As he moves toward launching a presidential campaign, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul faces questions about the role of his father and political mentor, former Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who served 12 terms in Congress.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the elder Paul is not expected to be in Washington Wednesday when his son meets privately with political advisers from around the country.
Some observers say this may indicate that the former congressman, whose extensive political resume also includes presidential runs in 1988, 2008, and 2012, will be sidelined during his son’s expected 2016 campaign.
Father and son had markedly different reactions to last week’s sweeping Republican victory in the midterm elections.
Sen. Paul, who campaigned for many of the victorious Republican candidates, appeared at fellow Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell’s victory party, where he declared: "Tonight, we begin to rebuild America."
His father, by contrast, cautioned his supporters not to expect major changes, adding that Congress would fail to reduce spending and would lead the United States into a long war in Iraq and Syria.
Both Pauls have drawn strong support from within the Libertarian movement, which has provided them with a pool of committed volunteers for their political campaigns.
But Sen. Paul has sought to broaden his political appeal by reaching out the black community on issues ranging from school choice to finding alternatives to incarceration.
And, facing the reality that many of his own supporters want the United States to join the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS),
he has also started to sound increasingly hawkish.
Unlike his father,
Sen. Paul has supported "destroying the Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria militarily."
Some speculate the elder Paul may play more of a behind-the-scenes role in his son’s expected presidential campaign, noting that during his son’s successful 2010 Senate race, Ron Paul attended only a few public events.
In some ways, according to the WSJ, Sen. Paul "seems to have two political godfathers": his father, revered by many tea-party activists and libertarians, and McConnell, who said last week that Sen. Paul could count on him if he runs for president.
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