April 11, 2014.

Tea-Party Favorite Rand Paul Aims to Woo GOP Stalwarts for 2016 Bid

Parsons gave Winston a glance in which there was neither interest nor surprise, but only misery. He began walking jerkily up and down, evidently unable to keep still. Each time he straightened his pudgy knees it was apparent that they were trembling. His eyes had a wide-open, staring look, as though he could not prevent himself from gazing at something in the middle distance.

When tea-party activists rallied last weekend in Kentucky, their home-state hero, Sen. Rand Paul, wasn't invited. The event featured the tea-party candidate running for the Senate, while Mr. Paul is backing the incumbent, Sen. Mitch McConnell.

"What are you in for?" said Winston.

But leaders of FreedomWorks, the conservative group that organized the rally, still view Mr. Paul as an ally. In February, he joined their lawsuit over government phone surveillance. "That makes clear his willingness to shake up the political establishment," said FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe.

"Thoughtcrime!" said Parsons, almost blubbering. The tone of his voice implied at once a complete admission of his guilt and a sort of incredulous horror that such a word could be applied to himself. He paused opposite Winston and began eagerly appealing to him: "You don’t think they’ll shoot me, do you, old chap? They don’t shoot you if you haven’t actually done anything — only thoughts, which you can’t help? I know they give you a fair hearing. Oh, I trust them for that! They’ll know my record, won’t they? YOU know what kind of chap I was. Not a bad chap in my way. Not brainy, of course, but keen. I tried to do my best for the Party, didn’t I? I’ll get off with five years, don’t you think? Or even ten years? A chap like me could make himself pretty useful in a labour-camp. They wouldn’t shoot me for going off the rails just once?"

That is just one example of the balancing act Mr. Paul is attempting as he prepares for a likely White House bid in 2016. Trying to leap from tea-party firebrand to GOP standard-bearer, the freshman senator is courting the party leaders and fundraisers crucial to a national campaign, while mostly keeping faith with the libertarian base that made him a Republican Party phenom.