Rand Paul Threatens Showdown with GOP Heads

Rand Paul has already started to make news, promising to "challenge" Sen. Mitch McConnell and the GOP leadership in the next Congress.

Rand Paul has already started to make news before the polls have even closed in Kentucky with an interview he gave to CNN American Morning where he announced his intention to “challenge” Sen. Mitch McConnell and the Republican leadership on their agenda in the next Congress. It’s a sign of how far Paul has come from May of 2010 when McConnell tersely remarked that Paul had “said quite enough for the time being” during the scandal over Paul’s comments on the Civil Rights Act.

It is worth reiterating again that after McConnell endorsed Paul’s opponent in the primary, that Sen. Jim DeMint endorsed Paul the next day, something that all parties remember.

What is also news-worthy about the interview is that it shows how Paul is willing to be open and blunt about his radical vision of government now that the election seems certain to go his way. His comments about his willingness to cooperate on the defense budget have also been under-reported.

In the interview (which can be viewed here) Paul makes a number of statements that reveal his grand, sweeping vision for completely overhauling the United States government. He begins by stating that he wants to try and change “the whole government” before proposing the balanced budget amendment as a solution.

His structural critique extends to “bureaucrats [who are] writing laws” and calls for a sunset of “all regulations” unless they are approved by Congress.

Paul acknowledged that this won’t work and so began speaking about where he can compromise with Democrats, but this begs the question of why he wants to engage in the theatrics of an amendment that can’t succeed.

When pressed on where he could hope to find compromise despite coming in with a very strong agenda, Paul was about to quickly point out an area he would be willing to cooperate with Democrats on, defense spending:

“I do believe national defense is the most important thing the federal government does, but I do think there is waste in the military budget, and I will be one of those who will reach across the aisle to the Democrats and say ‘we will tackle waste throughout the length and breadth of the budget.”

Paul’s critique that government can only be fixed by radically changing it has not been prominently displayed on the campaign trail, but other reporting has confirmed that this is what he truly believes. Jason Zengerle’s report on Rand Paul for GQ showed that Rand Paul was aware that his views of government could be seen as radical, which was why he was resisting the temptation talk to the press to explain his views:

Unlike some of the prominent Tea Party leaders he's routinely lumped in with, Paul is not an idiot. When I asked a friend of his to characterize Paul's conversations with Sarah Palin, who provided him with an early endorsement, the friend replied: "Brief." Paul doesn't avoid the press because, like Sharron Angle, he's afraid of revealing his ignorance; rather, he does so because he's afraid he'll be unable to resist the temptation to prove how smart he is.

With Paul expected to win tonight, it seems that he is more willing to be open about his political views.

(The Paul campaign did not immediately return a request for comment.)

Follow Noah on Twitter: @noahkgreen