Rand Paul has become my favorite politician. Of course, that’s a bit like being the tallest pygmy.

I found his talking filibuster in the senate the other day to be inspiring; and I’m somebody who’s very skeptical of any romantic associations with government activity. It did remind me of the dramatic filibuster in Mr. Smith Goes To Washington. Every politician talks about principles, but Rand Paul seems to really take them seriously.

The administration was getting away with not responding to congressional inquiries about its theories about limits to its authority to kill Americans who were not active, imminent, threats to security without due process of law. Most of the people who would have been outraged by a Republican administration doing this were busy covering for their guy.

The issue of explicit, clearly defined, limits to executive authority is an important one. I understand the administration’s reluctance to announce any limits to its power, but that’s part of the reason we need it done. It’s not about whether we really believe that there’s a serious threat of Barack Obama ordering our death or indefinite detention for annoying him without any due process. It’s about not having to worry about any future president thinking that he has the power to do things like that, or about people following such orders.

The system shouldn’t depend on angels being in power; it should be able to handle bad people (or normal, corrupted, people) in power. The issue deserves public attention, and it took a dramatic act like this to make it happen.

Also, Rand Paul has distinguished himself as a smart, formidable, leader (2016???). Many people will disparage this as a stunt, and want to paint all tea-party supporters as simple-minded slogan shouters. But, Rand Paul was able to stand and speak intelligently on the record in front of the world for almost thirteen hours.

I couldn’t do it. Could you?

For those who weren’t following it, here are some good links on it:

Julian Sanchez in words and audio.

Nick Gillespie with three takaways.

And some video:

Reason.TV short video with the beginning and end of the filibuster bookending other related clips.

Some highlights of the filibuster.

Jon Stewart on the filibuster. (first few minutes of this, anyway)

Senator Ted Cruz letting Paul rest his voice while “asking” him about (aka “reading”) #StandWithRand tweets.

Lawrence O’Donnell (and Lindsay Graham and John McCain) being an ass.

So, it looks like the budget sequestration might actually go into effect tomorrow.

I don’t need to remind anyone who’s been paying attention of the degree of exaggeration that’s been going on in describing the size of these “cuts”. Even with these modest spending reductions (from proposed budget levels), 2013 federal spending will exceed 2012 spending.

Of course, I understand Obama’s interest in portraying this as drastic, and using fear to rally political support for fewer cuts and more tax hikes.

But, if he actually prioritizes these tiny cuts in such a way as to inflict the greatest harm to people who have come to rely on federal programs, rather than eliminating wasteful spending in ways that the public shouldn’t even notice, it will only demonstrate his incredible incompetence as an executive.