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Rand Paul is still ducking the core issue
Maybe I'm wrong. But I think people still aren't focused enough on the core issue at the heart of the controversy over Rand Paul's comments about the Civil Rights Act.

Specifically: Paul, the darling of the Tea Partyers and one of the highest profile GOP Senate candidates in the country, cannot bring himself to say -- clearly and unequivocally -- that the Federal government should have the power to prohibit private businesses from discriminating on the basis of skin color, religion, or national origin.

Sure, Paul has now said he would have voted for the Civil Rights Act. And his spokesman has clarified under questioning that, yes, Paul believes the Federal government should have this power.

But Paul himself can't manage to say this. He visibly doesn't want to say this. It's remarkable.

Paul had a chance this morning on ABC News to clarify his views on the proper role of Federal power vis-a-vis discrimination by private entities and institutions. He conspicuously declined to do so.

During that remarkable appearance, George Stephanopoulos read aloud from that 2002 letter Paul wrote attacking the Fair Housing Act, in which he said "a free society will abide unofficial, private discrimination" and added that discrimination should not be "prohibited for private entities."

Pressed repeatedly on whether he stuck by those views, Paul refused to answer.

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Barely three months into his tenure, Brown has fallen out of favor with his onetime Tea Party backers, and is starting to looking like something of a silver lining for Democrats. In a no-less symbolic moment, Brown declined an invitation to appear at a Tea Party rally in Boston this week headlined by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Brown's recent vote in favor of a Democrat-sponsored spending bill inspired thousands of conservatives to direct a firehose of anger at the newly-minted Senator via social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. The sudden turn against Brown is just one of a few current internal squabbles on the right that could distract the conservative movement's focus away from what's been its main focus over the past year: opposing the efforts by President Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress to expand the role of government. Explaining his actions in a Facebook wall post, Brown wrote:

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“I came to Washington to be an independent voice, to put politics aside, and to do everything in my power to help create jobs for Massachusetts families, this Senate jobs bill is not perfect. I wish the tax cuts were deeper and broader, but I am voting for it because it contains measures that will help put people back t...o work. ... I hope for improvements in that process going forward."

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The post generated thousands of comments and photoshopped images in response. Branded "Benedict Brown" by some in an ode to the famous turncoat of the Revolutionary War, the outpouring of anti-Scott Brown sentiment on the Internet was so far and wide.

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The four other GOP senators who broke ranks — Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, George Voinovich of Ohio and Christopher "Kit" Bond of Missouri — also were criticized on Tuesday.

But Brown was the big target on conservative Web sites, talk shows and even the Facebook page his campaign has promoted as an example of his new-media savvy.
"We campaigned for you. We donated to your campaign. And you turned on us like every other RINO," said one writer, using the initials for "Republican-In-Name-Only."

The conservative-tilting Drudge Report colored a photo of Brown on its home page in scarlet.

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