Rand Paul Actually Made A Funny

Shortly after President Obama wrapped up his meeting with Pope Francis early Thursday morning, Senator Rand Paul made another joke about the NSA on social media. He’s been doing a lot of this lately, and none of his attempts have been particularly funny. This one was a little bit better than the others, but just a little. “@BarackObama to @Pontifex: Forgive me father for I have spied,” Paul wrote in a tweet, adding the hashtag “#NSA” to make sure everyone understood what he was talking about.

Zing! The tweet, you'll notice, was cleverly composed to simultaneously demonstrate Paul's Biblical bona fides, his antagonism toward Obama, and his opposition to the NSA (in case that was in doubt, which it wasn't).

Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported that Paul has assembled a 50-state political network to aid his all-but-certain 2016 run for the presidency, making him the first Republican candidate to do so. This sets him apart from his father, who relied on a few scattered groups of die-hard supporters around the nation during his numerous unsuccessful presidential runs.

Paul the younger, on the other hand, has over 200 backers in all 50 states, and is actively courting Wall Street donors who helped fund Mitt Romney’s 2016 bid, to boot.

In January, Paul announced in a Vine that he was joining Snapchat, explaining that Snapchat’s forced deletion of messages would “not leave a trace for the NSA.” Well, okay, but Snapchat also has gaping security holes, which would seem to nullify that justification.

Late last year, Paul sent out a stream of tweets in the tradition of Festivus, the Seinfeld holiday, wherein he complained about — wait for it — NSA surveillance. At least no one can accuse him of being unfocused.