This all stems from the Paul website that championed the idea of an underground fence along the southern border to keep out illegals.
"My plans include an underground electric fence, with helicopter stations to respond quickly to breaches of the border."
The above quote was taken directly from his campaign website.
This raised the eyebrows of many, even baffled NRSC chair John Cornyn, and left him wondering aloud to The Huffington Post: "How would that work?"
Now the Rand Campaign is trying to get away from the idea, blaming a web designer underling. From the HuffPo ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... )-
Jesse Benton, who declined repeated attempts for comment from the Huffington Post (which first reported on Paul's plan for an underground electrical fence), told the Plum Line's Greg Sargent that Paul actually doesn't believe a fence should be built below ground. Rather, the fence he envisions would be constructed above ground while still carrying an electric current, explained Benton.
"That's a stupid word that was put in by whoever is writing for our Web site and we need to remove it," Benton said, of the "underground" description.
Greg Sargent has more - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/...
Benton said Paul does think an electronic fence "should be explored," and that Paul envisions it having a "combination of thermal imaging, satellite technology, motion detection, and helicopters at key checkpoints."
But it wouldn't be underground. "Perhaps some of the thermal stuff might be buried, but that's it," Benton said. The electronic fence idea isn't new; it has been tried in other countries, and various proposals have been floated here but have been nonstarters.
The problem for Mr. Benton and the Rand Paul campaign is that Rand himself is on video talking about his underground fence idea. Oops.
As the Huff Po dug up -
"I don't like the symbolism of a 15-foot fence going the whole border. It's extraordinarily expensive, and it reminds me of the Berlin Wall which was built to keep people in and from fleeing to the West," Paul said. "I think you could actually put in an electronic fence under the whole border for probably $10 or $15 million, which sounds like a lot to us but that's peanuts. And you could probably have helicopter stations in maybe five different locations, and I think you could have any breach of the border could be stopped at any point and we send them back."
Then when questioned by the Russian television station the following
"You also talk about an underground electrical fence, what is that about?"
Paul didn't dismiss the questioner as ill-informed about his position. Instead, he said:
"I think that would be one way. And I've recently been talking also more about satellite observation... so I think you can also monitor your border with satellites and then you have to have some means of intercepting people who come in illegally. You can have helicopter stations positioned every couple hundred miles."
So if it was, according to Paul Campaign Spox Jesse Benton "a stupid word that was put in by whoever is writing for our Web site and we need to remove it" and Rand Paul himself is recorded discussing this underground fence, is Jesse Benton calling Rand Paul 'stupid'? And if so, is he wrong?