What a weird twist: Conservatives advocating for lowering minimum sentences.

2013 is shaping up to be an odd one.  First we had a normally hawkish GOP turn dovish in protecting the rights of Americans against unreasonable searches / privacy intrusions via drones -- you know, the opposite of what the conservative wing of the SCOTUS has been doing lately, by attacking Miranda Rights.  Now we have some conservatives lining up behind a bill to lower certain minimum mandatory sentences for drug offenses by non-violent people.  One cosponsor is Senator Rand Paul.  You won't believe who backs him: Grover Norquist.

I think what Grover is trying to say, is that unlike Bill, he inhaled, and like Cliffy, he smoked it all.

Although, don't go thinking that Rand Paul is warm and fuzzy.  He's supporting an effort to block strengthening of gun background checks -- the sort of thing the NRA was supportive of, before it was against.  Much like the hypocrisy of how the NRA wanted to establish a national database on people with mental illnesses, less than a decade after it worked to water down restrictions against mentally ill people from owning firearms. 

The NRA's playing games with its position on gun safety, so it seems implausible that anyone would cozy up to Wayne LaPierre and the NRA.