United States Senator Rand Paul has recently turned even more rancid than usual. His bizarre repeated attacks on Bill Clinton over twenty-year-old sexual misbehavior, in order to attack Hillary Clinton through her husband, is despicable. It is also very ineffective, as most likely it will make the public feel sympathy for Hillary, without doing any damage to Bill, who is well-liked.
It is truly said that Old News is No News, and this particular old news is, indeed, ancient history. Our basic laws prohibit double jeopardy, and while that standard may not strictly apply in this instance, it surely applies in principle. Think: beating a dead horse. There was enough overkill after the bloodthirsty Republicans in Congress at that time impeached Bill Clinton -- but, even so, he was acquitted. Why, then, is Rand Paul so determined to keep raising the same tried and trite issue, ad nauseam?
Well, it seems that the Democrats have correctly pointed out the Republican "War on Women" -- a war which includes challenging their rights to control their own bodies, secure contraception, demand equal pay for equal work, object to the infamous "glass ceiling," and in general stand up for their rights. America may have come a long way, but not far enough to insure sexual equality. It was during the last Presidential Election that Republican Candidate Mitt Romney boasted about his "binders of women" when it came to hiring practices as Governor of Massachusetts -- "blinders of women" would undoubtedly have been a more apt term. Rand Paul senses the vulnerability of Republican leaders,and their party, on so many women's issues -- his response is to take an end run by attacking the Clintons, particularly Bill Clinton, who indeed is not even running for any public office.
Ironically, by lumping the Clintons together, Rand Paul demonstrates exactly the point which Democrats are making; women are not quite seen as people by many Republican leaders, just as Hillary Clinton is not seen as a leader separate and apart from her husband, the former president. Rand Paul thinks that, by attacking Bill, he is also indeed repudiating Hillary as a viable presidential candidate. Republicans often have trouble seeing women as independent of their husbands or significant others. Rand Paul seems to have trouble seeing Hillary Clinton as a viable presidential candidate in her own right. He is likely to be given a much-needed lesson in the error of his ways by Hillary Clinton in 2016.
