I see from the intertubes that Sen. Rand Paul has begun another talking filibuster. This time it’s to protest any legislation that extends the NSA’s ability to access metadata from phone calls, even if the data is held by 
the phone companies and available only by court order. Paul’s filibuster will annoy a lot of people, but in the end I think I agree, for once, with John McCain: “He’ll get his headline and then we’ll move on.”
That’s pretty much the lay of the land. Paul will chew up some floor time, which might end up eating into Memorial Day weekend for the Senate, but since virtually no one agrees with his position, it’s simply not going to accomplish anything. I’m even a little skeptical about the headlines. Frankly, once you’ve done the Jimmy Stewart bit once, its entertainment value starts to plummet.
On the other hand, Paul seems to be mostly treating this as another great fundraising opportunity, and it might very well be. But that’s probably all it will be.
