That Old Time Religion.

Kentucky is the stage for one of the most interesting early Senate races this year. The Blue Grass State will almost certainly vote red in November and replace retiring Senator Jim Bunning with a fellow Republican. The primary is the real battle and it takes place at the end of May. Secretary of State Trey Grayson was considered the early shoe-in, but recent polls have shown this establishment favorite to be following in the foot steps of the Florida Governor: Grayson now trails upstart quasi-libertarian Rand Paul by double digits in nearly every poll.

Rand Paul is a doctor, first time office seeker and more notably the son of completely-libertarian Congressmen Ron Paul of Texas. There is plenty to write about the emergence of a candidate like this in a U.S. Senate race and Reason Magazine recently did a good job on that exact topic. What we find most notable about the younger Paul is his stance on foreign policy. He neither falls into his father's non-interventionist camp nor is he a nation building neo-conservative. Rather he seems to take what we consider to be the truly conservative foreign policy stance. One that Goldwater and a younger Reagan and Buckley could be proud of.

Unlike his father, Rand Paul believes in spending more on national defense. He supports a continued war in Afghanistan. And he seems to have no real qualms about going to war when war is needed.

Unlike the neo-cons who have dominated Republican foreign policy debates in recent years (at their best they are represented by the careful calculations of a thoughtful Dick Cheney and at their worst by the painful blovations of Rudy Giuliani), Rand Paul believes in ...gasp... actually declaring war before going to war. He insists that he supports the idea of an American presence in Afghanistan but would not support the current American activities there until a proper declaration of war is passed. Further, while he would increase military spending, he claims he would oppose every "defense" oriented program that is not actually about national defense. In other words, the money wasted by Clinton era Democrats transforming the military from a fighting force into a catalyst for social mobility, and the money wasted by W-Bush era Republicans on unnecessary, no bid contracts would both be cut if young Doctor Paul had his way.

Now obviously all of these things are easier said than done, but currently no one in the Senate is even giving these ideas lip service. If elected (and it looks increasingly like he will be) Rand Paul would be the only Senator with a truly paleo-conservative outlook on foreign policy.