Paul takes page from Clinton playbook

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is adopting an old tactic of Hillary Clinton's, making a habitofworking across the aisle ahead of a presidential election.

Paul, a likely presidential candidate in 2016, has sponsored bills with Democratic colleagues on topics ranging from criminal justice reform to fiscal oversight of the Pentagon, apparently in an effort to broaden his appeal.

He could be helped in this regard by his overall worldview. Paul sees interventionism overseas and government surveillance at home through a skeptical lens, a position that is more common, overall, on the left than the right.

Still, Paul is best known to many people as a leader of the 2010 Tea Party revolution. Others recall that one of the first media firestorms he ignited was centered on his complicated view of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Conspicuous teamwork with Democrats in Congress could help him appeal to independents in next years primaries and in the general election.

This week, Paul introduced legislation with Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to restore federal voting rights to non-violent offenders who have been released from prison.

Last week, he unveiled a bill with Sen. Patrick Leahy (Vt.), the senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, to give federal judges more discretion to hand out sentences below the requirements of mandatory minimums.

Paul and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), one of the most liberal members of the Democratic caucus, last month announced a proposal to extend the Highway Trust Fund by giving companies a tax incentive to repatriate overseas profits.

In her time in the Senate, Hillary Clinton sponsored an array of bipartisan bills, with an eye on fashioning a pragmatic image after years of being seen as a hyper-partisan figure.

In the summer of 2006, for example, she co-sponsored, with former Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah), a proposed constitutional amendment to ban desecration of the American flag that came within one vote of passing the Senate.

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Paul takes page from Clinton playbook