It's unsurprising that Rep. Ron Paul, Congress' defiant libertarian, would be appalled at his fellow Republicans' demagoguery over an Islamic center in Lower Manhattan. Now that he's made his disgust apparent, though, how does it reflect on his candidate-son, Rand?

Rand Paul, the secret paganist Kentucky Senate candidate, has had to play to Kentucky Republicans' deep-red views on several issues in order to stay competitive. And it's not unfair to hold his positions against his father's: Rand Paul wouldn't have been able to run this year without drafting support from Ron Paul's die-hard supporter cult, which he built up during the 2008 presidential election, and which (rightly, at the outset) saw his son's views as nearly identical and worth the campaign donations.

Rand Paul has come out and said that Cordoba House shouldn't be built "there," two blocks from Ground Zero, because it's insensitive. Instead, he says, "reconciliation is best promoted by - instead of having a multi-million dollar mosque - maybe having a multi-million dollar donation to the memorial site, would be better for all." Isn't that nice?

Compare it to the scathing statement Ron Paul posted on his website this weekend:

The debate should have provided the conservative defenders of property rights with a perfect example of how the right to own property also protects the 1st Amendment rights of assembly and religion by supporting the building of the mosque.

Instead, we hear lip service given to the property rights position while demanding that the need to be "sensitive" requires an all-out assault on the building of a mosque, several blocks from "ground zero."

Yeah, well you try winning a 2010 Republican Senate primary with this "defending Muslim property rights" hokum, DAD.

[Image via AP]