HolyCoast: Today's Paulnut Conspiracy Theory - Rand Paul Was Targeted by Janet Napolitano and the TSA
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Today's Paulnut Conspiracy Theory - Rand Paul Was Targeted by Janet Napolitano and the TSA

No, he wasn't, though some folks on Facebook clearly think that's what happened.  I saw this note from one guy:
Napalitano's TSA clearly targeted Rand Paul and other conservatives. Don't lie TSA jackboots.
In case you missed it, Sen. Rand Paul, son of personality cult leader Rep. Ron Paul, had a run-in with the TSA at the Nashville Airport yesterday.
Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul told The Daily Caller that being “detained” by the Transportation Security Administration at the Nashville airport Monday was a major ordeal that underscores flaws in TSA’s procedures that affect tens of millions of passengers every year.

“It was a big headache,” Paul said in a phone interview. “I missed my speech here. I was supposed to speak to the Right to Life March, probably the biggest audience I’ll get to speak to, and I missed it.”

The White House, through spokesman Jay Carney, defended the TSA’s actions during Monday’s press briefing by arguing that Paul wasn’t technically “detained.”

“Let’s be clear,” Carney said. “The passenger was not detained. He was escorted out of the area by local law-enforcement.”

But Sen. Paul told TheDC that he certainly felt like he was detained. “If you’re told you can’t leave, does that count as detention?” Paul asked.

“I tried to leave the cubicle to speak to one of the TSA people and I was barked at: ‘Do not leave the cubicle!’ So, that, to me sounds like I’m being asked not to leave the cubicle. It sounds a little bit like I’m being detained.”
He clearly was detained by the TSA and that poses a number of problems because according to the Constitution members of the House or Senate cannot be arrested or detained (except under very specific circumstances) while en route or returning from a session of Congress. Paul was on his way back to a Senate session scheduled to begin that afternoon, and also was to speak at the March for Life in Washington. His detention caused him to miss that speech.

The Paulnuts are claiming he was targeted by Janet Napolitano to either keep him from the anti-abortion march, or just to harass him for his anti-big government policies. Neither are true. Paul simply exercised what he felt were his rights against an overly intrusive government and hilarity ensued.

I'm glad this happened because it's helpful when a prominent citizen can so eloquently point out the fallacy of our current airport security system, one that treats every passenger like a terrorist...except those most likely to be terrorists.  However, had this happened to a Dem Senator I don't think the White House would have been so quick to give the TSA a pass.

2 comments:

Larry said...

“Do not leave the cubicle!” is not being ASKED, as Senator Paul put it. That is an order. Statements like that from TSA are usually followed by Taser darts if you fail to obey them -as a man at Sacramento International Airport recently found out.

bpitas said...

Based on what I saw in an interview with Rand last night, they didn't know that he was a senator at the time. Furthermore, once they found out, they tried to usher him to the front of the line for his second flight, but he chose to wait in line with everyone else because he doesn't think Feds should get any special treatment. That's a class act!