Impeccable Timing

07:30 PM Jul 26, 2010

Well, this is unfortunate: Florida Republican Jeb Bush held a fundraiser for tea-powered Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul today, which just happens to be the 20^th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The ADA, a landmark piece of legislation which was signed into law by Jeb Bush’s father (the first President Bush), made it illegal for employers to discriminate against the disabled. Yet Rand Paul has his reservations:

Tucked away in that same interview was a similar question about ADA. Did the legislation go too far, asked NPR's Robert Siegel.

"I think a lot of things could be handled locally," Paul said. "For example, I think that we should try to do everything we can to allow for people with disabilities and handicaps... I think if you have a two-story office and you hire someone who's handicapped, it might be reasonable to let him have an office on the first floor rather than the government saying you have to have a $100,000 elevator. And I think when you get to solutions like that, the more local the better, and the more common sense the decisions are, rather than having a federal government make those decisions."

The campaign of Paul’s Democratic opponent, Kentucky attorney general Jack Conway, would like to know: does Jeb Bush stand with Rand on the ADA? Does he, like Rand, truly believe that the federal government shouldn’t be “making decisions” about protecting disabled Americans from discrimination in the workplace?

Or will it be Rand Paul who flips once again and backtracks on his position, as he has done on the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and on holding BP accountable for the disastrous oil spill?

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