontent with the GOP establishment in Washington.

Indeed, CPAC voters now have an unfavorable view of Republicans in Congress, with 51 percent saying they disapprove of the job the GOP is doing on Capitol Hill. Just last year the GOP had a 54 percent approval rating, and in 2012 they held a 70 percent approval rating.

But a series of tough votes over the last few months that saw Republican leaders work with President Obama to boost spending and raised the government’s debt limit have deepened a rift between the GOP’s leadership on Capitol Hill and conservative activists around the country.

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Rand Paul: Obama is Shredding the Constitution

By Cathy Burke

Sen. Rand Paul gave full voice to his libertarian principles Friday, telling a cheering Conservative Political Action Conference crowd “our freedom is in our DNA and in our founding document,” and urging young “liberty lovers” to “stand and be heard.”

The Kentucky Republican’s speech focused on personal freedom, the Fourth Amendment, and constitutional rights that he charged were being “shredded” by the Obama administration.

“Imagine when the White House is again occupied by a friend of liberty,” he said.

“You may think I’m talking about electing Republicans. I’m not … It isn’t good enough to pick the lesser of two evils, we need men and women of principle, conviction and action.”

Paul declared there was “a battle for the future of the entire country,” reminding conservatives that the the Fourth Amendment — prohibiting searches and seizures without probable cause — is as important as the Second Amendment, guaranteeing the right to bear arms.

“Will you, America’s next generation of liberty lovers, will you stand and be heard?” he asked to applause and whistles.

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Cruz and Lee at Top of Palin’s List if She Doesn’t Run in 2016

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Former Alaska Gov. and Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin closed out CPAC on Saturday and blasted the Republican establishment for marginalizing conservatives and the Tea Party after the historic 2010 elections in which the Tea Party gave House Republicans back their majority.

Palin, whose endorsement carries the most weight in GOP primaries, had a simple message for the “Beltway Boys”: “You didn’t build that. The Tea Party did.”

Palin closed out CPAC as the conference’s featured speaker for the second time in the last three years. Last year, Sen. Ted Cruz, who said he would not be in the U.S. Senate were it not for Palin, closed out the conference. Palin, whose endorsement is the most influential in Republican primaries, said that if she does not run for president in 2016, Cruz and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) are at the top of her list. And she had plenty of praise for Cruz on Saturday, thanking Texas for helping put Congress on “Cruz control.”

She said reinforcements have to be sent to Washington to fight for American workers who “are caught between the crony capitalism that benefits the politically collected and the income redistribution that benefits the politically favored.”

Palin also spoke about how conservatives are now pushing back in winning in the culture wars, as was evidenced by A&E’s reinstatement of Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson, and took on the Democrats’ phony “war on women” rhetoric by saying Democrats think women are cheap, and that all they need are cheap lines about birth control to get their votes. Palin asking the women in the audience to not be cheap political accessories and said one will not hear Democrats scream, “I am women, hear me roar,” because while donkeys bray, “only Mama Grizzlies can say, ‘Hear Me Roar!'”

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Rand Paul at CPAC: ‘What You Do on Your Cell Phone is None of their D_ _ _ _ed Business!’

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Photo Credit: Getty Images By David Martosko.

A sustained noise that could best be called a hoot and holler greeted Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul at the mention of his name, before he took the stage at Friday’s Conservative Political Action Conference and declared that cell phone records sought by government agencies were ‘none of their damned business!’

By the time he launched into his blue streak against the National Security Agency and quoted Pink Floyd to criticize President Barack Obama, the overflow crowd of thousands sounded like Beyonce concertgoers who had stumbled into the wrong ballroom.

The crowd simultaneously drank it in and shouted it out, making Paul the star of the Conservative Political Action Conference’s second day and giving him – by far – the event’s loudest applause.

‘If you have a cell phone, you are under surveillance’ from the federal government, Paul warned in his biggest moment. ‘I believe what you do on your cell phone is none of their damned business!’

One group of partisans shouted ‘President Paul! President Paul!’ as he spoke.

Read more this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesRand Paul Is the King of CPAC

By Sarah Mimms.

A year after his 13-hour filibuster won the hearts of young conservatives just a week ahead of the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference, the fandom for Sen. Rand Paul here has only grown.

Paul gave a speech Friday before the first standing-room-only crowd at the conference so far, asking a cheering audience, “Will you, America’s next generation of liberty-lovers, will you stand and be heard?”

Following his typical style, Paul’s speech focused largely on personal freedom, the Fourth Amendment, and rights he alleged are being usurped by the Obama administration, while avoiding the tricky topic of foreign policy, where his libertarian views are not as widely accepted by conservatives here.

Paul’s biggest applause line of the afternoon—the biggest applause line at CPAC so far—came during his discussion of what he perceived as President Obama’s failures, particularly at the National Security Agency. “As our voices rise in protest, the NSA monitors your every phone call. if you have a cell phone, you are under surveillance. I believe what you do on your cell phone is none of their damn business,” he said to loud cheers.

Paul continued an assault on Obama’s record, getting laughs when he asked how history will remember the president, and later quoting Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters in asking whether former supporters of the president now believed they had “trade[d] your heroes for your ghosts? … Did they get you to exchange a walk-on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?”

Read more this story HERE.

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‘Reunited’ Tea Party activists mount battle against IRS at CPAC

By Barnini Chakraborty.

The IRS targeting scandal may have faded from the headlines of major newspapers, but Tea Party groups renewed their battle cry against the tax agency on Thursday as the Conservative Political Action Conference got underway.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, kicked off CPAC — the annual conservative pilgrimage just outside the nation’s capital — by telling a crowd of the GOP faithful, “We need to abolish the IRS.”

“By virtue of your being here today, tomorrow each and every one of you is going to be audited by the IRS,” he said.

Following his speech, a six-person panel discussion, titled “IRS Targeting Scandal: Protecting the Voice of the People,” served as a refresher course for the standing-room-only crowd packed into the Maryland meeting room.

The purpose, panelists told FoxNews.com, was to come together and share stories about what they say are abusive targeting practices of conservative groups at the hands of the tax-collecting agency.

Read more this story HERE.