Back in 2011, the Ron Paul campaign received a lot of attention when the chairman of Michele Bachmann’s Iowa campaign, state senator Kent Sorenson, defected to Ron Paul:

Talk about fairweather friends. Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson (R), who was Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann’s state campaign chairman, endorsed Texas Rep. Ron Paul Wednesday night.

At a rally in Des Moines, Sorenson told the crowd, “We’re going to take Ron Paul all the way to the White House.”

Naturally, rumors of skulduggery abounded.

Bachmann responded with her own statement claiming Sorenson defected for financial reasons and naming state Rep. Brad Zaun as her new state chair.

“Kent Sorenson personally told me he was offered a large sum of money to go to work for the Paul campaign,” Bachmann told reporters. “Kent said to me yesterday that ‘everyone sells out in Iowa, why shouldn’t I,’ then he told me he would stay with our campaign. The Ron Paul campaign has to answer for its actions.”

When [mc_name name=’Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’P000603′ ] launched his 2016 campaign he turned to his father’s loyalists. He hired dear old Dad’s loyalists: campaign chairman, Jesse Benton, and campaign manager, John Tate. After Sorenson copped a guilty plea last year to corruption charges it was only a matter of time until the other shoe dropped. It did drop last week and was generally missed because of the Trump smokescreen and because Paul is a virtual non-entity when not serving as [mc_name name=’Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’M000355′ ]’s Mini-Me.

A longtime aide to Republican presidential candidate [mc_name name=’Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’P000603′ ] was indicted Wednesday on federal charges over payments allegedly intended to secure an endorsement for Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign.

Jesse Benton, who now leads the super PAC backing the Kentucky senator’s presidential bid, was indicted along with two others who worked with him on Ron Paul’s 2012 campaign.

Federal prosecutors allege that in 2011, Mr. Benton, along with John Tate, who is now president of [mc_name name=’Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’P000603′ ]’s super PAC, and Dimitrios Kesari, who served as deputy national campaign manager on Ron Paul’s 2012 campaign, arranged to pay then-Republican Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson more than $70,000 to shift his support from then-Rep. Michele Bachmann to Ron Paul, [mc_name name=’Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’P000603′ ]’s father.

Naturally, they not only did the deed, they compounded their trouble by lying to the FBI.

The DOJ alleges that Benton first lied under oath to the FBI in July of 2014. In a subsequent session a day later, Benton said “I’m not splitting hairs, Sorenson was not getting paid.”

This is simply part of a pattern with Rand Pau. Not only is he tone deaf to politics when speaking to anyone other than the fringe that coagulates about his father and utterly subservient to [mc_name name=’Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’M000355′ ], he makes terrible personnel decisions. He brought his “Southern Avenger” buddy onto staff, apparently unaware of the baggage he was bringing with him, and now he hired two men who he knew were inevitably going to be indicted. Loyalty is a noble virtue. Stupidity, not so much.