Oh Boy, Rand Paul's 'Mr. Morality' Turns Up on the Adultery Web Site Ashley Madison

This story is blowing up in Kentucky.

I am just going to let Page One Kentucky tell it:

from Politico:

Doug Stafford, who’s been with Paul since his 2010 Senate race, is the senator’s chief political strategist and executive director of RANDPAC. He has led Paul’s presidential preparations since 2013 and is generally considered the most influential political player in Paul’s orbit.

Stafford, as many political insiders are aware, has long painted himself as someone of great moral character. He’s gone so far as to claim he’s been called by God on occasion. Like here:

As Sen. Rand Paul ramps up his 2016 presidential bid, his chief political adviser has been soliciting money from some conservatives and political insiders to help his own family adopt another child.

Doug Stafford’s email and Internet appeals seek to raise $30,000 quickly and declare that he and his wife have been “called by God” to adopt a second child.

The pitches have warmed the hearts of some recipients while making others who learned of the appeals feel uncomfortable about the ethical implications of Mr. Paul’s chief gatekeeper seeking personal money so close to his boss’ expected 2016 bid.

“When this was brought to my attention, I was surprised and disappointed,” said Becky Norton Dunlop, a longtime conservative activist and vice president at the Heritage Foundation, a respected conservative think tank. “My family adopted a young boy when my parents already had four children so I know a little about the subjects, adoption and financial need.”

According to multiple (more than a dozen) current and former high-level Rand Paul staffers, Doug Stafford has used his morality schtick to get deeper and deeper into the Paul world. All the while gutting people he’s perceived to have gotten in his way, forcing out loyalists, taking ethically questionable risks at every turn, encouraging Paul to remain in a failed presidential bid instead of focusing on re-election to the U.S. Senate. A re-election many expect Paul to lose if Adam Edelen plays his cards right and does everything Jack Conway was afraid to do.

So it may or may not come as a surprise to learn that Stafford popped up in the infamous Ashley Madison leak data.

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Far be it for anyone to judge another adult in a situation like this. No one knows the specifics of his personal life. But it seems a little… questionable… for Mr. Morality to have an account on a site like that. And to pop up not once, not twice but three times according to data reviewed.

And let’s be clear — it’s no fluke. It’s not someone trolling him. It’s his account. Otherwise, when I privately reached out to him to discuss it two days ago, I wouldn’t have been bombarded with calls, text messages and emails from every high-ranking Rand Paul staffer in the country in both official senate capacities and within the campaign apparatus. If it were simply a fluke, someone messing with him, Stafford would have immediately dismissed it like he’s done everything else.

If it were just a fluke, Stafford wouldn’t have decided to have a conversation with me after first attempting to use everyone in the world to shut it down.

Here’s what he had to say:

“I will not have any comment on any such personal matters.”

After losing his mind over it and freaking out for two days, that’s what he had to say. On-the-record, anyway.

Would appear that Rand Paul sure knows how to pick his top staffers and decision-makers. People like the indicted Demitri Kesari (check out the Maddow segment on him) and now Stafford. A glaring sign that his team is unfit for service with this guy at the top. Beyond time for Rand Paul to clean house.

I didn’t think this was that big of a deal until the entire Rand Machine ground to a halt. Guess I was wrong — it really is a big deal when the man at the top of a presidential campaign isn’t just knee-deep in bending campaign law (Right to Work) with people like Kesari but also knee-deep in an infamous infidelity website.