Paul finally flip flops to approve Pompeo

My life’s goal is to get Rand Paul to promise that he is going to kill me. I’m not suicidal, nor do I have a death wish — quite the opposite.

If Rand Paul swears he is going to do something, you can bet your bottom dollar that it is never going to happen. If I could get him to threaten my life, I would be almost immortal.

Rand Paul claims to be a Libertarian but in reality he’s just a Republican who doesn’t mind legal marijuana and likes war slightly less than other conservatives.

There is a difference.

Paul swore he would shut down the government in February to make a point that the national debt was skyrocketing and he was far too conservative to stand by and watch it happen.

This is the same guy who voted with his Republican friends to cut taxes and add about $1.5 trillion a year to the national debt. His crocodile tears flowed about two months too late.

Paul was also in favor of Obamacare repeal before he was against it.

Then came Mike Pompeo’s nomination to become Secretary of State. Paul said he had major issues with Pompeo because of past comments and because of his penchant to support interventionist military strategies.

Paul fought Pompeo’s nomination and made several public comments to that effect.

“It goes against most of the things President (Donald) Trump campaigned on, that the unintended consequences of regime change in Iraq led to instability in the Middle East,” Paul once said.

Oh, man. That’s funny. Paul is still pretending that Trump’s campaign is somehow tied to his actions in office. That’s rich.

But even though Donald Trump the candidate and the president are very different people, no one can doubt Trump’s power over Paul.

One call from President Trump was all it took to help Paul completely evolve on this issue. If President Trump has that kind of evolutionary power he could turn a banjo-playing chimpanzee into Taylor Swift over a long weekend.

The saddest thing about Paul’s latest flip-flop is that Mike Pompeo was caught up in the middle of it.

Pompeo is a good man. No matter where he is, he is always a candidate for “smartest guy in the room.” You don’t graduate at the top of your class from WestPoint accidentally.

Because of his military background, Pompeo gets cast as a neocon and a hawk.

He has been the deployed soldier before and he understands proper military engagement. Pompeo also gets criticized for taking more money from the Koch network than any other candidate.

To make that accusation without acknowledging that his congressional district included the home of one of the Koch brothers is either ignorant or intellectually dishonest.

I have been with Pompeo at ice cream socials, church services, school programs, and community events where he treated every person from every walk of life as important.

Pompeo isn’t a bigot. He isn’t a warmonger.

He isn’t even a bad guy.

Rand Paul should never have opposed Pompeo’s nomination.

He was wrong.

The Democrats shouldn’t have opposed Pompeo either. Fifteen of them confirmed him as CIA Director. He is the same man now that he was then.

Political gamesmanship is real. I’m no Pollyanna who believes that we should all crowd around a campfire and sing “Kum Ba Yah.”

But there is a time to get real and get things done. Those who get in the way don’t have the country’s best interest at heart.