New hero of Tea Party Rand Paul is so conservative he scares Dick Cheney

Meet the Tea Party's new hero, Rand Paul - a never-elected ophthalmologist from the land of bluegrass who is more red state than Sarah Palin's lipstick.
How conservative is he? The 47-year-old Paul - who trounced establishment candidate Trey Grayson in Kentucky's GOP Senate primary Tuesday - wants to abolish the federal departments of education, commerce and energy, as well as the income tax.
Like Palin, with whom Paul now stands atop the Tea Party cake, he is opposed to all government bailouts and earmarks, and President Obama's "socialist" health care law. He favors a constitutional amendment banning abortion, even in cases of rape and incest.
But in a libertarian twist, he also favors legalizing medical marijuana.
He began the next phase of his renegade Senate bid Wednesday with a decidedly odd tee shot: pointing to Tiger Woods as a role model. Sort of.
The self-styled man of the people was defending his decision to hold his victory party Tuesday night at an exclusive country club. Enter Tiger.
"I think at one time, people used to think of golf and golf clubs and golf courses as being exclusive," Paul explained on "Good Morning America." "[But] I think Tiger Woods has helped to broaden that, in the sense that he's brought golf to a lot of the cities and to city youth."
Maybe, but given that Tiger is better known nowadays for adulterous sex romps with more than a dozen mistresses, it was a politically peculiar defense.
That's not all many Americans might find slightly odd about Paul. Some of his positions frighten even staunch conservatives like former Vice President Dick Cheney, who backed Paul's GOP opponent.
For example, the father of three wants to pull U.S. military forces out of all overseas missions. Like his daddy - former presidential candidate and libertarian Rep. Ron Paul of Texas - he views the Federal Reserve as a source of much trouble that needs to be clamped down.
"We are encountering a day of reckoning," Paul said Tuesday night in one of his many ominous, end-is-near warnings. "And this Tea Party movement is a message to Washington that we are unhappy, and we want things done differently."
It's a pitch that Paul, 47, serves up in an unpolished monotone that all but screams "nonpolitician" - which is precisely what so many conservatives find attractive about him.
"A candidate who isn't that smooth may come across as more authentic, especially in this environment," said GOP consultant Dan Schnur.
Whether it's a winning formula in November's general election - when far more voters will be weighing in - remains to be seen. Democratic Party leaders don't think so, and yesterday they were all but giddy at the prospect of taking on Paul.
"This is a fight we welcome," said one party honcho.
But Kentucky remains a deeply conservative state, and many experts said yesterday that Paul stands a good chance of winning in November and becoming a Tea Party star of the Senate for years to come.