Stoner Kidnapping 101, AKA 'Rand Paul: The College Years'

[ProSense]

Talking Points Memo: Stoner Kidnapping 101, AKA 'Rand Paul: The College Years'

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Read the full GQ piece on Paul's years at Baylor here.

Late Update: In a statement to TPMDC, Paul's campaign manager, Jesse Benton, dismissed the kidnapping story -- but didn't deny it.

"When Dr. Paul was at Baylor, he competed on the swim team and was active in Young Conservatives of Texas," Benton said. "National Enquirer-type stories about Dr. Paul's teenage years should be left to the tabloids where they belong."

Later Update: The Paul campaign now says they're considering legal action over the article.

[Cirque du So-What]

1. I'm not too familiar with GQ articles in general

but by the same token I've never heard of the magazine being a hotbed of sensationalism. I'm inclined to believe the writer, editor & publisher feel they're on solid ground or else they wouldn't have run this story.

[dkf]

2. I'm sure it must have been scary

But hearing Olbermann talk about it made me laugh. Really he needs to present it more seriously.

[ProSense]

3. A lot of people smoked weed in college

but how many of them kidnapped someone?

Via Daily Kos:

By the way, via Dave Weigel:

UPDATE: GQ Editor-in-Chief Jim Nelson responds:

We’ve vetted, researched, and exhaustively fact-checked Jason
Zengerle’s reporting on Rand Paul’s college days, we stand by the
story, and we gave the Paul campaign every opportunity to refute it.
We notice that they have not, in fact, refuted it.

The best part of this story is that Rand Paul and the right wing are going to have a hard time dealing with it.