NBey6's Blog

Updated: May 24, 2010, 1:45 PM ET

Cavs fire Brown before $4.5M deadline

ESPN.com news services

CLEVELAND -- Mike Brown won everything in five years coaching the Cleveland Cavaliers. Everything, that is, except an NBA title.

Brown, the most successful coach in franchise history, was fired after failing to win a championship with superstar -- and soon-to-be free agent -- LeBron James.

The Cavaliers had a midnight deadline Sunday night to fire the head coach or pay him his full $4.5 million salary for next season.

Cleveland was ousted from the playoffs two weeks ago by the Boston Celtics, who upset the NBA's top regular-season team in six games in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Cavs owner Dan Gilbert made the decision to fire Brown after an organizational review that began following the Cavs' exit from the playoffs.

 

Best Of The Bunch

Coach Mike Brown leaves the Cavaliers with the highest winning percentage in team history. And his five playoff appearances are matched only by Lenny Wilkens in franchise history.

Highest Win Pct, Cavaliers History

W-L
Mike Brown	.663	272-138
Lenny Wilkens	.551	316-258
Mike Fratello	.539	248-212

 

Cleveland's next move will be an interesting one. Because of James' uncertain future, it's possible the Cavs would want his input into their next coaching hire, assuming the two-time MVP is still considering re-signing with Cleveland when free agency opens after midnight on July 1. The Cavs will have to search for a new coach not knowing if James will be back and would have to go into the draft and free agency without a coach.

James is eligible to opt out of his contract this summer, a move that would make the two-time MVP -- and zero-time NBA champion -- a free agent and set off a scramble for his services from New York to Miami to Los Angeles and, of course, back in Cleveland.

Cleveland, which had the best record in the NBA the past two seasons, had a 2-1 series lead over the Celtics before losing three straight, including the final two at home by a combined 50 points.

"After a long and deep analysis of all of the factors that led to the disappointing early ends to our playoff runs over the past two seasons, we concluded that it was time for the Cavaliers to move in a different direction," Gilbert said Monday in a statement released by the team. "The expectations of this organization are very high and, although change always carries an element of risk, there are times when that risk must be taken in an attempt to break through to new, higher levels of accomplishment.

"This is one of those times."

Brown was not immediately available for comment, according to The Associated Press. No one answered the door at his home in Westlake, Ohio.

The James' family publicist said the All-Star forward was out of town on vacation and not available to comment on Brown's dismissal.

Brown, who had one year left on his contract, could be quickly scooped up by one of the five other teams looking for head coaches. Brown guided the team to the postseason in each of his five seasons but failed to win an NBA championship. Cleveland's assistants also have one year remaining on their deals.

Duke promptly struck down rumors that Mike Krzyzewski could leave the Blue Devils to coach James and the Cavaliers.

"It has been addressed repeatedly since the Lakers' thing a few years ago," a Duke spokesman told ESPN.com's Andy Katz. "If anything changes, we will let everyone know."

Brown was the league's coach of the year last season when the Cavs won 66 games. Cleveland lost to Orlando in the conference finals, however, and it was assumed Brown would have to get the team closer to a championship to keep his job.

Instead, the Cavs regressed. They were badly outplayed by the Celtics, who won the last two games played in Cleveland by a combined 50 points.

"I have truly enjoyed working with Mike Brown," Cavaliers general manager Danny Ferry said on Monday. "Mike has played a huge role in turning around the Cavs organization. Over the past five years, Mike established a work ethic, defensive identity and culture of winning that was not here previously."

It wasn't all his fault, but the 40-year-old Brown, hired by Gilbert to change Cleveland's culture with a foundation based on defense, couldn't deliver a title this season despite having the game's most skilled player and a roster upgraded with the additions of All-Stars Shaquille O'Neal and Antawn Jamison.

The Cavs' defense, suffocating and relentless at times during the regular season, was atrocious in the series against Boston.

Cleveland allowed more than 100 points in six games and couldn't contain Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo. When Brown and his staff finally figured out a way to contain Rondo, the Cavs had no answer for Kevin Garnett, who dominated Jamison.

Brown was outcoached by Boston's Doc Rivers, who had his team better prepared and got more from his players. The Cavs were constantly beaten to loose balls and long rebounds, something Brown couldn't help but perhaps a sign that he had already lost his team.

Brown's rotations were a mess in the series, leading to the team's inability to get into any type of offensive rhythm. With James unable to dominate as he so often does, the Cavs' offense was stagnant and players didn't seem to have any sense of their roles.

It was constant scrambling.

There were whispers Brown was in trouble after the Cavs were dumped by Orlando in last year's Eastern Conference finals. It was thought that Brown would have to take his team at least as far this season to save his job, but he couldn't and paid the price.

During his tenure, Brown rarely -- if ever -- criticized James. The opposite wasn't true.

In past seasons, James complained about the team's lack of offensive imagination, saying the Cavs should run more. He and Brown worked through most differences and seemed to have a solid relationship, but it began to fade as this brief postseason unfolded.

Because of a injury to O'Neal, Brown was forced to integrate the center back into the offense during the playoffs, and the Cavs never got into a flow. Also, James and some of the team's other veterans questioned Brown's game plans in both the series against Chicago and Boston.

James publicly questioned why O'Neal only played 49 seconds in the fourth quarter of the Game 4 loss in Boston. In the opening round against the Bulls, James campaigned to get J.J. Hickson more playing time, creating an awkward stand-off between the coach and superstar.

Adding to the drama in Cleveland's final home game was the sight of Kentucky coach John Calipari, a friend of James, sitting in a courtside seat -- next to James' agent -- adjacent to Cleveland's bench.

Midday & Evening

** until 5-27-10 **

076, 176, 276, 376, 476, 576, 676, 776, 876, 976

201, 211, 212, 123, 241, 512, 621, 172, 812, 219

082, 573, 422, 333, 444, 555

TIW 5-24-10 SC Midday

 

Winning Numbers: 369 & 7251

 

086, 178, 310, 382, 367, 621, 954, 702
8105, 9814, 0369, 4531, 4729, 5982, 5402
7380, 7684, 7695, 7901, 3862, 1602, 2317

 

086, 197, 208, 319, 420, 531, 642, 753, 864, 975

954, 065, 176, 287, 398, 409, 510, 621, 732, 843

0380, 1380, 2380, 3380, 4380, 5380, 6380, 7380, 8380, 9380

7380, 7381, 7382, 7383, 7384, 7385, 7386, 7387, 7388, 7389

5400, 5401, 5402, 5403, 5404, 5405, 5406, 5407, 5408, 5409

0402, 1402, 2402, 3402, 4402, 5402, 6402, 7402, 8402, 9402

 

08, 53, 09 and/or 54 pairs

TIW 5-23-10 NC Evening

 

Winning Numbers: 817 & 6608

 

481, 378, 234, 285, 217, 153, 096, 745
3710, 2374, 1982, 4097, 4562, 0236, 0416
5931, 5834, 5820, 5217, 9386, 7816, 6975
 

 

096, 107, 218, 329, 430, 541, 652, 763, 874, 985

6970, 6971, 6972, 6973, 6974, 6975, 6976, 6977, 6978, 6979

0975, 1975, 2975, 3975, 4975, 5975, 6975, 7975, 8975, 9975

 

41 and/or 96 pairs

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

5-24-10 SC Midday 369 ( posted too late for this one )

"Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom."

- Marcel Proust -

‘Overcoming the Bush legacy’: New language is not enough

23/05/2010 10:00:00 PM GMT 

Bush left behind one of the most unpleasant legacies in history. He redefined the U.S.’ role in world affairs and left his successor with a political inheritance that seemed irrevocable.

TIW 5-22-10 GA Evening

 

Winning Numbers: 444 & 2113

 

049, 154, 810, 847, 895, 971, 236, 507
6189, 7615, 8037, 5901, 5427, 9762, 9582
4068, 4365, 4379, 4781, 0632, 1382, 2014

 

154, 265, 376, 487, 598, 609, 710, 821, 932, 043

847, 958, 069, 170, 281, 392, 403, 514, 625, 736

0615, 1615, 2615, 3615, 4615, 5615, 6615, 7615, 8615, 9615

7610, 7611, 7612, 7613, 7614, 7615, 7616, 7617, 7618, 7619

4780, 4781, 4782, 4783, 4784, 4785, 4786, 4787, 4788, 4789

0781, 1781, 2781, 3781, 4781, 5781, 6781, 7781, 8781, 9781

 

60, 15, 39, 32, 92, 84, 87 and/or 47 pairs

TIW 5-23-10 SC Evening

 

Winning Numbers: 817 & 1651

 

481, 378, 234, 285, 217, 153, 096, 745
8637, 9864, 3259, 4726, 4019, 7981, 7431
0283, 0584, 0597, 0936, 2851, 6531, 1260

 

153, 264, 375, 486, 597, 608, 719, 820, 931, 042

0531, 1531, 2531, 3531, 4531, 5531, 6531, 7531, 8531, 9531

6530, 6531, 6532, 6533, 6534, 6535, 6536, 6537, 6538, 6539

 

60, 68, 08, 15, 13 and/or 53 pairs

TIW 5-22-10 NC Evening

 

Winning Numbers: 849 & 9558

 

196, 289, 521, 593, 568, 632, 470, 813
2734, 1270, 3961, 0497, 0851, 4125, 4035
8923, 8620, 8614, 8137, 9265, 7635, 5978
 

 

568, 679, 780, 891, 902, 013, 124, 235, 346, 457

0265, 1265, 2265, 3265, 4265, 5265, 6265, 7265, 8265, 9265

9260, 9261, 9262, 9263, 9264, 9265, 9266, 9267, 9268, 9269

 

01 and/or 56 pairs

Sunday 5-23-10 Sunday

406, 538, 623, 186, 336, 165, 467, 123, 907

999, 104, 075, 472, 159, 911, 764, 176, 607

524, 433, 154, 146, 105, 095, 333, 444, 555

0436, 7029, 4350, 9264, 2845, 7869, 5146

Sunday, May 23, 2010
Obama explores LeBron's options

---

Associated Press

If LeBron James isn't sure he can win in Cleveland, President Barack Obama thinks there's an opportunity with his hometown Chicago Bulls.

 

"You know, like I said, I don't want to meddle," Obama told TNT. "I will say this: [Derrick] Rose, Joakim Noah it's a pretty good core. You know, you could see LeBron fitting in pretty well there."

 

LeBron Tracker

Where will LeBron James land? We're keeping tabs on the King. Here's the latest. LeBron Tracker

 

Obama was interviewed about a number of basketball subjects by broadcaster Marv Albert on the White House basketball court. The interview will be shown Tuesday night at 8 p.m. ET.

 

James can become a free agent this summer, and his decision whether to leave the Cavaliers is one of the hottest topics in sports. Though he's never said he wants out of his native Ohio, there's speculation he'd consider it after the Cavaliers were knocked out of the playoffs in the second round by the Boston Celtics.

 

"I think that the most important thing for LeBron right now is actually to find a structure where he's got a coach that he respects and is working hard with teammates who care about him and if that's in Cleveland, then he should stay in Cleveland," Obama said. "If he doesn't feel like he can get it there, then someplace else."

 

Obama compared James' situation to the Bulls not winning until Michael Jordan had confidence in Phil Jackson, Scottie Pippen and the rest of his teammates. Once that happened, Chicago won six NBA championships in the 1990s.

 

"It wasn't until you got that framework around you that you could be a champion," Obama said. "Same thing happened with Kobe [Bryant]. You know, I think that, first with Shaq [O'Neal] then later with [Pau] Gasol, you know, he's gotten that sense of a team around him and I think LeBron hasn't quite been able to get that yet. That's what he needs to find."

Confidence in BP? Not really, says Obama aide

HOUSTON - In its harshest criticism of BP to date, the Obama administration on Sunday said the oil giant had missed "deadline after deadline" in its efforts to seal the blownout oil well in the Gulf of Mexico.

At a press conference outside BP America's Houston headquarters, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he understood the challenges but was frustrated that BP had set deadlines that "have not been met."

Asked if he trusted BP, Salazar said that the company "from day one, frankly, has not fulfilled the mission it was supposed to fulfill."

"There's no question BP is throwing everything at this problem," he said, but then added: "Do I have confidence that they know exactly what they're doing? No, not completely."

He said that's why NASA, the Department of Energy and other agencies have stepped in to work with BP engineers on solutions. Salazar and officials from those agencies met with BP staff earlier Sunday.

By law, BP as the responsible party has to carry out the cleanup, while the government provides oversight.

After the Exxon Valdez tanker spilled 11 million gallons of oil in Alaska in 1989, Congress dictated that oil companies be responsible for dealing with major accidents — including paying for all cleanup — with oversight by federal agencies.

"If we find they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing, we'll push them out of the way appropriately," Salazar said.

Why not push BP aside?
But the Coast Guard official in charge of the oil spill response operation tempered that view.

The government is forced to rely on BP and the private sector because only they have the technical know-how to stop the spill at those depths, Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen said Sunday.

 

Allen was asked on CNN's "State of the Union" show why the federal government did not completely take over the spill containment operation.

"What makes this an unprecedented anomalous event is access to the discharge site is controlled by the technology that was used for the drilling, which is owned by the private sector," Allen said. "They have the eyes and ears that are down there. They are necessarily the modality by which this is going to get solved." 

 

Anger with the government and BP, which was having a well drilled when the blowout happened, has boiled over as the spill spreads.

Environmental Protection Agency chief Lisa Jackson was back in  Louisiana, where she planned to visit with frustrated residents.

Salazar and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano were to lead a Senate delegation to the region on Monday to fly over affected areas and keep an eye on the response.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs also told CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday that Justice Department officials have been to the region gathering information about the spill. However, he wouldn't say whether the department has opened a criminal investigation.

President Barack Obama also has named a special independent commission to review what happened.

The spill began after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded off the coast of Louisiana on April 20, killing 11 workers, and sank two days later. At least 6 million gallons of crude have spewed into the Gulf of Mexico since, though a growing number of scientists have said they believe it's more.

 

'Top kill' next attempt
The visits from top Obama chiefs come as BP said it will be at least Tuesday before engineers can shoot mud into the blownout well at the bottom of the Gulf, yet another delay in the effort to stop the oil.

 

A so-called "top kill" has been tried on land but never 5,000 feet underwater, so scientists and engineers have spent the past week preparing and taking measurements to make sure it will stop the oil that has been spewing into the sea for a month. They originally hoped to try it as early as this weekend.

 

"It's taking time to get everything set up," BP spokesman Tom Mueller said. "They're taking their time. It's never been done before. We've got to make sure everything is right."

Crews will shoot heavy mud into a crippled piece of equipment atop the well. Then engineers will direct cement at the well to permanently stop the oil.

BP has tried and failed several times to halt the gusher, and has had some success with a mile-long tube now siphoning some of the crude and natural gas.

Engineers are also developing several other plans in case the top kill doesn't work, including an effort to shoot knotted rope, pieces of tire and other material — known as a junk shot — to plug the blowout preventer, which was meant to shut off the oil in case of an accident but did not work.

In other developments:

• BP spokesman John Curry said Sunday the mile-long tube inserted into the leaking well siphoned some 57,120 gallons of oil within the past 24 hours, a sharp drop from the 92,400 gallons of oil a day that the device was sucking up on Friday. However, the company has said the amount of oil siphoned will vary widely from day to day.
• A pelican colony in Barataria Bay off Louisiana was awash in oil. Several of the birds splashed in the water and preened themselves, apparently trying to clean crude from their feet and wings. Pelican eggs were glazed with rust-colored gunk, with thick globs floating on top of the water. Nests sat precariously close the mess in mangrove trees. Workers had surrounded the island with the booms, but puddles of oil had seeped through the barrier.
• A marine scientist said that to figure out how much oil has spilled, experts should measure the plumes of dissolved methane coming from the blown well. Unlike oil, methane dissolves uniformly in seawater so it could be measured accurately and scientists could use that measurement to calculate the amount of the spill, David Valentine of the University of California-Santa Barbara wrote in an opinion article in the journal Nature.

 "Life is a foreign language; all men mispronounce it."

- Christopher Morley -

Federer: ‘No complex whatsoever’ about Nadal

Spanish star has 14-7 record vs. Grand Slam champ, including 2-10 on clay

The Associated Press

updated 4:17 p.m. ET, Fri., May 21, 2010

 

PARIS - Plenty of tennis tournaments, big and small, ask Roger Federer to participate in their draw ceremonies — show up, shake some hands, pose for a few photos, lend prestige. He has a ready response.

 

“I always say, ’No,”’ the 16-time major champion explained, “just because I don’t want to be a part of it.”

 

At this year’s French Open, Federer did not have a choice in the matter. The French Open, you see, always invites the previous year’s male and female champions to help determine the brackets by reaching into the tournament’s silver trophies, randomly selecting numbers assigned to players. Finally, Federer was eligible.

 

So there he was Friday morning at the French tennis federation’s museum on the Roland Garros grounds, wearing a dark blazer, crisp collared shirt and jeans. Smiling for the cameras. Pulling numbers out of a trophy. Performing, at long last, the duties of the French Open’s defending champion.

 

A few hours later and a short stroll away, Federer donned a gray T-shirt, black shorts and aqua headband and worked up a sweat while practicing in the main stadium, on the very court where a year ago he shed tears while kissing the one major trophy that previously was missing from his collection.

 

Arriving on site this year “felt different because I have so many great memories from this court now, whereas in the past, I mean, I played good matches, but I couldn’t come back and think, ’This is where I’ve had my most emotional wins in my career.’ I didn’t. They were all at Wimbledon or U.S. Open or other places,” Federer said Friday.

 

Stepping on Court Philippe Chatrier this week has allowed him to relive what happened in 2009 — the nerves that nearly overwhelmed him before serving for the last time in the final against Robin Soderling, for example, or the sensation of dropping to his knees after winning match point.

 

And he is thrilled to never be asked again the sorts of questions he was pelted with countless times before last year: Why haven’t you won the French Open? Will you ever win the French Open?

 

“If anything, I feel a little less pressure because I’ve proven it to myself — and maybe to many other people,” Federer said. “I feel like I’m entering the tournament in the right spirit.”

 

Only one man has managed to beat Federer at Roland Garros during the past five years: his chief rival, Rafael Nadal. The Spaniard has won the French Open four times, and each journey to the title required a victory against Federer — in the 2005 semifinals, and the 2006-08 finals. A year ago, though, Nadal was upset in the fourth round, dropping his career mark at Roland Garros to 31-1.

 

So now it’s Nadal who is getting rather tired of hearing the same query over and over: Does it feel different NOT being the defending champion?

 

“I know I’m going to have to answer this question 100 times more,” Nadal said Friday. “I’m going to repeat the same (answer), no? I didn’t win last year, but the goal is still the same every year. ... If I was the champion or I am not the champion last year, doesn’t matter.”

 

Nadal leads the head-to-head series against Federer 14-7. His edge is 10-2 on clay, including a win over Federer in the final of last week’s Madrid Masters.

 

Still, Federer insisted Friday he has “no complex whatsoever” about facing Nadal, who hasn’t lost a match on clay to anyone this season. Federer added that he might acknowledge having a mental block if the record were “50-0 in his favor, but this is not the case.”

 

Perhaps it’s pure happenstance that the player Federer chose to practice with Friday, 69th-ranked Jarkko Nieminen of Finland, is left-handed, like Nadal. Perhaps.

 

Because Federer is seeded No. 1, and Nadal is No. 2, they could meet only in the June 6 final, an appointment most figure the pair will keep.

 

“You have so many good clay-court players, but if I have to pick two guys, I’m going to pick Nadal and Federer,” said Bjorn Borg, who counts six French Opens among his 11 Grand Slam titles. “Federer — he can play great tennis on the clay, and his main goal right now is to do well in the Grand Slam tournaments. And I think Nadal is ... very, very impressive. If he’s going to continue to play that kind of tennis on clay at the French Open, he’s going to be tough to beat.”

 

While Nadal won all three clay-court tournaments he entered this year, Federer is only 6-3 on the surface, including an opening loss at the Rome Masters.

 

But Federer is as good as it gets at Grand Slams, reaching 18 of the past 19 finals and a record 23 consecutive semifinals at tennis’ major championships.

 

Asked Friday to assess what his mindset might be if he were to face Nadal again in a French Open final, Federer noted there are 126 other entrants who hope to prevent such a rematch.

 

“I’ll be happy facing that kind of music, if I know I’ll be in the finals against Rafa,” he said. “But then again, what’s bigger? Is it the French Open final? Is it our rivalry? Is it wanting to prove that you’re better than the other? The pressure of not having a bad match against one of your biggest rivals? There’s so much at stake.”

 

Including, for once, a title defense for Federer in Paris.

Paul Remarks Have Deep Roots

By Jonathan Weisman

WSJ

Republican candidate Rand Paul's controversial remarks on the 1964 Civil Rights Act unsettled GOP leaders this week, but they reflect deeply held iconoclastic beliefs held by some in his party, and many in the tea-party movement, that the U.S. government shook its constitutional moorings more than 70 years ago.

Mr. Paul and his supporters rushed to emphasize that his remarks did not reflect racism but a sincerely held, libertarian belief that the federal government, starting in the Roosevelt era, gained powers that set the stage for decades of improper intrusions on private businesses.

Mr. Paul, the newly elected GOP Senate nominee in Kentucky, again made headlines Friday when he told ABC's "Good Morning America" that President Barack Obama's criticism of energy giant BP and of its oil-spill response was "really un-American."

That followed a tussle over the landmark civil-rights law, which Mr. Paul embraced after suggesting Wednesday that the act may have gone too far in mandating the desegregation of private businesses. Late Friday, NBC said that Mr. Paul had cancelled a scheduled appearance on the Sunday morning show "Meet the Press,'' a rare development in the history of the widely watched political program. The network said it was asking Mr. Paul to reconsider.

In tea-party circles, Mr. Paul's views are not unusual. They fit into a "Constitutionalist" view under which the federal government has no right to dictate the behavior of private enterprises. On the stump, especially among tea-party supporters, Mr. Paul says "big government" didn't start with President Obama, Lyndon Johnson's Great Society of the 1960s or the advance of central governance sparked by World War II and the economic boom that followed.

He traces it to 1937, when the Supreme Court, under heated pressure from President Franklin Roosevelt, upheld a state minimum-wage law on a 5-4 vote, ushering in the legal justification for government intervention in private markets.

Until the case, West Coast Hotel v. Parrish, the Supreme Court had sharply limited government action that impinged on the private sector, infuriating Mr. Roosevelt so much that he threatened to expand the court and stack it with his own appointees.

"It didn't start last year. I think it started back in 1936 or 1937, and I point really to a couple of key constitutional cases… that all had to do with the commerce clause," Mr. Paul said in an interview before Tuesday's election, in which he defeated a Republican establishment candidate, hand-picked by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R, Ky.).

Mr. Paul has said that, if elected, one of his first demands will be that Congress print the constitutional justification on any law is passes.

Last week, Mr. Paul encouraged a tea-party gathering in Louisville to look at the origins of "unconstitutional government." He told the crowd there of Wickard v. Filburn, a favorite reference on the stump, in which the Supreme Court rejected the claims of farmer Roscoe Filburn that wheat he grew for his own use was beyond the reach of federal regulation. The 1942 ruling upheld federal laws limiting wheat production, saying Mr. Filburn's crop affected interstate commerce. Even if he fed his wheat to his own livestock, the court reasoned, he was implicitly affecting wheat prices. If he had bought the wheat on the market, he would subtly have raised the national price of the crop.

"That's when we quit owning our own property. That's when we became renters on our own land," Mr. Paul told the crowd.

In an interview, Mr. Paul expressed support for purely in-state gun industries, in which firearms are produced in one state with no imported parts and no exports. Guns produced under those circumstances can't be subjected to a federal background check, waiting period or other rules, he reasons.

"I'm not for having a civil war or anything like that, but I am for challenging federal authority over the states, through the courts, to see if we can get some better rulings," he said.

To supporters, such ideological purity has made the Bowling Green ophthalmologist a hero.

"He's going back to the Constitution," said Heather Toombs, a Louisville supporter who came to watch him at a meet-and-greet at a suburban home last week. "He's taking back the government."

But to Democrats, some Republicans and even some libertarians, Mr. Paul's arguments seem detached from the social fabric that has bound the U.S. together since 1937. The federal government puts limits on pollutants from corporations, monitors the safety of toys and other products and ensures a safe food supply—much of which Mr. Paul's philosophy could put in question.

David Boaz, executive vice president of the libertarian Cato Institute, said that in many ways Americans are freer now than they were in any pre-1937 libertarian Halcyon day. Women and black citizens can vote, work and own property. "Micro-regulations" that existed before the Supreme Court shift, which controlled trucking, civil aviation and other private pursuits, are gone.

"Sometimes he talks the way libertarians talk in political seminars," Mr. Boaz said of Mr. Paul. "There are not really many people who want to reverse Wickard, but there are many professors who could make a good case for it."

"Rand Paul apparently has a deeply held conviction that corporations should be allowed to do what they see fit without oversight or accountability," Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, Mr. Paul's Democratic opponent in the Senate contest, said Friday.

Mr. Paul's views differ from those of the Republican Party on some fundamental matters. Mr. Paul opposes the anti-terrorism PATRIOT Act, which he says infringes on civil liberties. He opposed the war in Iraq and says any war cannot be waged unless and until Congress formally declares it. And he has expressed misgivings about the nation's drug laws.

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R, Ariz.) told the newspaper Politico that Mr. Paul's civil rights comments were comparable to "a debate like you had at 2 a.m. in the morning when you're going to college. But it doesn't have a lot to do with anything."