AynRandy Grifting Poor Seniors' Social Security Checks

If you don't get mailings and emails from repugs you may not be aware of the money-grubbing con game behind all of conservative politics. No issue, no die-hard principle is above being exploited to terrify elderly white people into contributing their last dimes.

Kevin Drum catches Rand Paul doing it with a bogus alarm about unions.

Vital indeed. And "VERY expensive," of course. So please make a generous contribution to the National Right to Work Committee.

The fact that Rand Paul opposes unions—and supports the NRWC—is no surprise, but this pitch is a sign of just how much of a racket conservative fundraising has become. There's no question that card check is something that both unions and Democrats support, but it couldn't even pass in 2009, when Democrats controlled the House and had a supermajority in the Senate. It has zero chance of passing now, and everyone knows it. Rand Paul certainly knows it, and the National Right to Work Committee knows it.

But there are frightened legions of Fox News viewers out there who don't know it, and Rand Paul wants a chunk of their Social Security checks. Right now. For a campaign against a nonexistent bill that he knows perfectly well isn't going to take place. Nice work.