Rand Paul-- He's An Aqua Buddah Man

Only two Republicans voted against John Sensenbrenner's Violence Against Women legislation in 2005, Tom Tancredo (R-CA) and Ron Paul (R-TX). Like father, like son? Worse. The day after completely bombing at Kentucky's iconic Fancy Farm pep rally/election kick off-- putting the audience to sleep with a bunch of dull statistics after Jack Conway's barnburner speech-- uncertified eye doctor Rand Paul, recently found to be misleading reporters about having graduated from Baylor University, was exposed for something which could well prove to be even more serious (and the probably reason for his never having graduated from Baylor).

Yesterday GQ came out with a fuller look at what the younger, battier Paul was up to at Baylor instead of working towards graduation. Fun and games? Sure, but when Li'l Rand says he won't respond to National Enquirer style attacks on his teenage years, he's trying to mislead again. He was 20 and already a member of Young Conservatives of his native Texas when this drug-and-kidnap escapade took place:

The strangest episode of Paul's time at Baylor occurred one afternoon in 1983 (although memories about all of these events are understandably a bit hazy, so the date might be slightly off), when he and a NoZe brother paid a visit to 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." After the woman refused to smoke with them, Paul and his friend put her back in their car and drove to the countryside outside of Waco, where they stopped near a creek. "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."

Nearly 30 years later, the woman is still trying to make sense of that afternoon. "They never hurt me, they never did anything wrong, but the whole thing was kind of sadistic. They were messing with my mind. It was some kind of joke." She hadn't actually realized that Paul wound up leaving Baylor early. "I just know I never saw Randy after that-- for understandable reasons, I think."

I spent quite a bit of time in three Buddhist countries, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand and I never ran into the "Aqua Buddah." Paul claims to be a Christian these days-- but no one running for statewide office in Kentucky would probably claim otherwise. Since he refuses to comment on this incident we can only pray that the Aqua Buddah he was forcing this blindfolded woman to worship wasn't his peter. Geepers, though... remember when he fantasized that we wouldn't need laws if everyone was Christian?

Wow! This guy really is far from the mainstream of political thought-- at least as far as it's evolved over the last century. I mean opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing Act, and Social Security is bad enough but, believe it or not, Kentucky is pretty tolerant of all kinds of religious traditions these days! We'll see, on the other hand, how they react to the Aqua Buddah cult, or at least the part that involves bong-hits, kidnapping and forced worship.

The Violence Against Women bill comes up for reauthorization next year. If Rand Paul slips into office, how do you think he'll vote on that? And that's not just a question for women. I'd like men with mothers, wives, daughters, sisters and women friends to think about it too. The only answer anyone can get out of the wacky world of Rand Paul is that he's going to sue GQ for exposing what he's trying to pass off as a "childhood prank." Yep... it's like when Giuliani's 20 year old Harvard senior daughter was caught shoplifting. For the children of rich, white Republicans that kind of behavior is "just a cry for help." For the rest of us... a life destroying prison sentence.