Last night America sat, breathless, waiting for the opinion and ideas of the most important man in the Syrian debate: a half-term junior Senator from Kentucky. Yes, Rand Paul was chosen to give the response to Obama’s address and it was a snoozer-doozy of implied conspiracy and alliances with terrorist. Check out his opener:

Fox News Transcript — Twelve years after we were attacked by Al Qaeda, 12 years after 3,000 Americans were killed by Al Qaeda, President Obama now asks us to be allies with Al Qaeda.

Uhuh, on the eve of 9-11, that was his lede. That’s not just a dog-whistle to those deep in the feverish grip of Obama derangement syndrome, it’s a deafening air-raid siren.

Recall that democrats on the steps of Capital Hill and sang God Bless America in solidarity with their fellow GOP lawmakers and President Bush, while the wreckage of the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon still burned. Can you imagine the spectacle if Teaparty clowns like Rand Paul had been running the House and Barack Obama had been in the Oval Office on that same day? They would have been singing alright, maybe humming lyrics from a skinhead band and forming a lynching party.

In reality of course, it’s true some Syrian guerrillas are sympathetic to Sunni fundamentalists, Assad is closely allied with Iranian terrorist groups like Hezbollah, which are two of many good reasons not to get involved in this train-wreck. But the only people pounding the table demanding we side with opposition forces and get deeply involved are a few Iraq-era neocons and guys like John McCain. Not that facts or logic matter to the lessor Paul. He honestly believes the nation is yearning for his executive leadership,