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A tea party conservative on a national stage, Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul of Kentucky labored Thursday to explain remarks suggesting businesses be allowed to deny service to blacks without fear of federal interference, declaring, "I abhor racial discrimination."

Paul told CNN he would have voted for the 1964 Civil Rights Act, a statement he declined to make one day earlier.

On Wednesday, Paul expressed support for the act's provisions banning discrimination in public facilities, but he had misgivings about extending the same requirement to private businesses _ then or now.

"u]Do you think that a private business has the right to say we don't serve black people?" he was asked by MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Wednesday.

"Yes. I'm not in favor of any discrimination of any form," Paul said at the beginning of a lengthy answer in which he likened the question to one about limiting freedom of speech for racists. "I don't want to be associated with those people, but I also don't want to limit their speech in any way in the sense that we tolerate boorish and uncivilized behavior because that's one of the things freedom requires."

The issue arose little more than 24 hours after the political novice swept to a landslide Republican primary victory, defeating a rival recruited by Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell and others who feared Paul's brand of conservatism might make him unelectable in the fall. The seat is currently held by retiring Republican Sen. Jim Bunning, and the party can ill afford to lose it if it is to seriously challenge Democratic control in the fall.

His Democratic rival, Jack Conway, the Kentucky attorney general, criticized his rival's comments on race, saying Paul has a "narrow political philosophy that has dangerous consequences for working families, veterans, students, the disabled and those without a voice in the halls of power."

Paul blamed the 24-hour news cycle for the controversy, a point his father, Rep. Ron Paul, emphasized.

In a sometimes testy exchange with reporters in the Capitol, he said liberals were treating his son unfairly and reporters were hoping to stop his political momentum with a "gotcha" based on out-of-context remarks.

"Making something out of nothing is just not fair," he said.

In an NPR interview on Wednesday, he was asked about federal regulation of mining and oil drilling industries, both of which have come under intense scrutiny since the explosion of a platform rig in the Gulf of Mexico unleashed a massive oil spill.

"I think that most manufacturing and mining should be under the purview of state authorities," he responded.

Given the ease with which Paul won the primary, coupled with the concern McConnell and others expressed about his ability to win statewide, it is not clear what the impact of the controversial stands and comments may be on the fall campaign.

Speaking privately, Republican strategists say that however troublesome Paul's comments are to some, his supporters could view them as fresh motivation for voting him into Congress. On the other hand, they say, other voters who routinely support GOP candidates could be repelled by his views, and either stay home on Election Day or support Conway instead.

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