Iowa Republican: "Rand Paul is asking for trouble by bringing Jesse Benton back into the fold"

This is interesting. Kevin Hall at The Iowa Republican (An establishment leaning Republican electronic rag) writes:

Rand Paul is asking for trouble by bringing Jesse Benton back into the fold … Benton ran Rand’s 2010 senate race and was Ron Paul’s presidential campaign manager. He’s also married to Ron Paul’sgranddaughter …

Benton is connected to the bribery scandal that is likely sending former Iowa State Senator Kent Sorensonto jail. Benton resigned from Mitch McConnell’s campaign after Sorenson pled guilty to accepting and concealing large sums of money to switch his endorsement from Michele Bachmann to Ron Paul just days before the Iowa Caucus …

Rand Paul doesn’t seem to care. He’s even blaming the Obama administration for the entire episode, claiming these are “politically motivated investigations”. Pure nonsense …

While Obama and his minions have indeed targeted their political enemies, the Sorenson/Paul/Bachmann saga is not one of those cases … These are real crimes that Kent Sorenson committed, the Ron Paul campaign facilitated and Jesse Benton almost certainly knew of … And the men who spurred these investigations, Peter Waldron and Dennis Fusaro, are prominent conservatives, not Obama acolytes.

Questions that come to mind:

Is Benton going to become a camapign issue in Iowa?

Why is Rand supporting Benton so aggressively? Why is Rand so straight forward about his support for Jesse, when he dances around almost every other question? Does he know a deal has been cut to keep Jesse away from DOJ prosecutors? Is Rand being set up by the Republican establishment? Has Mitch McConnell given Rand the green light to bear hug Jesse, only to send the attacks dogs out against Rand for the bear hug?

-RW