Ron Paul Looks to Turn Son Rand’s TSA Troubles into Campaign Cash

Rand Paul’s detainment by the Transportation Security Administration for refusing a pat-down on Monday got the representative some decent media coverage with most outlets either drafting him as maverick or disdaining him as a fool. Though pretty much any kind of news is good for just about anybody, the primary beneficiary of all this attention is not who you’d expect: dear old dad and Libertarian presidential hopeful, Ron Paul.

Ron Paul is now reportedly using his son’s scuffle with TSA in order to raise funds for his presidential campaign. Paul emailed supporters asking them to contribute to his “End the TSA Money Bomb,” so that he can work to shut down the “theatrical sham that is the TSA.”

Regarding the body scan itself, Paul says that an “anomaly” showed up in the scan, preventing Paul the younger’s passage and requiring the odious pat-down. Rand Paul boldly refused, and was then detained by TSA. Well, maybe not so much detained as “detained” (emphasis on air-quotations) according to TSA who only admit that Paul was escorted away from the area by law enforcement.

Either way, the kicker here is that apparently Paul requested to go through the scanner a second time in order to prove that he was not a threat. TSA did not allow this, opting for the pat-down, which lead to the gentlemanly disagreement ending in “detainment”.

“Instead of tolerating this common-sense idea, TSA officials demanded he undergo a full body pat-down. Rand stood up for his rights and refused — and was then detained by the TSA and prevented from getting on his flight,”

-According to Ron Paul right before he asks you for money.

Do you think that Ron Paul’s attempt to turn his son’s 15-seconds-of-maverick-fame into campaign cash is the right way to go here?