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Journalists and comedians want an entertaining 2016 presidential race, and Im sympathetic. I know people are going to prop up some folks I cant get behind, but its all fair. Libertarian-minded liberals will say nice things about Sen. Rand Paul, and so might independent-minded folks like MSNBCs Chris Matthews.

And most days, I think thats great. Rand Paul would be an interesting major candidate in the 2016 Republican primaries. I like some of what he says about criminal justice reform. Im glad he wants to reach out to, rather than disenfranchise, African-Americans. Hes not the worst potential GOP candidate.

But Pauls response to Chris Matthews Wednesday about the Eric Garner tragedy shows that, for all his lovely words about African-Americans and criminal justice excess, hes a standard-issue libertarian whose top issue will always be taxes. Hell always be an anti-tax libertarian first and foremost, before hes a civil rights libertarian.

Appearing on MSNBCs Hardball shortly after a Staten Island grand jury declined to indict the cop who choked Eric Garner to death, on suspicion that Garner was selling loose cigarettes, Paul shamed himself, badly:

Well you know I think its hard not to watch that video of him saying I cant breathe, I cant breathe and not be horrified by it. But I think theres something bigger than the individual circumstances. Obviously, the individual circumstances are important. But I think it is also important to know that some politician put a tax of $5.85 on a pack of cigarettes so that driven cigarettes underground by making them so expensive. But then some politician also had to direct the police to say, hey we want you arresting people for selling a loose cigarette. And for someone to die over breaking that law, there really is no excuse for it. But I do blame the politicians. We put our police in a difficult situation with bad laws.

Watch it here:

There is so so much wrong with Pauls answer on Garner. Its a huge part of why he will never be president. What kind of callousness is required to say the bigger issue in Garners death isnt excessive police use of force, or police practice toward African-Americans generally, but taxes? What kind of heart do you have to have to use the Eric Garner tragedy to rail against cigarette taxes?

Beyond that, we dont even know for sure that Garner was selling loose cigarettes at the time he was taken into custody and killed. Also, a lot of folks who sell loose cigarettes buy them cheap, and sell them for more than they paid but also pay taxes on them. Its not always a tax dodge. So its not even clear if Paul is right about the tax issue.

But also, even when its a tax dodge: Its really ludicrous to blame cigarette taxes for Eric Garners killing. Try harder, righties. Pauls lame dodge was everywhere within minutes of the grand jurys sad decision.

Im not sure I can think of a case of a cop shooting anyone over selling something without charging/paying taxes, ever, in my lifetime. On the other hand, there is a very real issue of police using excessive force against African-Americans cops are 21 times more likely to shoot a black suspect than a white one, and we have the real-life examples of Eric Garner, John Crawford, Tamir Rice, Ezell Ford and Michael Brown, just counting back to August.

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Rand Paul just wrecked his 16 campaign: Watch his awful ...

Published December 05, 2014

Sept. 26, 2014: Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. speaks in Washington. (AP)

HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul hinted in an interview Friday that he smoked marijuana in his youth, adding that voters should not confuse his push for reduced criminal penalties for drug offenses as an endorsement of drug use.

Paul, who announced plans this week to seek re-election to the Senate in 2016 and is actively exploring whether to run for president, said he "wasn't a choir boy" when asked by Louisville television station WHAS if he had used marijuana while in college.

"Let's just say I wasn't a choir boy when I was in college and that I can recognize that kids make mistakes, and I can say that I made mistakes when I was a kid," Paul said in an interview broadcast Friday night.

"I think drugs, marijuana included, aren't good for you," Paul said. "I don't want to be someone who is seen as being this person advocating for drug use. I think they're not a good idea."

The recreational use of marijuana is legal in two states and voters in two more plus the District of Columbia have approved measures to join them. Paul told a group of law students at Northern Kentucky University last month he would not support lifting the federal ban on marijuana use, but said he did not want the federal government to try and overturn state laws that have made the drug legal.

Paul told WHAS he has focused on reducing criminal penalties for some nonviolent drug offenses, which he said have been administered unfairly and disproportionally impact the nation's minorities.

He noted that the past three presidents "either admitted or skirted around the issue" of using illegal drugs in their youth.

"If they had been poor or lived in poverty or lived in one of our big cities where there are a lot of (police) patrols, there's a good chance none of them would have ever excelled," Paul said. "So I have a great deal of personal sympathy for people who have made mistakes as a young person."

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Asked about marijuana, Rand Paul says 'I made mistakes'

By Sara Fischer, CNN

updated 7:38 PM EST, Thu December 4, 2014

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Washington (CNN) -- Republican Sen. Rand Paul could face a brutal battle against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a Democrat, in the 2016 battle for the presidency. But on Thursday, the Kentucky senator extended his potential rival an olive branch.

"We would welcome Hillary Clinton (to help reform the criminal justice system), if she would like to come and help us promote this agenda," Paul told Wolf Blitzer on CNN's "The Situation Room." "I've been working with Sen. Cory Booker and other Democrats. If she wants to join me, we would welcome her support."

Earlier this year, Paul joined forces with Attorney General Eric Holder, to re-examine the way law enforcement sentences people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses.

In light of the recent verdict not to indict a white police officer in the chokehold death of an unarmed black man, Eric Garner, Paul said he is "shocked" that no statement has been delivered from the Staten Island police about whether the bystanding officers involved in the incident will continue to serve.

"I really think to calm down the reaction to this, one thing that could happen is for the police could say, 'This is unacceptable for a policeman and we can't have this type of an individual on the police force,'" Paul said.

Asked about comments he made Wednesday where he blamed the politician who created New York's high cigarette tax for Garner's death, Paul said the black market created by heavy taxation and regulation -- whether it be food, drugs or cigarettes -- forces police officers to arrest people for mostly menial, non-offensive crimes. Garner was arrested for selling tax-free cigarettes.

"There's a black market because we have made the price of cigarettes so onerous that people are going to sell it illegally," Paul said. "I don't think it's justified what the police did but I also think it's bad policy that puts the police in an untenable position. ...So I think politicians are responsible for creating a situation and putting police in an untenable situation."

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Where Rand Paul could agree with Hillary Clinton

By Ted Barrett, CNN

updated 10:06 AM EST, Fri December 5, 2014

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Washington (CNN) -- Sen. Rand Paul surprised members of the Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday when he threatened to force a vote on a declaration of war against ISIS as an amendment to an unrelated bill dealing with clean drinking water around the world.

The Kentucky Republican, frustrated that Congress hasn't voted to formally okay the military operation already underway against the terrorist group, said he hoped his move would "shame" the Congress into action.

"I think the most important duty of a legislator is to vote yea or nay on whether or not we are sending our young men and women to war," Paul told CNN. "I think we've been derelict in our duty, Congress has abdicated that duty. The President, I think, in his arrogance, has assumed that he doesn't even need to ask."

The unexpected move by Paul, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, prompted Democrats to quickly counter with proposals of their own and launched a spirited debate inside a small, camera-less committee room in the Capitol about the role Congress should play in approving military strikes. There were no TV cameras because none of the television outlets that cover Congress had planned to cover action on the somewhat obscure water bill.

During the debate, Democrats like Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, argued the senators had a solemn obligation to their constituents to vote on an Authorization for Use of Military Force, even if it's unlikely Congress can complete action on it before the congressional session ends in a few days.

But Republicans like Bob Corker of Tennessee, who will be the committee chairman next year, argued the debate was being "rushed" and that the administration itself hasn't said what it wants or needs in an AUMF. He argued that a lot of the "passion" in the room was from Democrats "wanting to go on record not wanting boots on the ground."

Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, complained the proposals had some "very strange things" in them, including restrictions on ground troops. He said that would make it very difficult for the U.S. to defeat ISIS. He argued that the reason the administration has not asked for an AUMF is because "they have no strategy" against ISIS.

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Rand Paul's surprise move on ISIS

Over the past year-and-a-half, Sen. Rand Paul has spoken at historically black colleges, gathered with African American leaders in Ferguson, Missouri after the shooting of Michael Brown, and criticized a justice system he says unfairly targets minorities. His message is unmistakable: Im a different kind of Republican whos not afraid to engage with communities that typically vote for Democrats.

Yet in 2010, when he was a long-shot tea party candidate for Senate, and during his first two years in the job, Paul was rarely seen or heard from in Kentuckys African American community, according to interviews with more than a dozen black leaders in the Bluegrass State, including seven of the eight African American state legislators. Indeed, his much-publicized courtship has occurred almost entirely as the Republican began plotting a potential run for president.

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The officials, almost all Democrats, largely agreed that Paul deserves credit for spending time in minority communities and addressing issues that havent been high on the GOPs priority list. But many were skeptical that Paul is acting out of long-held beliefs about racial injustice, given his earlier absence and his controversial 2010 remarks questioning whether the Civil Rights Act should apply to private businesses, which hes sought to surmount ever since.

(Also on POLITICO: Boehner open to hearings on Garner's death)

I see Sen. Paul as really being an opportunist here, said Democratic state Sen. Reggie Thomas. His actions over the last couple years, now that he wants to run for president, really belie his feelings hes expressed.

For him or anyone else to think he can show up in our community, smile, shake a few hands, take a few pictures, and that represents something significant in terms of him conveying a message that answers the questions or addresses the issues we are concerned about, added state Rep. Reginald Meeks of Louisville, to me thats being pretty callous and pretty shallow.

Aside from attending Martin Luther King, Jr. celebrations, dispatching field representatives from time to time and working with a tea party-affiliated African American pastor, Paul barely registered in Kentuckys black communities during his first few years in office, according to the interviews.

(Also on POLITICO: Lawmakers iron out money details for a deal)

But that started to change after Mitt Romney won only 6 percent of the African American vote and 27 percent of the Latino vote in the 2012 presidential election, numbers that triggered alarms among party leaders. By the spring of 2013, Paul had seized on a message of broadening the Republican base, making high-profile speeches at historically black colleges as well as increasing his outreach to black community leaders and activists in Kentucky.

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Kentucky black leaders vs. Rand Paul