Rand Paul's crocodile tears

Today, the DSCC issued this press release about Rand Paul:

As Rand Paul creates a diversionary spectacle, one key point remains: he has yet to deny the charges against him. Today, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is calling on Paul to answer the two questions still on the table. Despite a 60-minute nationally televised debate, and countless news stories, Rand Paul has yet to deny any charge regarding his membership in an anti-Christian society, and/or his activities as part of the group.

1. Why were you a member of a secret society that called the Holy Bible “a hoax,” and was banned for mocking Christianity?
2. Under what circumstances is it acceptable to tie-up a woman and tell her to bow down before a false idol and say your god was an “Aqua Buddha”?

“Rand Paul’s theatrical performances may be distractions, but they are not substitutes for answers,” said DSCC Communications Director Eric Schultz. “The bottom line is Paul still hasn’t denied the charges against him. Paul should take time today to finally answer the two questions he has yet to address. To accommodate his strict restrictions for the press, we’ve even put the questions into writing.”

According to Paul’s fellow NoZe brother, Paul “would have been involved” in the production of the NoZe’s newsletter, which “often had a specifically anti-Christian tone” and would have been “familiar with its stance toward religion, including ‘a strong subversive anti-Christian strain.’” According to the brother, “Randy smoked pot” and “he made fun of Baptists.”

“We aspired to blasphemy,” said the brother, one of two alumni who confirmed Paul's membership, “and he flourished in it.”


GQ: Paul In College Was A Member Of Secret Society That Tormented School Officials And Mocked Religious Aspects. In August 2010, GQ reported: “According to several of his former Baylor classmates, he became a member of a secret society called the NoZe Brotherhood, which was a refuge for atypical Baylor students. […] Sort of a cross between Yale’s Skull & Bones and Harvard's Lampoon, the NoZe existed to torment the Baylor administration, which it accomplished through pranks and its satirical newspaper The Rope. The group especially enjoyed tweaking the school's religiosity.” [GQ, 8/09/10]

Paul’s Secret Society Was Involved In Anti-Religious And “Lewd” Pranks. “The NoZe Brothers would perform ‘Christian’ songs like ‘Rock Around the Cross’; they'd parade around campus carrying a giant picture of Anita Bryant with a large hole cut out of her mouth after the former beauty queen proclaimed oral sex sinful; and they'd run ads for a Waco strip club on the back page of The Rope. In 1978, the Baylor administration became so fed up with the NoZe that it suspended the group from campus for being, in the words of Baylor's president at the time, ‘lewd, crude, and grossly sacrilegious.’ During Paul's three years at Baylor, according to former NoZe Brothers, if the administration discovered a student was a member of the NoZe, the punishment was automatic expulsion.” [GQ, 8/09/10]

Paul Took Woman, Blindfolded Her, Told Her To Smoke Pot And Made Her Worship “Aqua Buddha.” Around 1983, Paul and a fellow NoZe brother visited 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.” She continued: “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.” [GQ, 8/09/10]

GQ: We Gave Paul The Chance To Refute The Story – And He Hasn’t. Politico wrote that GQ’s editor said that Paul had never denied that night had occurred. Jim Nelson, GQ's editor in chief, defended the story in a statement: “We’ve vetted, researched, and exhaustively fact-checked Jason Zengerle’s reporting on Rand Paul’s college days, we stand by the story, and we gave the Paul campaign every opportunity to refute it. We notice that they have not, in fact, refuted it.” [Politico, 8/09/10]

Politico: Paul’s Camp Repeated “Non-Denial Denial” Of GQ Story. After GQ published allegations Paul kidnapped a friend and made her smoke pot, Politico’s Ben Smith reached out to Paul’s campaign for comment. Smith said they offered another “non-denial denial.” Smith wrote: “Paul spokesman Jesse Benton didn't respond directly to Zengerle's question about the incident; I've e-mailed him to ask whether that story is true, and am also trying to reach the accuser. UPDATE: Benton repeated his non-denial to me in an e-mail, adding: ‘We'll leave National Enquirer-type stories about his teenage years to the tabloids where they belong.’” [Politico, 8/10/10]

Paul’s College Group Insulted Christianity And Was Eventually Banned. In October 2010, Politico reported: “Issues of the newsletter published by Paul's secret society, the NoZe Brotherhood, during his time at Baylor reveal a more specific political problem for the Kentucky Republican: The group's work often had a specifically anti-Christian tone, as it made fun of the Baptist college's faith-based orientation. […] The NoZe Brotherhood, as the group was called, was formally banned by Baylor two years before Paul arrived on the grounds of ‘sacrilege,’ the university president said at the time. ‘They had 'made fun of not only the Baptist religion, but Christianity and Christ,'’ President Herbert Reynolds told the student newspaper, ‘The Lariat.’” [Politico, 10/12/10]

Paul Did Not Deny the Story. Paul's spokesman, Jesse Benton, responded to the report by assailing Paul's Democratic foe – but did not deny the story. "So now the Democrats are shopping stories about 30-year-old college articles that aren't even attributed to Rand?" [Politico, 10/12/10]