Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has been under fire from fellow conservatives pretty much all year long for endorsing Kentucky's other senator, Mitch McConnell. McConnell, the argument among teabaggers go, is an establishment Republican who capitulates to the Democrats way too often. (That's not true—McConnell is a human-hating beast from the nether realms of neoconservative hell—but teabagger arguments are rarely based on reality.) Rand Paul's defense of why he endorsed McConnell, rather than a teabagger challenger, was weak sauce: “He asked me when there was nobody else in the race. And I said yes.”

And now, Paul's so unsure of his defense of McConnell that he refuses to say anything on the record. Gina Kinslow from Kentucky's Glasgow Daily Times reports on a visit from Paul to Edmonton:

One constituent asked [Paul] why he came out in support of Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Louisville.

Paul declined to answer the question publicly, saying he would speak with her in private and explain his reason for supporting the senior senator.

Bold. Courageous. Principled. Unafraid to speak his mind, and damn the repercussions. That's the Rand Paul way.