'No cigars and no closed doors,' said Paul. 'Open venues. I'm not going to be the leader of the caucus. We're going to rotate around. It's going to be a continued conversation between the grass roots and the people who come from the grass roots.'"
So says Rand Paul when asked about his Tea Party caucus. But when it comes to secret holds, that arcane Senate rule that allowed one Senator to secretly block passage of a bill, well, suddenly the transparency becomes opaque.
Tea Party Caucus votes to keep secret holds
- 01/27/11 05:43 PM ET
The three founding members of the Senate Tea Party Caucus voted against a rule change Thursday that would end senators' ability to use secret holds.
Sens. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) were three out of the four senators to vote against a resolution outlawing the practice. The other was GOP Sen. John Ensign (Nev.). The rule change, which passed 92-4, was part of a packaged rules proposal brought before the Senate.
