Dr. James Dobson, founder and former chairman of Focus on the Family, has endorsed Rand Paul, son of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), in the race to succeed retiring Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.). The irony of it is that Dobson had formerly endorsed Paul’s opponent, Trey Grayson, because, as he put it, “Senior members of the GOP told me Dr. Paul is pro-choice and that he opposes many conservative perspectives.”
Paul is, in fact, simply a federalist with regard to abortion, just as his father is. That is, he believes that abortion is an issue to be dealt with at the state level, as it was prior to Roe v. Wade. Constitutionally speaking, Paul is right on the money: Since regulating abortion is not one of the federal government’s enumerated powers, then by the explicit wording of the Tenth Amendment, it is “reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Dobson also found that Paul “opposes earmarking and supports Israel. He identifies with the Tea Party movement and believes in home schooling.” Concludes the good doctor: “Sounds like my kind of man.”
It’s unfortunate that Dobson had to do an end run around the Republican Party bosses — he checked with “other OB/GYN’s in Kentucky whom” he trusts and “interview[ed] the candidate himself” — to find out the truth about Paul. But there’s a reason for that: The GOP is deathly afraid of ending up with another Paul in Washington.
For years Ron Paul was a lone, fairly unknown voice in the wilderness who could safely be ignored by the party. His influence was so small that then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich could afford to create the “Ron Paul exemption,” whereby Paul was excluded from the usual party arm-twisting to support a typically un-conservative Gingrichian budget.
Since his 2008 presidential run, however, the senior Paul’s profile and corresponding influence have grown immensely, and that has the GOP hierarchy worried. Thus, they are pulling out all the stops to prevent the junior Paul from crossing the Potomac.
Grayson had already been endorsed by a contingent of neoconservative and liberal Republican heavy-hitters, including Rudy Giuliani, Dick Cheney, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), proving his appeal to the party bosses. Then the higher-ups deliberately lied to Dobson about Rand Paul’s positions in order to obtain his endorsement for Grayson. Clearly they do not want Paul to join his father in Washington. Two clean men in that cesspool might, by contrast, make the rest of them seem noticeably odiferous.
Kudos to Dobson for making the effort, albeit belatedly, to discover the truth about Rand Paul and for admitting he’d been had and switching his endorsement accordingly. Shame on the Republican Party for deceiving him in the first place.
Michael Tennant is a software developer and freelance writer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Photo of James Dobson: AP Images
