Irony has left the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Permanently.

The biggest prank of all time happened to Kentucky Republicans this afternoon and they don’t even know it. They probably don’t even care.

Kentucky law forbids a candidate’s name appearing more than once on a ballot so Rand got the great idea that he could get around that pesky detail the same way he got around his eye doctor board certification.

Enter the Republican Party of Kentucky (RPK) and Rand Paul’s successful ploy to buy a primary. The RPK hasn’t seen a dime yet, even though Rand said more than a week ago that he’d already deposited $250,000 in the RPK account as an initial deposit (he didn’t) to cover the $400,000 to $500,000 estimated cost of caucuses in each of 120 of Kentucky’s counties.

(An aside: I’m still trying to figure out how a caucus would cost more than $4,000 in my county (must be that “averages” thing). Also trying to figure out how Rand Paul somehow thinks a caucus will ensure that Kentucky has a voice when there are more than 7,200 Republican voters in my little county but there is NO room big enough here that would comfortably hold even 10% of that.)

So, what happened this afternoon was that, after much huffing and puffing, the RPK let the rest of us Republicans know what the central committee actually is after all, they were just haggling over the price.

Oh, and RPK for some unknown reason decided to make Rand Paul a voting member of the committee. The very same committee voting on giving Rand Paul a caucus instead of a primary. Wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more…nothing to see here, no siree not a thing!

End result: RPK agreed to Rand Paul’s salacious suggestion and will let the caucuses go ahead, but only if he pays up $250,000 by September 22.

But, hey, they are not selling the primary, no they most definitely are not! Because Rand Paul said so after the dust settled.

On the other hand: shout out to the Koch brothers!
There’s still time for you to outbid Rand Paul. RPK is waiting until September 22.