A political action committee supporting the Kentucky senator has released a video casting Sunday’s showdown in the Senate as akin to a wrestling match -- with fire-breathing eagles and Rand Paul sporting shades and tremendous pecs.
“Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! Get ready America,” a growling announcer says as eagles breathe fire and lightening strikes. It promises “the biggest brawl for liberty of the century” with Paul dubbed the “defendor of freedom,” going mano-a-mano against “the head of the Washington spy machine, Barack Obama.”
There’s even slaps at one declared and one yet to be declared Paul rival for the Republican presidential nomination: Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, who support renewal of the Patriot Act are portrayed as President Obama’s “so called conservative accomplices.” Cruz is portrayed in red and white wrestling outfit as the “Capitulating Canadian,” - a reference to Cruz’s birthplace. (Though Cruz grew up in Texas, he was born in Calgary. He renounced his Canadian citizenship in 2013.)
The video by America’s Liberty PAC comes as the Senate returns to Washington from a summer recess to take up legislation that Paul blocked last week that would renew the law used for the mass collection of Americans’ phone records. Paul considers the provision an unconstitutional overreach; the administration and some lawmakers warn against letting the provisions lapse, saying they will remove a valuable anti-terrorism provision that allows the government to use roving wiretaps to track suspects who switch phones or locations.