Democracy Has Prevailed.

August 9, 2010

Rand Paul does not deny kidnapping young woman


Liberty for me, but not for thee.

Via GQ:
The strangest episode of Paul's time at Baylor occurred one afternoon in 1983 (although memories about all of these events are understandably a bit hazy, so the date might be slightly off), when he and a NoZe brother paid a visit to a female student who was one of Paul's teammates on the Baylor swim team. According to this woman, who requested anonymity because of her current job as a clinical psychologist, "He and Randy came to my house, they knocked on my door, and then they blindfolded me, tied me up, and put me in their car. They took me to their apartment and tried to force me to take bong hits. They'd been smoking pot." After the woman refused to smoke with them, Paul and his friend put her back in their car and drove to the countryside outside of Waco, where they stopped near a creek. "They told me their god was 'Aqua Buddha' and that I needed to bow down and worship him," the woman recalls. "They blindfolded me and made me bow down to 'Aqua Buddha' in the creek. I had to say, 'I worship you Aqua Buddha, I worship you.' At Baylor, there were people actively going around trying to save you and we had to go to chapel, so worshiping idols was a big no-no."

Nearly 30 years later, the woman is still trying to make sense of that afternoon. "They never hurt me, they never did anything wrong, but the whole thing was kind of sadistic. They were messing with my mind. It was some kind of joke." She hadn't actually realized that Paul wound up leaving Baylor early. "I just know I never saw Randy after that—for understandable reasons, I think."

When I asked Benton late last week if Paul remembered any of these episodes from his Baylor days, he replied in an email: "During his time at Baylor, Dr. Paul competed on the swim team and was an active member of Young Conservatives of Texas."
And, via CBS:
Benton tells Slate, "We are investigating all our options -- including legal ones. We will not tolerate drive-by journalism by a writer with a leftist agenda."

First, that would be two non-denials by his campaign. I mean, how hard would it be to say something like, "Rand Paul never blindfolded and tied up a woman and tried to force her to smoke pot"?

Second, someone who would blindfold and tie up a woman and try to force her to smoke pot is a sick, twisted, sadistic piece of shit.

Third, why should anyone be surprised that an extreme anti-choicer would be interested in controlling a woman's body (for fun or profit)?

Fourth, I heard Chuck Todd on MSNBC refer to this as a "quirky" story.

(h/t to Spork, TPM.)
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12 comments:

spork_incident said...

Kidnaping and, what, false imprisonment are "quirky"?

The view from 30,000 feet is mighty curious. Yes it is.


.

Maria said...

Todd was good as a numbers guy before joining MSNBC. How that makes him qualified to analyze anything else is a mystery.

spork_incident said...

I supported naming Todd to replace Russert. Little did I know.

I want to say there's something in the water down there but, really, it's sheer careerism.


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Maria said...

Speaking of Russert, if you're looking for spectacularly clueless and shallow "reporting" there's always his son Luke. The only time I've heard him say anything insightful was as a guest on Top Chef, but then I imagine he's had actual preparation for judging fine dining in top DC restaurants.

Conservative Mountaineer said...

Well, that settles it.. Rand Paul is unqualified for anything because someone came foreward after 30 years and remembered something that 'supposedly' happened 30 years ago... as opposed to Barack Hussein Obama, who MUST be ultimately qualified, because NO ONE can rememeber BHO in college or is willing to come forward to say such. Me thinks Barack Hussein Obama took a few more bong hits in college than Rand Paul. I smell a hit job from an anonmyous (possible) liberal that (possibly) just received an infusion of cash. Just sayin'.

BTW, I'm not a Rand Paul supporter.. he's sorta nutty on some issues (not economics which he is sound), just not as nutty as his Father. It's the double standard I have have a problem with.

EdHeath said...

So, CM, "Just sayin'" is code for making things up? As far as Obama's college years:

http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jan/29/local/me-oxy29

http://bwog.net/2010/04/06/a-new-look-at-obamas-columbia-year

http://www.factcheck.org/2010/02/obama-at-columbia-university/

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/20/recollections-of-obamas-ex-roommate/

And yes, Obama has already admitted drug use in high school and college.

Casting doubt on this woman's story with out anything to back up your doubt sounds like exactly what typical conservatives do (like Breitbart, for example). You actually think you can make up stories about(possible) liberals and (possible) money and it will somehow miraculously become true?

"Just sayin'" has already become a joke in cartoons, just like Breitbart, Beck and Limbaugh are caricatures of journalists. Every time you use the phrase, you signal you have no basis in fact for what you are saying.

rich10e said...

The Hill Blog Briefing Room
Rand Paul denies college kidnapping, threatens to sue GQ
By Eric Zimmermann - 08/10/10 05:05 PM ET

Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul denied Tuesday that he once kidnapped a fellow student in college and attempted to force her to smoke marijuana.

The anecdote was reported by Jason Zengerle in GQ this week.

“I think I would remember if I kidnapped someone, and I don’t remember. And I absolutely deny kidnapping anyone ever," Paul told Fox News's "Your World with Neil Cavuto."

EdHeath said...

Well, if anyone can scare up this other guy that was supposed to have been involved, maybe we'll find out more.

Social Justice NPC Anti-Paladin™ said...

Retraction TIME!
Or are you going with the Nutroots theory that they got to her?

Exclusive: Rand Paul's accuser clarifies "kidnapping"

The woman who sparked a national firestorm by recounting Rand Paul's
youthful indiscretions to GQ magazine is now clarifying her account: She says she was not kidnapped nor forced to do drugs by Paul.

But she reiterated other odd aspects of her earlier story, including her claim that Paul and another college friend blindfolded her, tied her up, and told her to smoke pot and worship the "Aqua Buddha," even if they didn't physically force her to do these things.

(Slate: Racist 'Rand fan' actually Obama supporter)

The woman -- who was made available to me for an interview by GQ reporter Jason Zengerle in response to the Paul campaign's denunciations of his article -- said she didn't mean to imply that she was kidnapped "in a legal sense."

"The whole thing has been blown out of proportion," she told me. "They didn't force me, they didn't make me. They were creating this drama: `We're messing with you.'"

The woman said that much of the subsequent coverage of her allegations missed a key nuance: As a participant in a college ritual, where lines between acquiescence and victimization are often blurry, she was largely playing along with the notion that she was being forced to follow Paul's orders.

"I went along because they were my friends," she said. "There was an implicit degree of cooperation in the whole thing. I felt like I was being hazed."

That characterization of events supports Paul's claim that, as he told Fox News yesterday, "No, I never was involved with kidnapping. No, I never was involved with forcibly drugging people."

Social Justice NPC Anti-Paladin™ said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
EdHeath said...

Well, I have to say I think HTTT is right as far as the law goes. Even in the GQ article the woman made it sound more like a school boy prank than any actual threat of violence. I think it's telling that she apparently considered Rand Paul a friend before the incident, but not after (as far as I can tell). Still, this sounds like it falls into stupid college prank category, with creepy overtones.

And Rand Paul has said silly things much more recently, which is more interesting anyway.

rich10e said...

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