Mullin, who refused to grovel for a job and declined to apologize for the insults Paul mentioned, replied that he’s a “blunt” person and admitted that he and Paul don’t like each other. “Seems like you fight Republicans more than you work with us,” Mullin said. Sen. Mullin also insisted, “I don’t believe in political violence, I’ve made that very clear” and accused Paul of pursuing “character assassination.”

Children, children, please! Can’t we all be civil and put petty differences aside in the interests of the nation? Obviously not. The one who demonstrated that the public probably shouldn’t trust him because of anger issues was Rand Paul. Oh, he made it clear enough that Mullin needs to learn how to disagree without being disagreeable, but while the civility issue is not irrelevant to raise in such a forum, doing it in the fashion Paul did makes me wonder if Mullin’s earlier “blunt” comments were getting close to the truth.

I remember, as a child, watching “Perry Mason” with my family one night. At the end of the episode, as usual, Perry, Della (his assistant), and Paul Drake (Perry’s investigator) were sitting in a restaurant after Perry won another trial, with the losing District Attorney Hamilton Burger (“Ham Burger” to his friends) and the always hostile Police Lt. Tragg, chatting and chuckling like they were the best of pals. “They were all so mean to each other during the trial!” I exclaimed. “How can they go from that to having dinner together?”

“Ah, Grasshopper,” Dad said. “You don’t understand. When they seemed to be angry with each other, they were just doing their jobs. It wasn’t personal. It’s like when a Red Sox player slides hard into the Yankee second-baseman to stop a double play. He’s not doing it because he hates the Yankee player. The same applies to lawyers, and soldiers and doctors. It’s not personal. A doctor will work with and trust another surgeon as they try to save a patient’s life: they don’t have to like each other. It shouldn’t matter if they like each other. You put feelings aside when you do your job, and respect the people whose job it is to argue with you.”

Funny, that still makes sense to me, but I bet I sound like Gramps saying that the horse and buggy were just fine, thanks. I remember John McCain, with the fate of the Affordable Care Act in his hands, casting the deciding vote to save Obama’s lousy law not because he supported it, but to stick it to President Trump. Of course Trump himself is the worst possible role model in this area, but “He does it too!” is a rationalization, not an excuse.

I’m really sorry Sen. Mullin hurt your feelings, Rand. Now suck it up and do your job.

[WordPress suggested I tag this post: “God, Christianity, and Faith.” Any theories on where that came from?]

Note: There were a bunch of typos in this post when it went up. Spuds rushed into my office and was clear that he urgently needed to go out, so I hit “publish” before doing my final proof. I’m sorry.