It doesn’t matter what the nuance of the drone policy question is, or whether you have issues with the Pauls. (He’s mostly right, and I do.) What mattered was that instead of waiting for permission, Paul took action.
He broke the tired cadence of Washington’s dance and got inside the OODA loop of the political culture. He got Barack Obama and Eric Holder to cave the next morning. A member on our side told me, “I didn’t love it, until I figured out how much Reid and Durbin hated it.”
A lot of the Senate class of 2010 gets it. A lot of new House members get it. They know that the old rules went something like this: “Stay quiet and you’ll get your appropriations.” “Play on the team and in 15 years you’ll be Chairman of the Toilet Seats Standards Committee.” “Be a good boy and you’ll go on the sweet CODELS.”
Those rules built a culture that wasn’t working against Obama, the Democrats and their Amen-chorus in the media. They built a culture that was too cautious, too timid and too hidebound…a culture that then wonders why it fails to win political battles and the support of the public.
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