Rand Paul looks to steal 2016 spotlight

Jeb Bush is a Big Government Republican. Mitt Romney had his chance. And Marco Rubios recent jabs on foreign policy are silly and childish.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is back in insurgent mode, lobbing bombs at his potential Republican presidential rivals and looking to take back a political spotlight that Bush and Romney have been hogging lately. Paul is also heading to New Hampshire and Nevada this week, hoping to strike a fire with voters who want a new voice to carry the GOPs message to the White House.

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You need a candidate who reaches out to new constituencies and is able to bring new people into the party, Paul said. Because if we do the same old, same old candidates, we are going to get the same old result.

While other Republican House and Senate members attend this weeks rare GOP joint congressional summit in Pennsylvania, Paul will be in New Hampshire to meet with mothers and activists railing against Common Core, the education program reviled by the tea party right. An added advantage: The issue gives him a chance to further needle Bush, a prominent Common Core supporter who would probably be a front-runner for the presidential nomination.

(Also on POLITICO: Rand Paul taps Chip Englander as likely 2016 campaign manager)

In an interview Tuesday, the Kentucky Republican did just that.

Hes been a proponent of Common Core, a proponent probably of a much bigger government a Big Government Republican who believes more things should be occurring in Washington rather than decentralization, Paul said of the former Florida governor. He added that his rivals brother and father, former Presidents George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush, also backed education policies aimed at more Washington control.

Jeb Bush spokeswoman Kristy Campbell responded: Gov. Bush would put his successful conservative governing record up against anyones.

Pauls assessment of Romney is only slightly less critical.

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Rand Paul looks to steal 2016 spotlight