Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Jay Leno Gives a Shout Out to Rand Paul!

Any time Jay Leno talks about Kentucky, and specifically Kentucky Republicans, it is best to duck and cover. Last night when he gave the teaser that he was going to talk about Rand Paul with David Gregory (host of Meet the Press), I had a flash back to Gov. Ernie Fletcher's plane flying into Washington's no-fly zone after 9/11 and causing the Capitol to be evacuated.

Jay -- who is usually pretty fair, and appears to be moderately right of center for Hollywood -- is fixated with Rand Paul and the Tea Party. It was not clear whether he was genuinely mystified or just mining jokes. Jay said he tuned into Meet the Press only to be disappointed. "I was waiting, waiting for Rand Paul to appear."

David Gregory did not miss the cue. He replied with the obligatory snipe that Rand Paul is only the third person in history to cancel an appearance on Meet the Press, the other two being Louis Farrakhan and Genghis Khan or whoever.

Gregory opined that Rand Paul's gaffes last week had "done some damage" to his campaign. According to Gregory, the Paul campaign sent Meet the Press a note withdrawing from the scheduled interview, stating that Paul was "tired" and "didn't want to be dragged down by liberal bias." But the real reason, according to Gregory, is that Rand Paul felt he'd already done enough damage to his campaign.

Jay asked Gregory why a guy like Rand Paul who opposes government would want to govern? Then he mocked Sarah Palin for saying "Drill, Baby, Drill" a few months ago, only now to accuse the Obama administration as being "in bed with the oil industry." Next they went through the parade of horribles of all the government programs that would go away under Libertarian rule, (OSHA! child labor laws!).

The only saving grace for Rand Paul is that the supposedly substantive part of the interview followed a tasteless skit about Meet the Press's new set; perhaps some viewers went to bed in self defense. The Tonight Show mock-up of the new set included David Gregory -- nude from the waste up -- in a hot tub. Mercifully, the cameraman spared us the close-up. If only we had been spared the potty jokes.

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