Rand Paul's letter in the C-J

If you're interested, the C-J published a letter from Rand Paul on the "civil rights furor".

It reads like it was written a few weeks ago-- and it's certainly old from a news cycle perspective. But I haven't heard anything about the timing of the publication. (UPDATE: On another blog, someone wrote that it was published in the Bowling Green paper nearly two weeks earlier. Now the question is why the C-J waited all that time...)

I've spent the past 14 months traveling around the commonwealth, giving more than 400 speeches, and talking to thousands of Kentuckians.

Throughout these speeches, I never once had reason to discuss the Civil Rights Act of 1964, much less call for the repeal of this settled law 46 years later.

So you can imagine my shock when my wife called the day after the election to tell me that Jack Conway was on MSNBC outright lying, claiming that I had called for the repeal of the Civil Rights Act. Even though these lies were evident by watching the video footage, commentators on MSNBC and elsewhere have been repeating it as fact for more than a week now.

If you watch any of my interviews, you'll see I never stated that I did not support the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and I certainly never called for its repeal.

I was asked if I supported the Civil Rights Act of 1964. I stated that "I like the Civil Rights Act in the sense that it ended discrimination in all public domains, and I'm all in favor of that." In response, the interviewer asked me about private domains, and I did what typical candidates don't. I discussed some philosophical issues with government mandating rules on private businesses. I think the federal government has often gone too far in regulating private citizens and businesses.

I made comparisons to the First Amendment and how it allows people in a free society to say things that may be abhorrent, but that is a challenge of a free society. I was speaking abstractly, not to any piece of legislation, since in general my political views are rooted in the rights of the individual over the state.

The interviewer then brought me back to the literal world of life in 1964, saying, "But it's different with race, because much of the discrimination based on race was codified into law." In the video you'll see me agree with her, ending the discussion by saying, "Exactly, it was institutionalized. And that's why we had to end all institutional racism and I'm completely in favor of that."

I think that statement is very clear. This did not stop my opponent and the liberal media from implying that I meant the opposite...

In 2010, there are battles that need to be fought, and they have nothing to do with race or discrimination, but rather the rights of people to be free from a nanny state. For example, I am opposed to the government telling restaurant owners that they cannot allow smoking in their establishments...

Now the media is twisting my small government message, making me out to be a crusader for repeal of the Americans for Disabilities Act and The Fair Housing Act. Again, this is patently untrue. I have simply pointed out areas within these broad federal laws that have financially burdened many smaller businesses.For example, should a small business in a two-story building have to put in a costly elevator, even if it threatens their economic viability? Wouldn't it be better to allow that business to give a handicapped employee a ground floor office? We need more businesses and jobs, not fewer...